LOCH-FISHING. 69 



of the gills. The baits are inverted, the barbs of the 

 hook projecting from their mouths. The best time for 

 this amusement is on one of those delicious evenings 

 with scarcely a breath of air, when the shadow of the 

 mountain becomes more imposing on the unrippled loch, 

 and twilight begins to steal over the scene. Let the hum 

 of the beetle be your warning bell. 



Having arranged all your tackle, and baited your hooks, 

 place them regularly in a light two-oared boat, and row to 

 the weedy bay. You will now drop them one by one, about 

 twenty yards apart, outside the weeds, between the shal- 

 low and the deep. The pike have been basking all the 

 sultry day in the shallows, and are just emerging from 

 their green covering in search of food. The first object 

 that arrests their hungry eyes and craving stomachs is 

 your tantalizing bait, suspended at such a distance from 

 the surface as to excite no apprehension, and perfectly 

 still. With avidity it is seized and pouched ; down goes 

 the bottle : scarcely, perhaps, has it disappeared, when 

 another follows its example : it is nothing uncommon to 

 have four or five all bobbing up and down at the same 

 time. The sport now begins, the angler stretching to 

 his oars, first after one, then another, as they alternately 

 rise and sink. If large pike are hooked, they will often 

 keep their tormentor under water for a minute at a time ; 

 and to run the whole down is no contemptible evening's 

 exercise. 



