BY THE LOCH-SIDE 171 



establish a balance of their own. All such are 

 agreed that they would rather fish where there 

 are pike, and take what they have the skill to 

 get, if it is only one good trout, than trifle with 

 small fry. One cannot help wondering what sort of 

 world we would have had, if some people had been 

 at the making of it ; and what sort of waters, had 

 these same wiseacres been consulted about the 

 stocking of them. An illustration occurs to me. 



Some years ago I had the questionable privilege 

 of fishing an artificial lake of considerable size, in 

 one of the Highland counties ; and found the yield 

 to be not only disappointing, but even saddening. 

 Because of their numbers, the trout were small, 

 and from lack of sufficient food to support so 

 many for lakes with an adequate larder are not 

 made in a day they were thin as well. The 

 best friend of the proprietor would have recom- 

 mended some controlling force. 



Pike are extremely catholic in their tastes ; and 

 are not given to discriminate between the young 

 of trout and their own young, but feast indiffer- 

 ently on both. Equally catholic are the trout; who 

 are by no means such helpless victims as they 

 are represented. A two-pound trout probably owes 

 half his weight to young pike, and thus succeeds 



