A SCHERZO 193 



be supposed, allay the ardour with which Mr. A 



waged war against this lordly inhabitant of the loch ; 

 on the contrary, it appeared merely to whet his appe- 

 tite. His bedroom became more and more crowded 

 with the implements of destruction : artificial min- 

 nows of every description, with their triangles of 

 barbed hooks, bristled on every side. The climax, 

 however, was eventually reached when one of the 

 aforesaid minnows maliciously became ensconced in 

 his bath-towel, and the inmates of the hotel were 

 roused by piercing shrieks issuing from the bath- 

 room. It was then discovered that the wretched 

 creature (I am alluding to the minnow) had firmly 

 pinned the towel on to the unfortunate gentleman's 

 back, and was holding on with that dogged deter- 

 mination to never let go, which a minnow knows so 

 well how to exercise — on any object but a fish's 

 mouth. 



This was a sad and painful finale, which put, I 

 fear, at any rate for the time being, a period to the 

 activity displayed by that most enthusiastic of 

 trollers. 



In concluding, I may give a word of advice to the 

 angler with regard to Loch Rannoch. Do not go 

 there with the idea of catching sabno ferox ; they 



N 



