TROUT-FISHING IN THE FINDHORN. 135 



of the pool on his way to the sea, but changing his mind, 

 darted like an arrow up to the deepest part of the pool, and 

 there he lay like a stone at the bottom. After a little wait- 

 ing I pelted him out of that mood, and beginning myself to 

 grow eager and desperate (moreover having now more con- 

 fidence in my midge, which had already passed through a 

 trial which a larger hook might not have stood equally well), 

 I turned his head down the stream, and began to take the 

 game into my own hands a little more in fact to be the 

 active instead of the passive agent. The trout, too, began to 

 feel weary of the contest, and to allow himself to be led 

 about : at List I brought him to the edge, but just as the 

 landing-net was beinjj delicately slipped under him, away he 

 went again, and ran the line round a broken piece of bank 

 on the opposite side. I am afraid something very like an 

 imprecation escaped me ; and if it did, I nm confident that 

 Job himself could not blame me. Just as I had quite given 

 all up, the trout most carefully and good-naturedly turned 

 b;u/k the way he went, undoing the line again as neatly as 

 possible. After a little more running to and fro he fairly 

 gave in, and this time we got him safely into the landing- 

 net, when I found that he was one of the aforesaid " brown 

 lugs," weighing nearly 5 Ibs. the largest trout that I ever 

 killed on the Findhorn, and mastered too with a fly only fit 

 for parr of the smallest size. 



I have frequently found that when a large trout runs in 

 that undecided manner at my fly, he will go in right earnest 

 at a much smaller one. Salmon are more uncertain : it has 

 happened to rue that, even in clear water, a salmon has 

 leaped over or refused a small salmon-fly, but has taken 

 greedily a very large-sized one. But this is au exception ; 

 and my experience would lead me, as a general rule, always 

 to offer a fish a smaller fly than the one he rises shyly at ; 

 and I believe that I should be borne out in this opinion by 

 more experienced anglers than myself. 



I never saw so many black-headed gulls collected 'together 

 as on the Loch of Belivat, on the property of Lethen : at one 

 end of the loch there are a great many rushes and water- 

 plants; these are, literally speaking, FULL of nests, formed of 

 interwoven rushes, weeds, &c. ; and on the islands in the 

 lake you can scarcely land without putting your foot on eggs, 

 which are very slightly protected by anything in the shape 

 of a nest. On this island are a few stunted and bent 



