THE OTTER'S STONE POOL 301 



" Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, 

 For you, in my respect, are all the world : 

 Then how can it be said, I am alone, 

 When all the world is here to look on me ? " 



" By the way," said Miss Winsome, " I've found 

 out a singular thing about maggots in the gills of 

 a salmon. You would think that they're a bad sign ; 

 but they're not. Mr. Malloch explained the matter 

 to me when I was at Perth yesterday for flies. 

 There were in his place several salmon just out of 

 the Tay. He pointed to two in particular, and 

 said that, although he had not examined them, one 

 would have maggots in the gills and the other 

 wouldn't. It turned out exactly as he said. Then 

 he asked me which did I think the better fish ? Of 

 course I said, 'The one without maggots.' 'No; 

 that's wrong,' he told me. ' Salmon that have 

 maggots are ' I forget exactly how many per cent 

 6 superior ' in fatty matter, and so on ' to salmon 

 that haven't.' I then asked how he had told the 

 one with maggots from the one without. He said 

 by the irregular dark spots, like small splashes, 

 on the sides. That was the one that had the 

 maggots. It seems that it used to be thought a 

 bull-trout that is, a cross between a salmon and 

 a brown trout or a sea-trout ; but now it is under- 

 stood to be a real salmon." 



" Of course, all that is only Mr. Malloch's opinion." 

 "Good enough for me. Sir Herbert Maxwell 

 says that as regards salmon and trout he is the 

 most learned naturalist in the country." 



