A PERTHSHIRE GLEN 203 



a day, it may be considered a very satisfactory catch. 

 But I can say that the trout are well worth having, 

 after all the chief point, for I maintain that a dozen 

 half-pounders are worth three times as many fish 

 veraging only half that size. The hotel also is 

 placed conveniently with regard to the river ; and 

 one can turn out for a short time, should the 

 weather appear favourable, with a good chance of 

 catching a few fish, for some of the best water lies 

 quite close at hand. Indeed the long " run " at the 

 top of the stretch of dead-water, within two or 

 three hundred yards of the inn, from which trout 

 of over a pound are frequently taken, is perhaps 

 the best pool on the whole beat. 



There is also a capital piece at the head of the 

 Luib water, soon after the river leaves the loch, 

 where I think the fish rise on the whole with more 

 freedom than in the home portion. It was in one 

 of these upper pools that I one day caught a trout 

 weighing three-quarters of a pound, which had, from 

 its fat, bulky appearance, been feeding heavily. 

 When this trout was subsequently cleaned, an 

 extraordinary, and surely unique, disclosure was 

 made ; the stomach contained two mice, dead of 

 course, though still in perfect preservation. 



