LOCH-FISHING 115 



it, except during the evening rise, his labour is labour 

 in vain. Since, fortunately, it is never long absent 

 from our Scottish lochs, he is almost certain to enjoy 

 the benefit of its presence at some period of the 

 day. 



The angler on the loch will find the experience 

 acquired on the stream of but little service to him. 

 His skill in casting will certainly stand him in good 

 stead, although he may never be called on for an 

 exhibition of great dexterity, but his knowledge of the 

 habits of the trout will avail him none at all. There is 

 little in the loch, as in the stream, to indicate the chosen 

 haunts of the fish. The blank, expressionless expanse 

 of water betrays no secrets ; like a mask it conceals all 

 that lies beneath it, and although he may not cast 

 without hope, there is no cast — except when he essays 

 the capture of a fish he has seen rise — in which his 

 interest is particularly engaged. All are made in pre- 

 cisely similar circumstances and each is almost an exact 

 repetition of the others. They are without individuality. 

 There is a dull monotony in loch-fishing which seriously 

 lowers its value as a source of pleasure to the angler. 

 It lacks the variety, the frequent change, to which 

 stream-fishing owes its charm. If there be a form of 

 angling to which the term "chuck and chance it" may, 



