156 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



is rare to find the fickle goddess so unremittingly at- 

 tentive, his explanation does not altogether satisfy our 

 reason. I had once the pleasure of spending a day 

 in his society and of studying his methods, in which 

 there seemed to me nothing strikingly original. There 

 were eight anglers on the loch, and all were equally 

 affected by the weather, which could scarcely have been 

 less propitious. It blew hard, and nicety in casting was 

 not required ; even the splash of a clumsily thrown 

 salmon-fly would have passed unperceived in the tur- 

 moil of waters. My friend began fishing with the 

 others and left the loch when they did, yet his creel 

 contained exactly the same number of fish as all the 

 rest together. 



The popular opinion that the loch is a democracy 

 in which all men are equal, is erroneous. It may, 

 however, be true enough that the adept is no better 

 than the tyro ; as the race is not to the swift nor the 

 battle to the strong, so success in loch-fishing is not 

 to the skilful. In angling, as in other things, success 

 is the reward of diligence. It is the persevering fisher 

 whose basket is heaviest at the end of the day. If 

 fortune is to be won, it must be wooed ; it will not 

 come unsought. The successful angler is not easily 

 discouraged. He does not, when trout are coy, lay 



