INTRODUCTORY 17 



Loch Leven pays, at much the same rate, for the 

 privilege of shying at the trout, and with luck and 

 a little skill, he, too, has his reward — and a very 

 handsome reward it sometimes is. He casts his 

 fly — in competitions — into the glaucous-green water, 

 and tries to persuade himself that he is occupied 

 in sport. Somewhere behind his consciousness, how- 

 ever, there lurks an uneasy feeling that his occupation 

 is not genuine sport ; that it lacks the condition which 

 gives to genuine sport its zest. The burn-fisher on 

 a far hillside, though his prize be insignificant in com- 

 parison, has more real pleasure in his pursuit. The 

 quarry he seeks is in a state of nature ; it owes nothing 

 to human care — except, perhaps, the care of the keeper 

 who guards its safety but refrains from interfering in 

 its domestic affairs ; it is not brought into being and 

 watchfully nursed through the perils of infancy to make 

 an angler's holiday. 



It has been for years my privilege to fish a tiny 

 reservoir into which trout were at one time introduced. 

 No stream enters it and, in consequence, nature is 

 unable to maintain the stock. Though the fish it 

 contains are lusty and strong, and fight with a vigour 

 I have never seen surpassed, their capture yields but 

 little satisfaction ; they are living under artificial con- 



