66 ifcfnss of tbe 1Rot>, IRffle, anfc (Bun 



writes the Colonel, " with a very moderate swivel : and 

 accordingly threw in a live bait : the instant the stream 

 carried it down a pike came at me with infinite eagerness, 

 making the whole water foam, and ran me across the 

 stream into his hold about forty feet. I gave him time 

 to gorge, and then began to play him, having excellent 

 sport with him for ten minutes." But just as the landing- 

 net was being got ready, the fish broke his hold. Again 

 the pike took, the bait and again broke away. As a last re- 

 source the Colonel tried " a very tempting silver-coloured 

 trout with a pair of snap hooks." A third time the big 

 fish was struck, and after a desperate tussle, during which 

 he twice ran out the whole of the Colonel's line, eighty 

 yards, the great pike of Loch Petullich was vanquished 

 and landed. His weight was 36 Ibs., but big as he was, he 

 was eclipsed by the still greater pike of Loch Alvie, 

 the thrilling story of whose capture I shall allow the 

 Colonel to tell in his own words, premising that he had 

 struck the fish once but had, to his intense chagrin, 

 lost him. 



" As soon as we had recovered from the consternation 

 this accident occasioned, I ordered the boat to cruise 

 about, for the chance of his taking me again, which I 

 have known frequently to happen with pike, who are 

 wonderfully bold and voracious : on the second trip I 

 saw a very large fish come at me, and, collecting my line, 

 I felt that 1 had him fairly hooked ; but I feared that he 

 had run himself tight round some root, his weight seemed 

 so dead : we rowed up therefore to the spot when he 

 soon convinced me he was at liberty, by running so far 

 into the lake that I had not one inch of line more to give 



