28 ANGLING SKETCHES 



nowadays, though in some earlier period the burn 

 has been diverted from its bed, and the people used 

 solemnly to wash the sand, as in California or 

 Australia. Well, whether in consequence of the 

 gold, as the alchemical philosophers would have 

 held, or not, the trout of the Glengaber burn were 

 good. They were far shorter, thicker and stronger 

 than those of the many neighbouring brooks. I have 

 fished up the burn with fly, when it was very low, 

 hiding carefully behind the boulders, and have been 

 surprised at the size and gameness of the fish. As 

 soon as the fly had touched the brown water, it 

 was sucked down, and there was quite a fierce 

 little fight before the fish came to hand. 



' This, all this, was in the olden time, long ago.' 

 The Glengaber burn is about twenty miles from 

 any railway station, but, on the last occasion when 

 I visited it, three louts were worming their way up 

 it, within twenty yards of each other, each lout, 

 with his huge rod, showing himself wholly to any 

 trout that might be left in the water. Thirty years 

 ago the burns that feed St. Mary's Loch were almost 

 unfished, and rare sport we had in them, as boys, 



