DEVASTATED ARCADIA 273 



' Kill as many as you can ; there are far too many,' 

 was the sort of order one need never hesitate to obey. 

 The majority of these rainbow trout were apparently in 

 the condition best described as well-mended. The 

 biggest fish I took was a golden-brown fario of ij lb., 

 probably an old inhabitant ; and there were pounders 

 amongst the few fontinalis taken. 



" The point to which I trust to have brought the 

 reader is that here was a lake which in the matter of 

 sport may be regarded as an angler's paradise, and I 

 may add that the success I enjoyed is the common ex- 

 perience. The young ladies often caught their two 

 dozen trout in a two or three hours' paddle on a lovely 

 sheet of water set in glorious surroundings of forest in 

 which the wild boar lurks and the deer hides. Nobody 

 was sent empty away. Just as a change from the chalk 

 streams or other rivers at home, a day or two of such 

 boat fishing is a real restful treat. Every loch fisher 

 knows what I mean, and we need not talk about skill. 

 In my boat during this visit I had one day the company 

 of the worthy city knight who had caught his first 

 trout on the day of my arrival. His worship genially 

 allowed me to lecture him as to the simple rules for 

 casting a fly, and when he would swish a three-quarter 

 pound fish aloft in the air as if it were an ounce perch, 

 to use language for which he would have fined me at 

 the Mansion House. After losing two rainbows in this 

 wild work he got well into the practice of casting and 

 playing, and so, quite in workmanlike style, he caught 

 seven good fish, besides breakages." 



In later years there was a considerable change in 



the character of the fishing. The rainbows from Herr 



Jaffe had been installed something over two years 



when they and we foregathered in this pleasant manner, 



18 



