56 LOCH-FISHING. 



LOCH-FISHING. 



THE true angler is almost always a lover of nature ; if 

 not, he loses half the pleasure of his art. In following 

 the river's course, he must of necessity pass through 

 the finest and most varied scenery ; and that, too, at a 

 time when beauty crowns the year. But, enchanting as 

 are the woodland banks of the quiet stream, there is to 

 me a higher and yet more powerful charm in the soli- 

 tary wildness or savage grandeur of the Highland loch. 

 The very stilhess of those bare hills and craggy summits, 

 broken only by the rushing of some rapid burn that 

 intersects them, has a tendency to elevate, while it calms 

 the mind ; and I envy not the man who could frequent 

 such scenes and not feel them. 



But if the proficient in the gentle craft has an eye 

 equally keen to the beauties so lavishly scattered around 

 him, it happens no less often that the admirer of nature's 

 wildest charms fancies himself an angler. Our man of 

 taste has, perhaps, fished a few rivers near him, in the 

 spring, when trout are lean and hungry; and, having 

 chosen a propitious day, has sometimes returned with 

 a tolerable creelful. He then starts on his pleasure- 

 tour, and of course his fishing-rod forms an important 



