424 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



here it is " giving me a false direction as plainly as a bird 

 could speak. 



The first lochan of the chain, named Camisdown, lies much 

 lower than the others, and is a good deal the largest. Some of 

 the trout in it are eight or ten pounds weight. I only got 

 one rise, and secured a fish of about a pound. There are few 

 days in the year that they rise well in this loch, and bait is 

 more acceptable than fly. The other little tarns are upon the 

 tops of the hills. Two of them contain no fish, and look as 

 if they were dead, when contrasted with the others all alive 

 from the continual rising of trout. In a few hours I filled my 

 creel (a pretty large one), and might easily have stocked it 

 again, as the day was good for the fly, and the fish keen. 



THE WEEDY LOCH. 



A fisherman in the neighbourhood gave me a strange account 

 of a moss-hole for it deserves no more dignified name 

 which breeds trout of twelve pounds weight. As the " weedy 

 loch " was only half an hour's walk from Inverary, I took ad- 

 vantage of the first favourable day to give it a trial, both with 

 fly and bait, for one of these monsters. I thought my guide 

 was joking when he pointed to a shallow hole, no bigger than an 

 English duck-pond, and so overgrown with water-plants that 

 there were scarcely three square yards clear. After I had 

 watched for a little time, a great break of the water, but slow 

 and heavy, in the midst of the weeds, betokened the kind of 

 customers I should have to deal with. The trolling-rod was 

 quickly baited, but there was some difficulty in finding open- 

 ing enough for the hook to sink. After shifting several 

 times, for the great bubbles at the top of the water were still 

 seen at distant intervals, I put on the most approved fly for 

 the " weedy loch," viz., a red wing from the landrail's feather 

 (a partridge-tail feather will do as well), and a green body. 

 It was the strangest fishing I ever attempted, to pitch the fly 



