AS A FISHING GILLIE 359 



estate. All over Scotland there are lochs and streams 

 containing far too many trout, and others again with few 

 or none. To remedy these defects is, to the intelligent 

 gillie, a most interesting and fascinating work and a 

 source of pleasure and profit to his employer. How 

 pleasant to tell your master you introduced forty or fifty 

 small trout into a small lake of his not more than two 

 acres in extent four years previously, and now he can see 

 them for himself rising of a summer evening like minia- 

 ture salmon. Excitement takes possession of him and 

 he is not content until an opportunity presents itself of 

 his casting over them. Then, O what joy, when a 

 dozen lusty fellows from 3 to 5 Ib. grace his basket ! 

 The puny little loch once his pet aversion, now a joy 

 to all, and none more so, than to the gillie who had 

 taken the trouble to stock it. 



The gillie must not, however, lose sight of the fact 

 that where there is no spawning ground he cannot 

 expect to maintain a stock unless he keeps on making 

 up the numbers by introducing others. If none be 

 added to make up the deficiency, in a short space of 

 time most will have disappeared, as the life of a trout 

 does not exceed more than from seven to eight years. 



When trout are introduced into a loch for the first 

 time, the feeding is generally so rich that they grow 

 very rapidly. Most lochs, if not too deep, can sustain 

 from 100 to 200 trout per acre, so that when only 

 20 to the acre are introduced they have more than 

 sufficient food and quickly increase in size. 



