20 AX ANGLER'S BASKET. 



one of the best sketches he ever made for Punch. It related 

 to the possibility of fishing on the Sawbath day. The aspect 

 of the surrounding country was so wild and unpromising that 

 my thoughts began to run, as men's thoughts will, on wittles, 

 and I asked a bare-legged Highland lassie said lassie being 

 about five-and-fifty if they grew any potatoes up there. 

 She said she " didna ken, but she didna thenk sae." Then I 

 spent the rest of the evening in moody contemplation of 

 " Bradshaw," and wondered why on earth I had come. And 

 yet for dinner next day, being the Sawbath, Mary McQueen 

 got up this bill of fare for one : Scotch broth ; salmon, with 

 parsley sauce and cucumber ; lamb ; duckling, with potatoes 

 and green peas; pancakes, with cream; cheese, biscuits, 

 <%c.; strawberries and cream price, is. 6d. This is a fact ; 

 the scale of charges was a simple one is. 6d. each meal, 

 and 2S. for a bed. 



UNFAMILIAR DAINTIES. 



Most old anglers have observed that trout do not take all 

 the natural dainties of the river for some days after their 

 first appearance on the surface of the water. This is the 

 case with all the different flies and the creeper also. Fish 

 require to become familiar with their appearance before they 

 take them greedily, just as, I dare say, you observed was the 

 case with your wife in regard to oysters ; but, having once 

 acquired the taste, " ma conscience " how they do go it ! A 

 slight fresh of four to six inches is desirable at the beginning 

 of the stone-fly season to wash the insects off the stones and 

 carry them along the surface of the water, otherwise the fly 

 will only rarely go skating about the river of her own accord 

 as a decent fly should. She will make for the dry land, and 

 stop there or thereabouts. In very dry seasons trout 

 frequently decline the angler's stone fly altogether, the 

 reason being that, owing to the absence of a little freshet to 



