94 SALMON FISHING 



or Sutherland be? That is the line of reasoning. 

 It is not justified by the facts. Does the reader 

 remember the wonderful description of the coming 

 of a snowstorm in Doone Valley ? Mr. Blackmore, 

 who describes weather more minutely and more 

 vividly than any other novelist, tells that for days 

 during the great frost there was a strange boom in 

 the still air. Only twice have I myself heard this 

 mysterious sound, sign of temperature approaching 

 zero ; and one of the occasions was in London about 

 eleven years ago, when there was bearing ice on the 

 Serpentine for six weeks. Besides, while the inland 

 parts of England are just as liable to sharp frosts 

 as Scotland is, a low temperature in the South is 

 usually more telling on the nerves than a similar 

 temperature in the North. In the South it is often 

 accompanied by fog, which is moisture; and that 

 makes it much more penetrating. One hears that 

 in Canada it is possible to be quite comfortable with 

 the mercury at zero, or even below. That is because 

 there, as at St. Moritz, the atmosphere is compara- 

 tively dry. The atmosphere of our own Highlands 

 is not so little saturated with moisture as that of 

 Canada or that of the South of Europe; but 

 certainly it seems to be much less so than that of 

 the Midlands and the South of England. At any 

 rate, it is quite possible to fish on a Scotch river or 

 loch in winter without being much inconvenienced 

 by the frost. Perhaps the nature of the occupation 

 partly explains this peculiarity. Civilised man is 

 subject to some strange illusions. In darkness, for 



