8 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. i. 



depths, were as distinctly seen in the lake as on the shore ; while 

 here and there a trout rising at a fly dimpled the smooth water, 

 and in my idle mood I watched the circles as they gradually 

 widened and disappeared. The white gulls floated noiselessly by, 

 as if afraid to disturb the stillness of the scene, instead of sa- 

 luting their common enemy with loud cries. I had been for 

 some time stretched on the ground enjoying the quiet beauty of 

 the picture, till I had at last fallen into a half sleeping, half- 

 Waking kind of dreaminess, when I was suddenly aroused by a 

 Glasgow steamer passing within a hundred yards of me, full of 

 holiday people, with fiddles and parasols conspicuous on the 

 deck, while a stream of black sooty smoke showered its favours 

 over me, and filled my mouth as I opened it to vent my ill 

 temper in an anathema against steam-boats, country-dance tunes, 

 and cockneys. 



There have come in my way, during my rambles through the 

 Highlands, many a fair and beauteous loch, placed like a bright 

 jewel in the midst of the rugged mountains, far out of reach of 

 steam and coach, accessible only to the walking traveller, or at 

 most to a highland pony, where the only living creature to be 

 seen is the silent otter playing its fantastic gambols in the quiet 

 of the evening^ or the stag as he comes to drink at the water's 

 edge or to crop the succulent grass which grows in the shallows. 

 There are so many small lochs which are known but to few indi- 

 viduals, but which are equally beautiful with those whose renown 

 and larger size have made them the resort of numberless visitors, 

 that it is difficult to single out any one as pre-eminent. In Inver* 

 ness-shire there are many lovely lakes, and many an hour and day 

 have I passed in fishing on some of these. There was one beautiful 

 lake to which I used sometimes to take net and boat, as well as 

 rod. It was a piece of water about four miles long, and one or 

 two broad ; at one end were two sandy bays, forming regular 

 semicircles, with their beaches covered to a width of a few feet 

 with small pebbles. Between these two bays was a bold rocky 

 promontory running into the lake, and covered with fine old 

 pine trees. Along one side was a stretch of perhaps three miles 

 of grey precipitous rocks nearly covered with birch and hazel, 

 which hung over the water, casting a dark shade on it. The 

 other end of the lake was contracted between the rocks till it 



