AND ANGLING SONGS. 1 19 



partly to the luxuriant state of the aquatic weeds, and also to 

 the disinclination of the fish to rove about in the daytime. The 

 pike, moreover, at the season I allude to, interfere seriously 

 with sport ; and to those who are not equipped for taking them, 

 or who would rather they were elsewhere, this interference be- 

 comes a matter of consideration. At the best, taking it by itself, 

 trolling for the great lake -trout, I must say, is now-a-days very 

 disheartening, because very precarious work. It should always, 

 in order to keep it in countenance, be mixed up judiciously with 

 fly-fishing or minnow-spinning near the surface ; although it so 

 happens that it is in the early part of the year, when the surface- 

 feeding trout keep pertinaciously to their winter quarters, the 

 ferox fisher is generally most successful. April, and even March, 

 should be admitted without hesitation to the chief place in his 

 calendar. 



There is one circumstance worthy of notice in regard to the 

 Loch Awe ferox, in fact it may be held as characteristic of that 

 particular breed. It is this, that when impelled to congregate 

 and pair off for spawning purposes, instinct, instead of guiding 

 them to the tributaries of the lake the Urchay or Avich, for 

 instance leads them to its lateral outlet, the Brandir Pass, a de- 

 file through which the waters of the loch make their escape to 

 the sea, forming as they do so a river of about four miles in 

 length. The accommodation sought for by the ferox on the 

 course of the river Awe, seldom, if ever, extends to more than 

 the main hang or throat of the river, or the one or two streams 

 immediately in connexion with it. Here, in the months of Sep- 

 tember and October, they have been known to rise at and take 

 the salmon-fly. Two individuals, some years ago, were taken in 

 succession by the late Mr. Robertson of Kelso at this point, with 

 a large Tweed pattern. One of these, now in Kelso Museum 

 (an admirable and well-kept collection of objects in natural 

 history, as well as other curiosities), weighed, when caught, up- 



