LOCH FISHING. 85 



five or six trout, none of them more than half a pound 

 in weight ; and then walking round the shore, we tried 

 the deeper water, but still as before the calm was 

 against us, and though our flies were continually 

 changed, we caught nothing more. Once indeed I 

 raised a good fish with a large black fly, but as he had 

 unfortunately felt the hook, nothing could induce him 

 to make a second essay. In the best weather angling 

 for these larger fish is very uncertain work, as they 

 are of course fewer in number than the small fry, and 

 also more dainty, and their haunts more difficult of 

 access. This difficulty of course is enhanced if the 

 angler is compelled, from want of a boat, to content 

 himself with casting from the shore. 



Finding therefore that we were not likely to make 

 much of it to-day, we put up our tackle and started for 

 home ; Donald leading us by a route which we had not 

 yet traversed, in order to show us a curious waterfall 

 on the hill-side. A mountain torrent shooting over a 

 precipice, spreading like a sheet down its glassy 

 surface, and again contracting to a narrow neck at the 

 bottom, dashes into a deep black chasm in the moor, 

 and disappears underground, emerging again into light 

 at a distance of about three hundred yards. 



As we stood looking up towards the fall itself, we 

 could distinctly hear the rush of the waters, as they 

 dashed along their unseen channel, beneath the rocky 

 spot on which we were standing, though they must 

 have been several feet below us. Before reaching 

 home we passed by the base of a very high and wild- 

 looking craig, which rose perpendicularly to the height 

 of several hundred feet; its face seamed with huge 

 cracks, and studded here and there with the hardy 

 mountain ash, or occasionally a wild holly. In a niche 



