LOOSE STRANDS 185 



ments, and dash excitedly here and there as if eager to 

 utilize to the full, a passing opportunity of indulging in 

 the rare delight of a satisfying meal. 



I have never seen the rise I refer to better exempli- 

 fied than on the occasion of a recent visit to a little 

 West Coast loch. The hour was early morning of a 

 day in June. The wind was easterly, high and very 

 cold, and accompanied by frequent, heavy showers of 

 rain. The surface of the water seethed with feeding 

 fish. To what they were rising I could not see, but 

 since their reception of the artificial fly was as hearty 

 as that they bestowed upon the natural, it was obvious 

 that they were not exclusively particular in their choice 

 of food. But their manner of taking the former dif- 

 fered entirely from that in which they were rising to 

 the latter, and the difference was probably due to a 

 difference in the conditions under which the two objects 

 were presented to them. I have seen the same variety 

 of rise in quite other circumstances — during the fore- 

 noon and in brilliant sunshine. The only features 

 common to both occasions were a breeze of wind, and, 

 in consequence, a rough and broken water. When the 

 trout are noisily splashing on the surface, are they oc- 

 cupied with flies buffeted about by the tumbling waves, 

 and is their lively excitement caused, not only by the 

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