SALMO FEROX . 173 



approaching them, requires exceptional conditions of 

 depth and space. In waters where food is very abund- 

 ant, it is true that monsters do manage to exist un- 

 molested long enough to grow to prodigious size ; 

 witness the sixteen pounds trout secured in a dubious 

 way in the Itchen by a labouring man some years ago. 

 But lochs that produce big ferox are invariably both 

 extensive and very deep. These fish must have 

 profound solitudes to harbour in by day, and plenty 

 of sea-room too for privateering at night. Your 

 requisites to compass the destruction of a ferox are 

 a good boat and a couple of stout rowers (not a 

 steam launch, surely, for you are after noble quarry, 

 and should treat him chivalrously), two strong rods 

 with not less than a hundred and twenty yards of 

 flawless line on the reel of each, spinning tackle of 

 the best (pay special attention to the temper of the 

 triangle hooks), and good store of troutlets for bait. 

 Phantom minnows will do business at times, or 

 other artificial lures; but there is nothing to com- 

 pare with the young of their own species to take 

 these patriarchs withal. In nearly every Highland 

 loch there is a belt of shoal water round the shores, 

 whence the bottom shelves rapidly or plunges cliff- 

 like to a great depth. It is along this line that the 



