188 THE NAMELESS TARN 



almost insurmountable difficulties, to cause a boat to 

 be conveyed thither. It was latish before this was 

 accomplished ; and the soft air of a grey morning had 

 hardened and turned gusty, not the kind of after-day to 

 bring trout to the surface. However, there were we to 

 make the best of it ; there was the lochan, lying snugly 

 in lee of the sheltering dome of Beinn-na-lice (which, 

 if you would not be misunderstood, you must sound to 

 rhyme, not with ' slice ' but with ' streaky '), its waters 

 impenetrably dark in the calm silver-frosted in the 

 breeze. 



I had not patience to wait till the boat was launched; 

 leaving it to my fellow- explorer, I began whipping 

 along fifty yards or so of rocky shore, the only part of 

 the loch accessible from the land. I cannot have 

 made more than half a dozen casts when there came 

 an eddying bulge in the brown water that made my 

 heart stop beating. Nothing came of it, however; a 

 big fish had missed the fly, and would not be tempted 

 to have another shot. Nor could I stir another fin in 

 the rest of my beat. By the time I came to the end 

 of it my friend was afloat and by the Hokey ! he 's in 

 a fish ; a good one too, judging by the arc of his nine- 

 footer. Deep, deep and ever deeper the unseen quarry 

 plunges, visiting every quarter of the little mere, warn- 

 ing all his clan to take shelter from danger. Fully twenty 

 minutes were added to the past before that doughty 

 fish could be brought to the surface and towed into the 

 net. And how much did he weigh, think you ? Six 

 pounds ? four ? Not less, surely, to judge from the 

 toughness of the fight. Nay, but he barely pulled the 



