LOCH-FISHING 



147 



tion of their bulk in the peaty loam with which the 

 bottom of the loch was thickly lined. It was certainly 

 not on a diet of fish that they had thriven so lustily, 

 for they roamed the depths of the water alone. 



Though the loch had afforded me an unexpected 

 pleasure, I was glad to get away from it. It was a 

 relief to escape its eerie influence. When we prepared 

 to leave its banks, the fog had been long dispelled, but 

 even the sun, which now shone down on it from a 

 cloudless sky, failed to lighten the gloom in which it 

 was enwrapped. I am ignorant of its name, but no 

 loch has a better title to be known as "dubh." 



Now, I may have 

 erred in supposing 

 that about the ground 

 around the loch there 

 was anything particu- 

 larly sacred, but to 

 Alastair and me it 

 was certainly taboo. 

 Riorht to board that 

 galley we had none. 

 And our success 

 had perched us 

 on the horns of 



