ON LAKES 95 



example, he thinks he is smoking long after the 

 tobacco in his pipe has ceased to burn. Blindfolded, 

 he is as likely as not to be unable to tell a glass of 

 port from a glass of sherry. These facts show that 

 the palate is partly dependent upon the eyes. 

 Similarly, it is more than possible that in the open 

 air the sense of being cold may be due less to a low 

 temperature than to boredom or to knowledge that 

 time is passing wastefully. When the mind is 

 agreeably employed the nerves are astonishingly 

 unconscious of chill airs. 



Is this happy condition usual among the circum- 

 stances of salmon fishing early in the year? I 

 think it is. Are the sportsmen on a loch as cosy as 

 they would be at their own firesides what time the 

 mountains close by are invisible in the blast of snow ? 

 I think they are. Oft expectation fails where most 

 it promises ; but in angling, while the expectation is 

 aglow the body is aglow as well. Sometimes, when 

 the rains hold off unseasonably, one has not much 

 hope even of a river in the autumn; but at the 

 beginning of the year clean-run salmon are almost 

 certain to be found in the lochs. It is, therefore, at 

 the earliest part of the season that the angler is 

 best equipped against the slings and arrows of our 

 climate. 



How, as regards the basket, is he like to fare ? 

 This question is perhaps best answered by a record 

 of experience. A friend fished on Loch Tay for a 

 few days in February. On the 5th he caught 

 eight salmon, 28, 23, 23, 21, 20, 19, 18, and 16 Ibs. ; 



