88 ECHOES OF SPORT 



that counts, as a burn trout of a fifth of a 

 pound is a whale. There is a certain amount 

 of dexterity required if the burn be narrow 

 and the water clear. For any chance of 

 success you must keep well out of sight, 

 swinging your line gently upstream, pop into 

 the pool ; if thrown too hard it flips off half 

 the worm. Nice pink little worms must be 

 used, well cleaned and scoured, for such the 

 greedy burn trout love, and will be tempted by 

 even the remnant of a tail. 



If the burn be a wider one, and not cut up 

 into stepping-stone pools, it is very good fun 

 to fish with tiny fly. One such burn I know, 

 with too historic and literary a fame to name, 

 the owners of which amuse themselves on 

 summer days, when no lordlier sport is to hand, 

 in seeing who can make the biggest basket in 

 an afternoon. Competition waxes keen ; the 

 Laird himself has been seen crawling on hands 

 and knees behind the alder bushes, flipping 

 out small trout (so-called) by the dozen. Woe 

 betide the luckless fisher who mindful of his 

 country's laws, dares to throw back the 



