CHAPTER ONE HIGHLAND LAKES 



bled up the fish glancing like silver in the moonbeams; 

 and then, as they rowed round, sometimes lost in the shade 

 of the pine-trees, which completely darkened the surface 

 of the water immediately below the rocks on which they 

 grew, or came again into full view as they left the shadow 

 of the woods, the water sparkling and glancing from their 

 oars. Frequently they stopped their wild chant, as the 

 stranee cries of the different nocturnal animals echoed 

 loudly from the rocks, and we could hear the men say a 

 few words of Gaelic to each other in a low voice, and then 

 recommence their song. 



We always caught the largest fish at night-time, both 

 trout and pike, the latter frequently above twenty pounds' 

 weight, with the teeth and jaws of a young shark. Some- 

 times the net brought in a great number of char, which 

 appear to go in large shoals; but these latter only in the 

 autumn. 



In these lochs I killed great numbers of pike and the 

 larger trout by means of floating lines, which we put in at 

 the windward side of the lake, to be carried down by the 

 wind. On favourable days, in March or October, whenthere 

 was a brisk wind, the lines went but half way across the 

 loch before every hook had a fish on it, and then com- 

 menced a rare chase. When we neared a float with a large 

 pike hooked to it, as the water was very clear, the fish took 

 the alarm and swam off at a great pace, often giving us 

 some trouble before we could catch him. I have seen an 

 empty corked-up bottle, with line attached, used as a float 

 for this kind of fishing, instead of the corks. Pike are very 

 capricious in taking the bait, and some days not one would 



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