154} LAKES OF MONTGOMERYSHIRE. 



empties itself into the lake, that a trout above two 

 pounds is now rarely met with. Of these, how- 



for a trout, he manifests an unnatural love of mud on a fine 

 day. Row shoreward Proctor, do as we bid you she 

 draws but little water run her up bang on that green brae 

 then hand us the crutch, for we must finish this affair on terra 

 firma. Loch Awe is certainly a beautiful piece of water. 

 The islands are disposed so picturesquely we want no assist- 

 ance but the crutch here we are, with elbow-room and on 

 stable footing ; and we shall wind up, retiring from the water's 

 edge as people do from a levee, with their faces towards the 

 king. Do you see them yellowing, you Tory ? What bellies ! 

 Why, we knew by the dead weight that there were three ; for 

 they kept all pulling against one another ; nor were we long 

 in discovering the complicated movement of triplets. Pounders 

 each same weight to an ounce same family all bright as 

 stars. Never could we endure angling from a boat. What 

 loss of time in getting the whoppers wiled into the landing- 

 net ! What loss of peace of mind, in letting them off, when 

 their snouts, like those of Chinese pigs, were within a few 

 yards of the gunwale, and when, with a last convulsive effort, 

 they whaumled themselves over, with their splashing tails, and 

 disappeared for ever. Now for five flies wind on our back 



no tree within an acre no shrub higher than the bracken 



no reed, rush, or water-lily in all the bay. What hin- 

 ders that we should, what the Cockneys call, whip with a 

 dozen ? We have set the lake afeed; epicure and glutton 

 are alike rushing to destruction ; trouts of the most abstemious 

 habits cannot withstand the temptation of such exquisite even- 

 ing fare ; and we are much mistaken if here be not an old 

 dotard a lean and slippery pantaloon, who had long given 

 up attempting vainly to catch flies, and found it as much as he 

 could do to overtake the slower sort of worms. Him we shall 



