THE HIGHLANDS. 141 



and one day, as he was fishing from the shore, a large trout, such 

 as Loch Awe is remarkable for, was hooked by him. His line was 

 weak, and afraid to lose it, he cast himself into the loch, yielding to 

 the motions of the strong creature until it became fatigued and 

 manageable. Then he swam ashore with his victim in subjection, 

 and brought it home ; but he was without the bandage, and his 

 heel bleeding copiously." 



This was no unusual mode of fishing with my father. As the 

 Shepherd remarked : " In he used to gang, out, out, out, and ever 

 sae far out, frae the point o' a promontory, sinking aye further and 

 further doon, first to the waist-band o' his breeks, then up to the 

 middle button o' his waistcoat, then to the verra breist, then to the 

 oxters, then to the neck, and then to the verra chin o' him, sae that 

 you wunnered how he could fling the flee ; till last o' a' he would 

 plump richt oot o' sight, till the Highlander on Ben Cruachan 

 thocht him drooned. No he, indeed ; sae he takes to the sooming, 

 and strikes awa wi' ae arm, for the tither had haud o' the rod ; and 

 could ye believe't, though it's as true as Scripture, fishing a' the 

 time, that no a moment o' the cloudy day micht be lost ; ettles* at 

 an island a quarter o' a mile aff, wi' trees, and an auld ruin o' a reli- 

 gious house, wherein beads used to be counted, and wafers eaten, 

 and mass muttered hundreds o' years ago ; and getting footing on 

 the yallow sand or the green sward, he but gies himself a shake, 

 and ere the sun looks out o' the clud, has hyucket a four-pounder, 

 whom in four minutes (for it's a multiplying pirn the cretur uses) 

 he lands, gaspiug through the giant gills, and glittering wi' a thou- 

 sand spots, streaks, and stars, on the shore."f 



With him the angler's silent trade was a ruling passion. He did 

 not exaggerate to the Shepherd in the JYoctes when he said that he 

 had taken " a hundred and thirty in one day out of Loch Awe," as 

 we see by his letters that even larger numbers were taken by him. 



After the lapse of a week he again writes : — 



" Dearest Jane : — The Devil is a letter-sorter at the Edinburgh 

 Post-Office, so your Glenorchy letter of Thursday has not been sent 

 to the place of his birth. The Inverary one I got on Saturday, 

 which told me of your welfare, and the brats, Avhich is enough. 

 Where the other is gone is known only to the old gentleman, who 

 will assuredly be hanged one day or other. 



* Directs his course. t Nbctes. 



