290 LINHOPE LINN. 



bourhood as the destination of many a jolly pic-nic. 

 Here the waters of the burn form a cascade of thirty-three 

 feet over the face of a rock of porphyry, and fall into a deep 

 inky black basin below, of an oval form, and worn to a 

 great depth by the continual action of the water in the 

 same hard and, solid material. This basin is inhabited 

 by a numerous fraternity of hungry little trout, as black 

 and soot-begrimed as the most sable knight of the 

 duster. On one occasion I captured nearly a dozen of 

 these negro-like minikins with worm, during the time 

 occupied in discussing the contents of a sandwich-case 

 by its margin. It is rather a curious fact, that above 

 this fall, which it is quite impossible for either trout or 

 salmon to ascend, the burn contains quantities of small 

 trout ; another gentleman and myself one day taking no 

 less than three dozen with worm, out of a single pool 

 about a mile above the linn. 



Here, among the mountain burns, worm is the bait 

 par excellence, and almost the only one that can be used 

 in such places, as their beds are so completely covered 

 with large boulders, under which the fish lie, that it 

 would be next to impossible to use the fly. And if the 

 angler is here careful to keep his person concealed, and 

 can manage to guide the bait, without any sinkers on it, 

 between and underneath the large stones, he may take 

 almost as many trout as he likes, especially after a fall of 

 rain, when I have known sixteen and eighteen dozen being 

 killed ; but few of them will be longer than the sportsman's 

 finger, and many of them not so long, if he is a tall man. 



The same description and method of fishing will 



