20 EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



particularly if it is blowing hard, very close in 

 shore. Now, if you cast from the shore in the 

 teeth of the wind, to a certain extent your fish 

 rise on a slack and bellied line, not the best 

 form in which to hook them efiectually. Having 

 learnt the casts pretty well in many of the 

 Lews lochs, I went to some expense in building 

 out piers to command the different casts ; but, 

 somehow or other, I never did much from them 

 or from the shore. But, then, I do not pretend 

 to be anything but an enthusiastic — I never was 

 a good — fisherman ; and I must say this, that 

 about one of the best and most successful I 

 ever saw in my life. Sir James Matheson's 

 piper, never fished a loch but from the shore, 

 and always laughed at me and my boat, and 

 nobody knows the quantity of fish he has killed 

 in his life. I myself, despite this celebrated 

 man's opinion, confess to being very fond of 

 dancing about in a small coble, well held by a 

 good oarsman, who knows the casts and how 

 to hold his boat to them, which is all the battle, 

 otherwise your line is slack over every rising 

 fish instead of taut. And for wildness, I think 

 of a rough day, in a wild mountain loch, with 

 plenty of squalls, the rush of a fish and the 

 bringing him to bay are no trifling excitement, 

 particularly if the fish are game. I have had 



