LOCH-FISHING 77 



rising, and I left them, not ungrateful for their 

 very peculiar manners and customs. The chances 

 are that the trout beyond the band of weeds never 

 see an artificial fly, and they arc, therefore, the 

 more guileless at least, late in the season. In 

 spring, I believe, the lilies arc less in the way, and 

 I fear some one has put a Berthon boat on the 

 loch in April. But it is not so much what one 

 catches in Loch Beg, as the monsters which one 

 might catch that make the tarn so desirable. 



The loch seems to prove that any hill-tarn 

 might be made a good place for sport, if trout 

 were introduced where they do not exist already. 

 But the size of these in Loch Beg puzzles me, nor 

 can one see how they breed, as breed they do : for 

 twice or thrice I caught a fingerling, and threw 

 him in again. No burn runs out of the loch, and, 

 even in a flood, the feeder is so small, and its 

 course so extremely steep, that one cannot imagine 

 where the fish manage to spawn. The only loch 

 known to me where the common trout are of 

 equal size, is on the Border. It is extremely deep, 

 with very clear water, and with scarce any spawn- 



