FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



for any respectable mode of angling, as the water was still quite thick 

 from the melting of the glaciers. But the natives were at work with long 

 bamboos and huge lumps of lobworms, and during my brief stay two of 

 these trout were taken by them, one weighing twenty kilograms (40 lb.), 

 the other six kilograms (12 lb.).* 



Many have been the days I have spent in Achnacarry Forest. They are 

 days of yore now, but I bear in kindly remembrance how indulgent was 

 my host, the late Cameron of Lochiel, who murmured not when I pled 

 to be excused going to the hill, and devoted day after day to pursuing 

 the great trout of Loch Arkaig. One of these days proved very convincing 

 as to the identity of the ferox and fario. I had spent two days without 

 success, trolling phantom minnows behind the boat up and down that 

 lovely loch. Only once had I touched a fish, a big fellow somewhere round 

 about 10 lb. He made a wild run, threw himself high out of the water, 

 and went free. The hooks of the beastly minnow had straightened. 



I did not feel satisfied that artificial minnows were as attractive to 

 these deep-water monsters as natural baits might be; so next morning 

 I caught a lot of small trout in the river and set forth in the afternoon 

 with a couple of rods astern, each trailing a troutlet on spinning tackle. 

 Just as we were shoving off, my host's son, the present Lochiel, ran down 

 and begged to be taken aboard, and I gave the little chap one of the rods to 

 hold. Strange to say, that happened to be the rod which was to do nearly all 

 the execution. It was pretty rough that day, so that our boatman had had 

 about enough of it by six o'clock, by which time we had taken five trout, 

 weighing 17, 8, 5, 2J and 2 lb. It would have baffled any fisherman to 

 draw among these the line dividing /^roa: from/«rio; and well it might, for 

 scientific diagnosis now declares that there is no such line. 



The truth is that, though there is probably a maximum weight which 

 trout may not exceed, there is no standard of dimension for this fish. 

 Where the food supply is scanty, as in many British waters, especially 

 in the north, the growth of trout is retarded, and they retain through life 

 the marks and character of infancy — ^parr-marks, red spots, etc. The 

 presence of so-called ferox among this dwarfed population may be 

 accounted for by supposing that certain individuals have profited by 

 exceptional luck in finding food, grown faster than the rest, and acquired 

 a cannibal habit, devouring their own species. 



The same process may be observed among pike. There is a lake in front 



*I mined feeing the bigger of theae fish, but I ate of the flesh of the smaller, which was just like salmon. 



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