74 risn AXD PISHING IN SCOTLAND. 



dropping the minnow over the bank at the top of the stream. 

 An excellent minnow fisher, a clergyman, who fished to supply 

 the larder, assured me that, sauntering one clear, cold, and 

 dreary day, along the banks of the Whitadder, the river low, 

 the east wind blowing, and hopeless of success, he merely, in 

 sport, threw the minnow across the river, to a point where a 

 small mountain streamlet, more like a drain, joins the main 

 stream, never dreaming that there could be any trout there, or 

 if there, any fish would be found insane enough to take the bait. 

 But so it was, for four large trout came out in succession from 

 their hiding-places, and were successively taken. 



I have myself seen something like this, but nothing quite so 

 bad, and can account for it only by imagining that during the 

 prevalence of the easterly winds in Britain, neither man nor fish 

 are absolutely in their senses. Such seems to have been the 

 opinion of that chief of wits, Voltaire : he is thought by many 

 continental people to have rediscovered Britain and the English 

 nation, at that period unknown to the continental nations. Wit 

 of all wits ! satirist of all satirists ! dreaded by all, even Gibbon 

 the immortal Gibbon was jealous of you, and tried to snarl at 

 you : he was afraid of your " Mceurs des Nations," and I do not 

 wonder at it. The easterly winds of Britain did not escape your 

 notice, though they did that of ancient Izaak. Anglers do not 

 like them, no more do trout, it would seem, nor Londoners. 

 Nevertheless, I have had, on a Scottish river, an evening's sport 

 whilst a strong east wind blew, which all but exceeded any I 

 ever saw : it was in September.* To this I shall return when 

 speaking of the Whitadder. Minnow fishing, to be entirely suc- 

 cessful in small waters, where the trout are shy, requires you to 

 carry a small jar, filled with fresh water and a good stock of live 

 minnows. These you use when required. When trout are shy, 

 they must be tempted with a fresh minnow, untouched, and but 

 that moment used. With these precautions you may take trout 

 in the smallest rivulets ; for, indeed, it is often there that the 

 largest trout are found. But to enjoy a day's sport, seek the 

 banks of the Whitadder, and fish that first of all trout streams 



* In the Whitwater, under Shanna Bank ; in " the Boat Hole 



