196 ANGLING. 



a friend in July, and were sadly disappointed by 

 killing on an average only one and a half each, 

 that is three between us per diem ; but during 

 another trip in the first week of June, each 

 rod captured about a couple of dozen a day of 

 the finest fish, weighing from three quarters of a 

 pound to a pound and a half and two pounds a-piece. 

 Only one weighed two pounds and a half. This 

 Loch Craggie rests in a granitic basin. Its waters 

 are extremely clear, though here and there we ob- 

 served beds of Potamogeton in deepish places. The 

 greater part of the north side is covered by rocks 

 and stones, among which large fish lie. All the 

 natives here are strong active creatures, with well 

 formed smallish heads, and something of a salmon 

 like aspect. Sir William Jardine tried them by 

 trolling with a small trout as bait, but had only a 

 single run. Yet we had proof on dissection of their 

 piscivorous propensities, several having the re- 

 mains of small fishes in their interior. De gutsibus 

 non disputandum est. In Loch Doulay, a little 

 lower down, and somewhat nearer Lairg, we killed 

 a beautiful trout in the evening, during a dead calm, 

 which we mean the fish weighed three pounds. 

 It was brilliantly coloured, finely shaped, exquisitely 

 conditioned how it simmered soon after sunset ! 

 and altogether formed the most perfect picture of a 

 trout we ever saw. As our pannier was already 

 full, we laid it down on one of those little grassy 

 basket-looking tufts of green, so often found like 

 islands in Oasis to beautify the gravelly shores of 

 desolate mountain lochs, and proceeded on our way 



