SHETLAND MIDSUMMER 143 



places. What are half a dozen people to do 

 with 25 Ibs. weight of trout, easily obtain- 

 able every day, except to let three-quarters of 

 them go to waste. Unable to invent any excuse 

 for further destruction, one begins to ask himself 

 whether he is justified in going on. An ingenious 

 member of the group, by the aid of some oak- 

 chips, tried his hand at a species of curing, with 

 indifferent success; and, at length, not without a 

 sigh, we resigned ourselves to fishing for the larder. 



Some of the lakes are in an intermediate con- 

 dition, isolated when the tide is back, and flushed 

 twice a day, as it flows. The narrow neck, through 

 which the sea finds entrance from the voe, may 

 be compared to a river, contracted into less than 

 a hundred yards. Without moving from the spot, 

 one can command a constant succession of running 

 fish. And the silvery sheen of the great sea- 

 trout is quite delightful, after the dark hues of 

 the lake trout. 



Sunk sea-lines had also their attraction, and 

 never can one who has experienced it forget 

 the musical dip of the oars in the fresh morning, 

 or in the magic northern summer night; or the 

 successive splashes of the great flat fish, as, one by 

 one, they were hauled to the surface. 



