Angling in Burns. 185 



his own shadow or that of his rod fall athwart 

 the stream. Much caution and some creeping may 

 be necessary, and not unfrequently indeed, in this 

 as in other matters of finesse, he must "stoop to 

 conquer." If any sinker be used at all in such 

 waters, a No. 3 shot will be found quite heavy 

 enough. With caddis-bait, sinkers are unnecessary. 

 In floods, burns, like rivers, are best fished down- 

 stream, the angler adapting the quantity of lead to 

 the strength of the current. 



The trout of what are properly called hill-burns 

 are the most easily caught, and the most worthless 

 when caught. They are small and wofully ill-fed ; 

 black they are too, without the extenuating quali- 

 fication of comeliness. In most cases such burns 

 are mere drains through the peat-moss, and yet they 

 often contain large numbers of greedy trout, lurk- 

 ing under the bank or half-stranded in holes in 

 the heather. Their well-known and unattractive 

 characteristics are enormously developed heads and 

 jaws, long attenuated bodies, and alarmingly raven- 

 ous dispositions. Really I should not advise any 

 angler to waste his time or shock his sensibilities 



o 



by hauling out such miserable caricatures of the 

 genus Salmo. 



My remarks on burn-fishing apply to the larger 

 and more open burns that drain a wide area of 

 rich pasture or meadow land. The trout in them 



