RECOLLECTIONS AND ADVICES. 123 



In pursuing this train of miscellaneous observations, 

 we may notice, what has not escaped the remark of 

 many, that mostly all dogs discover a singular antipathy 

 or indifference towards live fish ; yet we know of one be- 

 longing to the landlady of the St Mary's Loch club cot- 

 tage, by name Gipsy, a cross breed betwixt the colley, 

 or sheep-dog, and the Scotch terrier, which loves no- 

 thing better than to take its station on the shallow run 

 betwixt the upper and lower lochs, in order to watch 

 the shoals of perch which, during the months of March 

 and April, congregate to spawn in this place ; and when 

 an opportunity occurs, Gipsy will be observed to make 

 a sudden dash towards the bottom with its head, and 

 generally secure a fish, which it carries to land, and 

 forthwith kills. There is no race of beings this ani- 

 mal appears to esteem better than anglers ; and it never 

 forgets, even at the distance of two or three years, one 

 who has permitted it to accompany him to the stream 

 side. When there, it seems almost to take as much 

 interest in the landing of a fish as the performer him- 

 self; and, if ordered to go in and seize the trout while yet 

 in the water, will comply with the utmost alacrity. Of 

 pike and eels, Gipsy is somewhat shy, and approaches 

 them with considerable caution. Although fond of 

 fish when cooked, he rejects them, like other dogs, in 

 a raw state. 



We shall devote now a portion of this chapter to the 

 feats of anglers ; and in order to impose silence upon 

 vaunters, and undeceive the credulous, we allow it to 

 be known plainly, in spite of the marvellous relations 

 of Sir Humphry Davy and others, that no Scottish 

 trout-fisher with the fly ever did, upon an entire ave- 

 rage, manage to capture one trout, upwards of a pound 

 weight, for every hundred falling short. We talk of 

 common yellow unforced fish, not those which ascend 



