136 THE LAND OF A THOUSAND LOCHS. [CHAP. iv. 



battue is sport. An American that I have heard of has a fish- 

 manufactory in Connecticut, where he can shovel the animals 

 out by the hundred ; but then he does not go in for sport, his 

 idea a thoroughly American one is money ! But despite 

 this exceedingly commercial idea, there are a few anglers in 

 America, and as there are much water and many game fishes, 

 there is plenty of sport. In North America there are to be 

 found in large quantities both the true salmon and the brook 

 trout ; and as a great number of the American fishes visit the 

 fresh and salt water alternately, they, by reason of their 

 strength and size, afford excellent employment either to the 

 river or sea angler. One of the best of the American fishes is 

 called the Mackinaw salmon. 



To come back, in the meantime, to Scotland and the trout, 

 and where to find them, I may mention that that particular fish 

 is the stock in trade of the streams and lochs of Scotland, 

 Scotland, the "land of the mountain and the flood," and 

 there is an ever-abiding abundance of water, for the lochs and 

 streams of that country are numberless. One county alone 

 (Sutherland, to wit) contains a thousand lochs, and one parish 

 in that county has in it two hundred sheets of water, and all 

 of these abounding with fine trout, affording rich sport to 

 the angler rewarding all who persevere with full baskets. As 

 1 have already hinted, the fisher must study his locality and 

 glean advice from well-informed residents. The gipsies of a 

 district can usually give capital advice as to the kind of bait 

 that will please best. Many a time have anglers been seen 

 flogging away at a stream or lake that was troutless, or at their 

 wit's end as to which of their flies would please the dainty 

 palate of my lord the resident trout. But I shall not further 

 dogmatise on such matters ; most people who are given 

 to angling are quite as wise as the writer of these remarks ; 

 and there are as fine trout in England, I daresay, as there are 

 in Scotland ; indeed there are a thousand streams in this Great 



