KEKMORE. 45 



scribably comic, and I laughed until I nearly dropped. But 

 that which most amused me was, that they fancied they were" 

 "doing the highlander." Never did I see the races of men so 

 well contrasted. The calm, polite, soft-speaking Celt ; the 

 stormy, noisy, boorish, roaring, fretful Saxon. 



As next morning I walked towards the Castle, expecting to 

 hear from its noble proprietor, who at the time was in Argyle- 

 shire, I mused much on what I had seen. I knew "the bricks" 

 well, and had often seen them before, but I had never met them 

 previously so much out of their beat. On the banks of the Cam 

 or at the Clarendon, over a bottle of good port, they look quite 

 at home ; but here, in the land of the Gael, alas ! 



The streams which feed Loch Tay are open, I think, to the 

 angler, for their noble proprietor is generous, hospitable, and 

 free. But I did not fish them on my first visit some years ago, 

 being otherwise engaged with lake fishing, grouse shooting, and 

 climbing Ben Lawers. I advise the angler to avoid all these 

 amusements ; mountain climbing I have ever found to be a most 

 unprofitable business, although I am aware that in skilful hands 

 who know how to ring the changes dexterously on bells, which 

 have been often played, a mountain ascent is by no means an 

 unprofitable speculation. 



Kenmore must be a pretty good trouting station, and so also 

 is Aberfeldie. But I speak not from personal experience. From 

 Kenmore the angler may make for the Erne, or returning to 

 Taymouth Cross, the mountainous pass of Loch Turits Glen : 

 or returning to Aberfeldie as I did, strike across the country 

 by the Black House of Balfracks, and so reach Dunkeld by Glen 

 Braun. He will require a guide. 



The red-spotted, pink-coloured trout of the Isla, and of some 

 other Scottish streams to which I have already alluded, are at 

 least analogous to those of England, and may even be identical 

 as to species. But this I will not affirm. I have seen such 

 trout caught in the streams of Derbyshire, into which the muddy 

 coal-black water runs which was being discharged from extensive 

 coal fields, and in situations in which I had scarcely thought it 

 possible for trout or any other sort of fish to live ; yet they not 

 only lived but throve admirably in these streams, and were excel- 

 lent to eat. 



