LOCH-FISHING 



117 



than to turn one's back on the flies and assume an air 

 of unconcern. 



The loch may be fished from the bank or from a 

 boat. When fishing from a boat, the angler is best 

 alone. The statement is made in no spirit of churlish- 

 ness, but in the interest of the angler himself ; of the 

 angler whose object in fishing is to catch fish and who 

 estimates his pleasure not, indeed, by the weight of his 

 creel, but by the frequency with which he is given an 

 opportunity of playing a trout. It may be disregarded 

 by the dilettante, whose purpose on the water is the 

 enjoyment of an agreeable outing to which the quest of 

 the trout is merely incidental. He without sacrifice, 

 with, rather, increase of his happiness, may surround 

 himself with a company limited in numbers only by the 

 capacity of the boat. The enthusiastic angler is no 

 curmudgeon ; after dinner, in the smoking-room, when 

 the tension is relaxed, there is no one more sociable, 



but the day he prefers, like 

 that lone fisher the heron, 

 to spend in solitude. The 

 fellowship of his boatman 

 and an occasional oppor- 

 tunity of shouting, across 

 the wave, a greeting to a 



