196 HIGHLAND SPORT 



returned to our hotel with very altered ideas of Loch Leven 

 fishing, which we now voted to be perfectly arranged, devoid 

 of cockney surroundings, while giving as good sport as is to be 

 had with brown trout on any loch in Scotland. 



27th, 28th, 29th. — On each of these days we fished away 

 merrily, and sticking to our system of short drifts we continued 

 to do well. Our total for the four days was 157 trout, weighing 

 136 lbs. 



On landing from our second day's sport we had a novel 

 experience. Thirty-eight fish, weighing just that number of 

 pounds, was our take, so as we had supplied as many friends as 

 we could think of on the first day, we were about to give half 

 of this lot to our boatmen and the rest to the hotel, but on 

 telling the pier-master of how we intended disposing of our 

 basket, we learnt that the Fishery Association allowed anglers 

 one shilling a pound for all fish not wanted, and the idea of 

 selling our take and getting our sport for nothing was so novel, 

 and amused us so much, that we let the pier-master take the 

 fish and cried quits with him ; for on that day we had only 

 been fishing seven hours, and as the odd three shillings went to 

 one of the boatmen, the two accounts exactly balanced. 



30th, Sunday. — We passed the morning in packing up, and 

 the rest of the day in strolling by the loch-side, when of course, 

 as it was not a fishing day, the trout, as is their custom on the 

 Sabbath, were rising furiously. Then, at the fearfully early 

 hour of six o'clock, we took our seats at the table d'hote ; this 

 we had been most specially asked — I might almost say com- 

 manded — to do by the hotel-keeper, for he let us see pretty 

 plainly there would be a " deeficulty " in getting a later dinner 

 served in our own room on the Sabbath. Of course we had 

 boiled haddocks, roast beef, and stewed prunes, three luxuries 

 which appear to be indispensable at all Scotch table d'hote 

 dinners. The company was pleasant enough, so much so 

 that at the end of the repast we followed the rest into the 

 smoking-room, where naturally trouting talk was soon the 



