20 ROD AND RIVER 



no less than four thousand acres of water they 

 are, when laid down in rivers suitable for their 

 well-being, any better in the former than they are 

 in the latter. Indeed, I am almost inclined to the 

 belief, judging from my own experiences of both, 

 that they are, in many instances, inferior. 



Doubtless they exercise a very powerful influ- 

 ence for good in those streams where fresh blood 

 is required, and in which the fish have become 

 dull and wanting in dash and vigour. But good 

 as they are, and well as they thrive in streams 

 which are suitable for them, I should, I think, 

 were I desirous of importing the breed to any 

 particular river, and the distance and expense 

 were not too great, prefer to get the ova or fry 

 direct from the Leven fishery, to obtaining it, so 

 to speak, secondhand from fish imported thence, 

 though it is quite possible that the adult fish from 

 which such ova or fry may have been bred, may 

 be more fully developed in the latter case than in 

 the former. I do not positively assert that the 

 trout in the loch are better as regards their 

 sporting capabilities, etc., than their river de- 

 scendants, but I do know that they are very 

 brilliant fighters and rise freely, and so large 

 an expanse of water resembles the sea rather 

 than an ordinary fresh-water lake ; and indeed I 

 have known the waters of the loch so rough as to 

 preclude a boat from going out for any ordinary 



