228 ANGLING REMINISCENCES. 



Fish, of course, were not always on the fin, and we 

 had, upon more than one occasion, to hold ourselves 

 satisfied with an empty pannier. The grandeur of the 

 scenes, however, among which our wanderings intro- 

 duced us, amply compensated for the want of success 

 occasionally encountered. 



[Here Mr. Wandle-weir digressed into an eulogium on 

 various natural beauties discovered to him during the 

 course of the above excursions, after which he amused 

 the club with an account of the piscatory raid under- 

 taken by him and his friend Herl-broke into Eoss-shire. 

 We have no design, however, of following our worthy 

 brother-anglers along this portion of their tour, having 

 already, in a previous chapter, entered somewhat at 

 large into an analysis of the various waters belonging 

 to the several districts which they visited. We shall 

 only confine our observations, in regard to the country 

 alluded to, within the limits of a single interrogatory, 

 addressed by our intelligent narrator to the members 

 of the club. The purport of Mr. Wandle-weir's inquiry 

 was as to the reasonableness of a statement he had 

 seen repeatedly advanced among northern journalists, 

 whereby it was made to appear that an alarming decrease 

 had of late years taken place in the quantity both of 

 salmon and trout frequenting such streams as discharge 

 themselves along the Western coasts of Scotland, and, 

 moreover, that this decrease was owing solely to the recent 

 introduction of sheep into those pasture-grounds which 

 border on the waters in question.] 



May. What ! Mr. Wandle-weir, sheep devour salmon ! 

 They say, 'tis true, goats will bolt vipers. 



