GAFFING. 99 



a dish of potatoes a wild delirium. But there was nothing for 

 it, so we put on whatever extra in the way of garments we had 

 in our knapsacks and turned in fasting. What my friend's 

 dreams were about I cannot say, but mine ran on lakes teem- 

 mg with fat luscious trout which came up to be caught of their 

 own accord, and then, to save trouble, jumped spontaneously 

 into the frying pan. Assuredly these visions must have been 

 prophetic ; for though we fondly imagined we had camped on a 

 plateau of bare and unbroken moorland, when morning dawned 

 the scene had been transformed as by magic, 



'And on a sudden, lo ! the level lake, 

 And the long glories ' of the rising sun ! 



The sight of water — and water doubtless containing trout 

 — gave, as Ingoldsby says, ' a new turn to the whole affair.' 

 I fortunately had my fly rod with me, so I left my friend to 

 make a fire as best he could and 



. . . stepping down 

 By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock 

 Came on the shining levels of the lake. 



Without stopping, like the bold Sir Bcdivere, till * both my 

 eyes were dazzled,' I soon put together my rod and adjusted a 

 cast of flies. Never before did I fish with such energy ; never 

 did I watch for a rise with such breathless attention ! The 

 first fish I hooked was a mere ' troutling ' — little bigger than a 

 gudgeon — who would at other times have been incontinently 

 returned to the water ; but circumstances being as they were I 

 played and landed him and deposited him on the bank with as 

 much care as if he had been a five-pounder. He was two 

 mouthfuls at any rate. A friendly breeze, however, shortly 

 afterwards sprang up, and with the ' long rii)ple washing in the 

 reeds ' a satisfactory repast was soon provided. ... 



Later on we discovered a farmhouse hard by the lake 

 shore, and finding that the trout fishing in the Laggan and 

 neighbouring Spean-water was excellent — we arranged to put 

 up for a week with its hospitable inmates, and enjoyed really 



