46 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



when its history is fully written out. It starts 

 away up on the wilds as a moor, or hill burn, 

 siping through the grass, forming little moist 

 patches, where grow the sphagnum and the bell 

 heather, and, finally, cutting for itself a channel 

 among the peat. The channel is narrow, the 

 stream shallow, except where it gathers into a 

 little black pool; but, every boy knows that it 

 swarms with trout. These trout average about 

 the length of one's little finger, are rather dark- 

 looking, to blend with their surroundings, and 

 not over palatable. Still they are trout ; and 

 all count. And the simple delight of that day, 

 with one's new half-crown cane rod, and the 

 lunch, mother has so carefully packed in the 

 basket, and the half-weird fellowship of moun- 

 tain hares, and the dozens that are laid out, and 

 counted, oh ! so many times. 



The hill burn enters a lake, which, strange as 

 it may seem, it once made, and, small as it now 

 is, it once filled up. It is really the same burn 

 which enters at the one end as a head-water, and 

 issues from the other as a tail-stream. 



The second stage is the burn proper, such as I 

 am fishing now. By this time, it has, probably, got 

 beyond the limit of the peat. The bottom is 



