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One would have to be a stern and unbending 

 pessimist to find in these figures any indication of 

 decline. I have investigated further. I find that in 

 1873 the salmon caught numbered 779; in 1875, 

 913; in 1877, 869; and in 1878, 851. At first 

 these facts seem to show that there were halcyon 

 times between twenty and thirty years ago, and so, 

 indeed, there were; but reflection counsels caution. 

 Statistics of sport may easily be as misleading 

 as those of the Board of Trade after editing by 

 a zealous politician. The basket of 779 salmon 

 in 1873 has to be thought of in relation to one 

 of 293 the year before, and to one of only 114 in 

 1871 ; between 1875 and 1877, two rich years, 

 there was a basket of 476, which was comparatively 

 poor. The records I have studied, which cover 

 thirty years, are fruitful only in a negative sugges- 

 tion. It cannot be shown that time has anything 

 to do with the variations of sport on Loch Tay. 

 The figures rise and droop incalculably. Not 

 being very much acquainted with the famous loch, 

 I must not be venturous in suggestion ; yet I 

 may, without immodesty, air one timorous theory. 

 All salmon fishing on Loch Tay is spring fishing, 

 and spring fishing has a peculiarity of its own. 

 A sybarite would call it wintry work. Men not 

 given to neurotic apprehensions about their health 

 have been known to wear duplicate clothing of 

 ordinary kind and two or three overcoats when 

 engaged in it. Often all the mountains round the 

 loch are snow-clad, and sometimes when your salmon 



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