16 FISH AND FISHING IK SCOTLAND. 



angler. On reaching the table-land he must not lose time. Let 

 him select, if he can, a hot and close day, following a rainy night, 

 summer showery-looking clouds, and having plenty of good small 

 worms well cleaned and prepared, he may take in a short time an 

 excellent dish of trout. When I first fished this stream in the 

 company of the best of anglers, I was a very young angler. My 

 friend pointed out to me the ground, recommending me to keep 

 well back and to lose no time. In a few minutes three admirable 

 trout lay on the bank, when suddenly all sport ceased. I could 

 not comprehend what had happened. My friend now returned 

 from the upper part of the stream which he had selected for his 

 ground, and told me I might put up my rod and prepare for the 

 road ; pointing, at the same time, to a dark and lowering cloud 

 of an inky hue collecting over Pentland's summit. It was a 

 thundercloud over it came, wind, rain, lightning, thunder. 

 Then I remembered Scott's " Lady of the Lake," which was just 

 published. Pity it ever was. 



" The springing trout lies still : 

 So darkly lowers yon thunder cloud, 

 Which swathes as with a purple shroud 



Benledi's distant hill." 



Often, subsequently, have I observed this singular phenomenon, 

 the explanation of which is as obscure as all other physiological 

 laws. Why should fish trout, at least dread thunder ? The 

 more strange that it is in certain fishes we find that wonderful 

 electrical apparatus connecting in so remarkable a way the laws 

 of the electric fluid with those which regulate the nerves and 

 brain of man. 



~Now why should fishes, and more especially trout, be such na- 

 tural electrometers ? They are called cold-blooded animals, and 

 some have thought them insensible to pain. All this is,I fear, sheer 

 nonsense and twaddle. But be it so, it does not explain why 

 trout should be extremely sensible natural electrometers. It is 

 amongst the same class, fishes, that we find natural electro- 

 machines, voltaic piles, galvanic troughs ! The gymnotus of 

 Surinam, and the torpedo of the Cape, and one or two more, 

 strike their prey dead by an electric discharge. To accomplish 

 this, Nature has furnished them with a peculiar apparatus she 



