266 ANGLING. 



a fact of this kind is not at once instinctively dis- 

 covered by the angler, and was not previously 

 communicated to us, we fished it for half a day 

 with more skill than success. Our movements 

 were steadily watched the whole time by a south 

 country shepherd, who, rolled up in his plaid, his 

 dog Yarrow close beside him, and both beneath 

 the cozy shelter of a whin dike, seemed curious to 

 ascertain how long we would continue our attempt 

 at sport. When at last, despairingly, we turned 

 us homewards, a hospitable and most pleasing 

 home was Mrs. Scobie's, and neared our pas- 

 toral friends couched in their " sunny lair," the 

 "human" without moving either head or heel, 

 drawled out as follows : " Yell no hae killed mony 

 trouts there ?" " No, we've had no sport at all." 

 " Na, na, it's weel kent there was never a trout in 

 that loch frae the beginnin' o 1 the creation." He thus 

 possessed the key to our discomfiture ; but, from 

 some unknown silential principle, on which we 

 have since deeply pondered but failed to ascertain, 

 he had declined or at least delayed, to reveal the 

 secrets of that dark abyss. However, we consoled 

 ourselves with the " experientia docet" of Dr. Eud- 

 diman, and philosophically repeated as we travelled 

 across those breezy uplands, 



Happy the man who studying nature's laws, 

 From known effects can trace the secret cause. 



THE GRAYLING.* 



This beautiful fish delights in clear and rapid 



* Thymallus vulgaris, Cuv.< Salmo thymallus, Linn. 



