72 ANGLING SKETCHES 



in the west ; on the east, within a hundred yards, 

 under a slope, is Loch Beg. It is not a mile in 

 circumference, and all but some eighty yards of 

 shore is defended against the angler by wide beds 

 of water-lilies, with their pretty white floating 

 lamps, or by tall sedges and reeds. Nor is the 

 wading easy. Four steps you make with safety, at 

 the fifth your foremost leg sinks in mud apparently 

 bottomless. Most people fish only the eastern 

 side, whereof a few 7 score yards are open, with a 

 rocky and gravelly bottom. 



Now, all lochs have their humours. In some 

 trout like a big fly, in some a small one, but 

 almost all do best with a rough wind or rain. I 

 knew enough of Loch Beg to approach it at noon 

 on a blazing day of sunshine, when the surface was 

 like glass. It was like that when first I saw it, 

 and a shepherd warned us that we ' would dae 

 naething ' ; we did little, indeed, but I rose nearly 

 every rising fish I cast over, losing them all, too, 

 and in some cases being broken, as I was using 

 very fine gut, and the fish were heavy. Another 

 trial seemed desirable, and the number of rising 



