J.490 FACTS AND INFERENCES, GRAVE AND GAY. 



MARE MORTUUM. 



There is another loch near these two (Loch Achilty 

 and Loch Borley), which contains neither trout nor char, 

 and as a fact of this kind is not at once instinctively 

 discovered by the angler, and was not previously com- 

 municated to us, we fished it for half a day with more 

 skill than success. Our movements were steadily watched 

 the whole time by a south-country shepherd, who, rolled 

 up in his plaid, his dog Yarrow close beside him, and both 

 beneath the cosy shelter of a whin dyke, seemed curious 

 to ascertain how long we would continue our attempt at 

 sport. When at last, despairingly, we turned us homewards 

 - — a hospitable and most pleasing home was Mrs Scobie's 

 — and neared our pastoral friends couched in their " sunny 

 lair/' the "human," without moving either head or heel, 

 drawled out as follows : — " Ye '11 no hae killed mony trouts 

 there ? " " No, we 've had no sport at all/' " Na, na, it 's 

 weel kent there was never a trout in that loch frae the 

 beginnin' o' the creation/' He thus possessed the key to 

 our discomfiture ; but from some unknown silential prin- 

 ciple, on which we have since deeply pondered but failed 

 to ascertain, he had declined, or at least delayed, to reveal 

 the secrets of that dark abyss. However, we consoled 

 ourselves with the " experientia docet " of Dr Ruddiman, 



