LOOSE STRANDS 199 



No altruistic sentiment affects their intercourse ; 

 their philosophy is a frank Egoism. Self-interest, 

 naked and unashamed, is the law of the water. In the 

 struggle for place each, like Hal o' the Wynd, fights 

 for his own hand, and he yields to nothing save superior 

 force. The most powerful among them seizes the posi- 

 tion which gives him easiest access to the means of life, 

 and he defends it jealously against intrusion. He 

 tolerates no interference with his privileges. Of the 

 food borne on the stream he seizes all he can, and 

 leaves to others only what he fails to intercept ; if any- 

 thing escapes him it is because there is a limit to his 

 capacity for action, and, possibly, also to his appetite. 

 Behind him the smaller fish are ranged in order of size, 

 all as impatient as he of encroachment on the rights 

 they have usurped. Each is waiting a chance of pro- 

 motion, and when a vacancy occurs it is filled at once 

 by the next in succession. No delicate scruples deter 

 them from the empty seat ; before it has had time to 

 cool it is in the possession of a new tenant. Should 

 the angler kill a fish to-day, he will to-morrow find its 

 place in the possession of another. 



The loch yields fewer opportunities than the river 

 for the study of the habits of the trout. The fish are 

 not within sight, and what knowledge of the subject we 



