WHITE TROUT. 107 



a delusion, an absurdity, a mockery; but I had tra- 

 velled six hundred miles to fish, and fish I would, 

 though offered all sorts of apparently more feasible 

 outlets for the destructive energy which Cobbett 

 declares, not without truth, to be the distinctive 

 mark of all English country gentlemen. " Come, 

 let us go forth," says my host after breakfast, 

 " and see which of God's creatures we can slay !" 

 Rabbit-shooting, sea-fishing, seal-shooting, flap- 

 per-hunting, grouse-shooting, even goat-stalking 

 (for there is a wild breed of goats which inhabit 

 those mountains, active as chamois, and difficult to 

 approach as red-deer), were in vain suggested and 

 in turn rejected. In the end I had my way, and, 

 like " the swans on sweet St Mary's lake/' we 

 floated double on the surface of ours, "boat and 

 shadow/' With a light, springy rod, a fine line, 

 and a London-made bottom scarce thicker than a 

 hair, I commenced fishing, and, to the surprise of 

 my companions, shortly rose and hooked a good 

 fish. There were better fishermen than myself 

 in the boat, but their tackle was comparatively 

 coarse, and I think that I am within the mark 

 when I say that I caught two fish to their one. 

 In the course of the day we killed full thirty white 

 trout, and the merits of fine fishing have ever since 

 been recognised in those pleasant quarters. 



