44 ANGLING & ART IN SCOTLAND 



than a pound and a quarter taken out of the loch, 

 although fairly frequently up to that size ; but, no 

 doubt, there are many larger ones there if they 

 could only be induced to rise to the fly. Indeed, 

 Burnside once told me that he had often seen 

 very large trout in a certain bay, near to the boat- 

 house, rolling about amongst the stones close to 

 the shore, as they hunted after the minnows (of 

 which there are large numbers in the loch), and 

 ended up with, " I could hae shootit them mony 

 a time with my gun, if I had likit." I well re- 

 member, when I first used to fish the loch, there 

 was a rude picture, drawn to scale, by Burnside, 

 on one of the seats of the boat, of a great trout 

 which had been caught, I think by some doctor, 

 Burnside having been in the boat at the time. 

 He gave us a vivid account of how there was a 

 large hole in the landing-net ; and how the big 

 trout, which proved to weigh two and three-quarter 

 pounds, slipped through the aforesaid hole when 

 he, Burnside, was netting it ; and how he dexterously 

 twisted the net round and enmeshed the fish as 

 it was diving down again ; and how he never con- 

 fessed to the doctor the narrow escape he had had 

 of losing the monster. 



