68 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 



a gloomy sheet of water lying in broad green 

 alps, dotted with scores of cattle in the summer 

 time, and shaded by the precipitous mountains 

 which rise from the sides of the green basin. 

 This lake is fished with nets, but I was unable 

 to see the fisherman, and it was so still that 

 there would have been little chance of sport 

 on it. A small stream winds through the 

 meadows in the main valley, and here we 

 caught plenty of small trout, and once I took 

 two or three ide, which were feeding in a weedy 

 shallow. But these fish are not superior to 

 any of the coarse British fresh- water fish ; and 

 though their acclimatisation in England would 

 increase the number of our species, there is no 

 apparent gain to be obtained from their culti- 

 vation from any other point of view. 



The inn at Thannheim was more primitive 

 than comfortable, and the innkeeper more kindly 

 than desirable. In the little back parlour, 

 where he regaled us on trout " done blue," and 

 potatoes with long fibres, and the universal veal, 

 he conceived it to be his duty as a host to sit 

 and smoke and watch us at our meal, and try 

 to carry on a conversation which his patois 

 rendered nearly incomprehensible. But it sud- 



