CHAP, i.] TROUT PIKE-CHAR. 11 



ance of a monstrous fish with long hair. It was a scene worthy 

 of a painter, as the men with eager gestures scrambled up the fish 

 glancing like silver in the moonbeams ; and then, as they rowed 

 round, sometimes lost in the shade of the pine-trees, which com- 

 pletely darkened the surface of the water immediately below the 

 rocks on which they grew, or came again into full view as they 

 left the shadow of the woods, the water sparkling and glancing 

 from their oars. Frequently they stopped their wild chant, as the 

 strange cries of the different nocturnal animals echoed loudly from 

 the rocks, and we could hear the men say a few words of Gaelic 

 to each other in a low voice, and then recommence their song. 



We always caught the largest fish at night-time, both trout 

 and pike, the latter frequently above twenty pounds' weight, 

 with the teeth and jaws of a young shark. Sometimes the net 

 brought in a great number of char, which appear to go in large 

 shoals ; but these latter only in the autumn. 



In these lochs I killed great numbers of pike and the larger 

 trout by means of floating lines, which we put in at the wind- 

 ward side of the lake, to be carried down by the wind. On 

 favourable days, in March or October, when there was a brisk 

 wind, the lines went but half way across the loch before every 

 hook had a fish on it, and then commenced a rare chace. When 

 we neared afloat with a large pike hooked to it, as the water was 

 very clear, the fish took the alarm and swam off at a great pace, 

 often giving us some trouble before we could catch him. I have 

 seen an empty corked-up bottle, with line attached, used as afloat 

 for this kind of fishing, instead of the corks. Pike are very 

 capricious in taking the bait, and some days not one would move, 

 although the wind and weather all seemed favourable ; while on 

 other days every float had a fish to it. Again, the fish would be 

 quiet for some time, and then suddenly a simultaneous impulse 

 seemed to seize them, and they would seize the baits as quickly 

 as we could wish, for the space of an hour or so. 



The trout seldom take a dead bait during the daytime, but we 

 often caught them on hooks left in the water all night. In all 

 the Highland lakes on which I have fished in this way, large 

 eels would sometimes take the hook, and often break my lines. 

 It is frequently said that putting pike into a lake would destroy 

 the trout-fishing; but I have invariably found that in all 



