138 CHARMING MAY ! [CHAP. iv. 



resuming it till they can smell the sweet fragrance of the ad- 

 vancing summer. Although few of our busy men of law or 

 commerce are able to forestall the regular holiday period of 

 August and September, yet a few do manage a run to the 

 country at the charming time of May, when the days are not 

 too hot for enjoyment nor too short for country industry. In 

 August and September the landscape is preparing for the sleep 

 of winter, whilst in May it is being robed by nature for the 

 fetes of summer, and, despite the sneers of some poets and 

 naturalists, is new and charming in the highest degree. 

 Town living people should visit the country in May, and see 

 and feel its industry, pastoral and simple as it is, and at the 

 same time view the charms of its scenery in all its vivid 

 freshness and fragrance. 



Some anglers delight in pike-catching, others try for perch ; 

 but give me the trout, of which there is a large variety, and all 

 worth catching. In Loch Awe, for instance, there is the great 

 lake trout, which, combined with the beauty of the scenery, 

 has sufficed to draw to that neighbourhood some of our best 

 anglers. The trout of Loch Awe, as is well known, are very 

 ferocious, hence their scientific name of Salmo ferox. This 

 trout attains to great dimensions ; individuals weighing twenty 

 pounds have been often captured ; but its flavour is indifferent 

 and the flesh is coarse, and not of a prepossessing colour. 

 This kind of trout is found in nearly all the large and deep 

 lochs of Scotland. It was discovered scientifically about the 

 end of last century by a Glasgow merchant, who was fond of 

 sending samples of it to his friends as a proof of his prowess 

 as an angler. The usual way of taking the great lake trout is 

 to engage a boat to fish from, which must be rowed gently 

 through the water. The best bait is a small trout, with at 

 least half-a-dozen strong hooks projecting from it, and the 

 tackle requires to be prodigiously strong, as the fish is a most 

 powerful one, although not quite so active as some others of 



