n8 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



In fact, I take to myself the merit of being the first 

 who ever drew trout out of this one, and I had failed 

 doing so, were it not for a fit of perseverance which 

 came upon me at the time, for I cannot affirm that 

 the fish are exceedingly numerous or inclined to bite 

 well, yet they are large, and so singularly beautiful 

 and well-formed, that I defy any loch in the kingdom 

 to produce their equal. I caught only three of them, 

 with the red professor, upon a Limerick hook. The 

 biggest of these weighed seven pounds, and measured 

 somewhat about twenty-two inches. Its girth, when 

 compared with its proportions, was enormous, and its 

 head no bigger than a walnut. On the breast, it had 

 the colour, and to my fancy the fragrance also, of a 

 water-lily, only that there was a tinge of the rose in 

 its nature. Farther up, the body became of a light 

 olive colour, gloriously starred over with orange spots. 

 He fought with great spirit, and sprang out of water 

 like a new-run grilse at the end of his first heat, and 

 when obliged to succumb, did so with all the un- 

 willingness of an expiring Ministry ! At table, I 

 never saw even a salmon redder in the flesh, which 

 was interlay ered with curd of marrowy flavour and 

 unequalled whiteness. The other two fish were of the 

 same description, only much smaller, not weighing- 

 above a pound and a half each. 



Ke verting to the Strath- Bran lochs, the angler, a 

 short way from the bridge at Grugie, where there is 

 a public-house, comes, pursuing his way up the Conan, 



