148 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



a dilemma ; the sacrifice of fish so lovely and so dearly 

 bought was not to be endured, yet to take them with 

 us was to publish wide the story of our trespass. 

 "What," I enquired of the partner of my guilt, "shall 

 we do? M'Tavish will see at once that these trout 

 have not been taken from Loch-an-Leannan," Alastair 

 reserved his answer ; he was, for the moment, without 

 an inspiration. During the subsequent descent of the 

 hill, however, he was obviously pondering the weighty 

 problem, and ere we reached the loch on which, had we 

 been honest anglers, we should have been engaged, his 

 subtle intellect — he might have been a Jesuit — had 

 found a simple means of satisfying every disconcerting 

 query. Placing the fish in the net, he plunged them 

 beneath the water, and, with a smile, said : " It's not a 

 lie I will be telling them ; the troot have come oot o' 

 Loch-an-Leannan " ! 



In its application to the loch, the question, "What 

 is the proper fly?" is wholly superfluous. The angler 

 need not concern himself about the parochial limitations 

 of the trout's menu. He will find the fish in one loch 

 very much like those in another, similar in their tastes 

 and appreciating the same fare. He has no occasion 

 to burden himself with a great variety of flies ; they 

 are things of beauty and make a brave show in the 



