THE FANCIES OF THE TROUT 



MOST people who go into the remoter parts of 

 the Highlands to fish for the first time carry with 

 them a light-hearted contempt of the trout of these 

 out-of-the-way regions. They are unsophisticated 

 rustics, with none of the highly developed intelli- 

 gence which marks (in books) the educated 

 denizens of chalk streams and some lowland lakes ; 

 therefore, to deceive them will be almost too easy 

 a work to be interesting. Dwellers in a hungry 

 country, they are ill-fed ; therefore, they will rush 

 greedily at anything- presenting the semblance of 

 the material of a meal, and, in particular, they will 

 prove unable to resist the beautifully finished lures 

 which the visitor has taken with him in a well- 

 stocked fly-book. As regards some of the lochs 

 of Sutherlandshire, one is, or a few years ago was, 

 tempted to accept this view of Highland trout 

 as true. As regards Highland lochs in general, 

 the visitor soon learns that he has carried a fond 

 delusion, and comes to understand that among 

 the mountains, as elsewhere, the trout is a creature 

 of the most unaccountable moods and appetites. 



Consider a perfectly common experience of the 

 curious fastidiousness displayed by trout, which 

 should be reckoned among the most unsophisti- 

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