AND ANGLING SONGS. 95 



tion to the seeming capabilities of the pools and streams which 

 they inhabit. When we come to examine them, however, we 

 find a great deficiency of nutritious feeding-ground : in some 

 places bare rock, in others shifty gravel and smooth-worn stones, 

 with which insect life is but scantily associated. On gaining the 

 outlet of the lake, which consists of a long neck of water, this 

 characteristic ceases. The alluvial deposits there collected form 

 the source of rich and abundant sustenance, and encourage 

 a rank growth of rushes, flags, and other lacustrine plants. In 

 this range of water, immediately below the ferry-house, I caught, 

 on the day above mentioned, a beautiful trout of 2^ Ibs., and 

 another of 1^. The ferry-house was at that time occupied 

 by two brothers, both of whom were deaf and dumb. I recollect 

 them as obliging, and, taking into account their infirmity, intelli- 

 gent men. In their shieling, which was not particularly well 

 furnished or commodious, I took up my night-quarters ; a hearty 

 meal, composed of the usual Highland fare oat-cake, eggs, trout, 

 and whisky assisting me to make the best of a shake-down of 

 dry heather, as the only apology for a bed the place could offer. 

 Early next morning I was in the boat along with one of my 

 silent entertainers, and on the way up, under oars, to the head 

 of the loch. After persevering for nearly an hour, I hooked a 

 large trout, apparently one of five or six pounds' weight, which, 

 owing to the faulty state of my tackle, or careless handling, 

 broke away. This disappointment was followed by the escape 

 of another fish, supposed, however, to be a pike, from a trolli rig- 

 line in the rear of the boat. I held on beating the bays and 

 well-reputed parts of the loch for an hour longer, when the 

 breeze all at once dropped, and the sun broke fiercely forth. 

 There was no use persevering any further, so I landed, and, 

 after exchanging civilities with my boatman, proceeded to the 

 upper part of the Tummel, with the intention, after breakfasting 

 at the Bridge Inn, of fishing up to Loch Ilannoch. 



