CLEAR WATERS 



rank and tufty with sedge and rushes and patches of 

 bog and dwarf willows, there upon low bluffs of gorse 

 and heather. Occasionally wild, tangled woods drop 

 abruptly to rocky banks, along which you may labori- 

 ously creep if you are in the mood for hard work, with 

 an off-chance of a ducking, and for casting upon 

 waters scarcely ever touched. Often, too, the path 

 of the fisherman lies upon a low, firm bank of turf 

 and bracken. Indeed there is infinite variety, which 

 is natural enough within such wide hmits. There are 

 many snug bays, too. and little coves formed by the 

 outlet of burns that once ran rejoicing out of narrow 

 glens into the two main streams. And at the head 

 of the coves there is often a cascade tumbling into the 

 lake between feathered crags, and stirring the water 

 for many yards below over a shelving, gravelly bottom, 

 and forming altogether a dehghtful picture. Such, no 

 angler needs telling, are spots to stimulate his ex- 

 pectations, and I have often found that mine have 

 not been stirred for nothing in these alluring corners ; 

 otherwise, though it is impossible to quite acquiesce 

 in such a faith, the most constant habitues hold that 

 with all the variety here displayed in so great an area, 

 one place is just about as good as another. 



This is comforting as regards the various portions 

 of the various lakes, and I do believe that a stranger 

 starting to fish at the first point he struck would have 

 as good a chance, so far as the presence of trout were 

 concerned, as a man who had frequented the lakes 

 ever since they were formed, and knew every yard of 

 them. They differ, of course, from natural lakes in 

 having practically no shallow water. Two to three 

 i8o 



