26 ANGLING & ART IN SCOTLAND 



together like kittens around the table, and came 

 in for their share of the good things upon the board. 

 They were alluded to by our hostess as " the wee 

 laamb " and " the peg," for in the Galloway dialect 

 the vowels are often lengthened to an extraordinary 

 degree. The unwary Southerner, visiting that country 

 for the first time, may well be excused if, for the 

 moment, the vision of a vehicle with two wheels 

 passes before his mental retina, on being asked if 

 he has seen " the caat." 



It must have been close upon eight o'clock before 

 we turned our backs on the sheltering walls of the 

 Black Laggan ; and never have I returned to it 

 since, nor ever cast fly in the famous waters of 

 the upper Loch Dee. We made our way, as rapidly 

 as possible, round the buttress of mountain sepa- 

 rating the loch from the small shooting-lodge of 

 Craigencaillie, where the road started — being afraid 

 of getting benighted before we reached that point. 

 Rough, slow work, however, it proved to be in the 

 failing light; and when we had turned the corner 

 of the alcove in which Loch Dee lay, and saw the 

 wan valley of the Dee stretched out before us towards 

 the south-east, we eagerly jumped at the Skipper's 

 suggestion of taking a short-cut along the bottom 



