SEPTEMBER 211 



fair to the sun, carries a gracious mantle of oaks, to the 

 height of between two and three hundred feet up the 

 slopes ; the south side, darker by reason of the shadow- 

 ing mountain mass and steeper than the other, bears 

 a great pinewood whereof the glades are lightsome 

 with birch, rowan, and holly the crags fired with the 

 soft glow of blooming heather. 



The long drought had given way ; much and welcome 

 rain had fallen ; a hundred streams were hurrying down 

 the heights on either hand in milky cascades, but the 

 storm had cleared off; the kindly sun shared the 

 heavens with the retreating clouds; and as I steered 

 the little screw launch towards a point some three 

 miles up the loch, where my companion was to be 

 landed for stalking, methought that never had human 

 eyes feasted on a more perfect scene of wood and water, 

 towering hill, and falling stream. My own quest this 

 day was not the deer, but a creature which many hours 

 of vain pursuit have tempted faint-hearted anglers to 

 pronounce mythical. All the scaly race notably 

 salmon and ordinary trout are capricious enough, 

 heaven knows, and subject to prolonged fits of inertia ; 

 but for sheerly unaccountable and perverse disregard 

 of the choicest lures, commend me to the great lake 

 trout. Once he was regarded as a species per se, 

 and dignified by the title of Salmo ferox; better 

 acquaintance with him, however, has convinced most 

 anglers and naturalists that he is no more than a brook 

 trout favoured by circumstance, sea-room, and an un- 

 scrupulous appetite till he attains abnormal proportions. 



