To Mountain Tarn 



along the border. They pass Dryburgh, where 

 Scott sleeps, and Abbotsford, where he lived. 

 The course narrows : as streams are left behind 

 the volume is so much less. Nowhere may they 

 follow the retreating banks, to dash out into the 

 expanse and freedom of a loch. They are in a 

 pent way from which is no escape. There is a 

 want of freshening. A life within such cramped 

 outlines saps the vigour. Herein may lie one 

 cause of disease. 



For the trout which may not go to sea is 

 no change of condition, save from one pool or 

 current to another. Monotony is in their annual 

 round. They may not get out of the river, or, 

 as we would say, the rut, for a change of water 

 or diet. There is a lack of the variety found in 

 the life of their kindred, where loch is strung to 

 loch on liquid cords. Lochs mould, feed to 

 greater size, shape on their own model. Enter 

 within and adapt the organs to receive the food 

 they offer. Tint also, stain the flesh pink or red, 

 using for a dye the dull molluscs that crawl up 

 the sluggish sedges, or the crustaceans, which 

 dart hither and thither. 



For as many lochs there are as many differ- 

 ences in the life forms ; not very great sometimes, 

 but visible enough. Three lochs strung on to 

 one stream may differ in the changes they work. 

 The trout, which have sojourned there for a while, 

 return from their holiday to the current and the 



I2 5 



