LOCH LEVEN AND LOCH TAY 159 



who go down to the loch in boats, that a trout, a 

 ferox, even a salmon, will sometimes have the bad 

 taste to prefer the hook of a duffer to that of an 

 expert, to the intense disgust of the latter. If he 

 is not very nervous, sometimes whether he is or no, 

 he will land it triumphantly ; although, as between 

 the fish and himself, he is the more astonished of the 

 twain. All the while he is as little of a fisher as 

 of an astronomer; or as his wife, who hooks the 

 next salmon, and lands, or boats it too. 



And, should the fish be dour, or the weather 

 hopeless, and every wile taught by experience fail ; 

 there are consolations in store even for the un- 

 successful. These boatmen have learned to say 

 smooth things, more's the pity ; and administer the 

 flattery with a skill begot of frequent practice, 

 and a fine discrimination worthy of accomplished 

 physiognomists. Although they might save them- 

 selves the trouble, as I never knew a golfer, or an 

 angler, who could not swallow a pretty strong dose. 



It is reported of one that, returning from an 

 excursion, whose non-success even his skill could 

 neither prevent nor conceal, and unable to think 

 of anything else, he said, with an inscrutable ex- 

 pression of countenance, meanwhile : " That was a 

 fine fish you didn't catch ! " 



