170 JUNE 



recourse is had to natural and unnatural minnows 

 phantoms, pearlbacks, kill-devils, Devon spinners, 

 and other unhallowed contrivances, which are plied 

 daily from shore to shore. That Loch Leven is not 

 utterly ruined for sport, and continues to produce 

 trout light-hearted enough to rise at the fly in the 

 face of such disheartening treatment, shows how 

 extraordinary are its resources. 



The fact is, that a trout hooked on strong tackle, 

 its mouth crammed with several triangles, and 

 with the weight of forty yards of submerged line 

 to contend with, can offer no good fight. Sport 

 degenerates into the merest pot-hunting. 



LIII 



But there are exceptional lochs where the use of 



the minnow is not only pardonable but 

 Salmo ferox 



commendable, inasmuch as it is the only 



way of catching trout which have become incorrig- 

 ible cannibals, and highly exciting, by reason of the 

 immense size to which these fish attain. These lakes 

 are the profound abysses among the Highland hills, 

 and the great trout which lurk in their depths have 

 been distinguished as a separate species by some 



