198 JULY 



for roach, chub, and other coarse fish is a fine 

 exercise of patience and a few other virtues ; but it 

 becomes just a trifle insipid unless extraneous ex- 

 citement is imported by the addition of stakes. 

 Then your game of patience turns into piquet ; and 

 so long as matches are decided and stakes won by the 

 weight of coarse fish captured, no harm is done ; for, 

 besides the enormous reproductive powers of such 

 fish, in England, at least, a statutory annual close- 

 time has been established. Unluckily, the killing of 

 trout has been made in Scotland a matter of prize- 

 winning. Almost daily is the sacred bosom of Loch 

 Leven desecrated by this ignoble rivalry ; and the 

 hallowed founts of Ettrick and Yarrow are inces- 

 santly ransacked with an ardour certainly not born 

 of the sport offered by the wretched fishlets which 

 are creeled. Shameful to say, there is no close-time 

 for breeding trout in Scottish waters. In many 

 districts the open fishings are rendered worthless to 

 fair anglers by the miserable snigglers who destroy 

 gravid and unseasonable fish all through the winter 

 months. 



