104 ANGLING SKETCHES 



stuck to the fish, and got him into the watery 

 wood, and then he went where the lost trout go. 

 No more came on, so I floundered a j-ard or two 

 farther, and cHmbed into a wild-fowl's nest, a kind 

 of platform of matted reeds, all yello-\\- and faded. 

 The nest immediately sank down deep into the 

 -water, but it stopped somewhere, and I made a 

 cast. The black water boiled, and the trout went 

 straight down and sulked. I merel)- held on, till 

 at last it seemed ' time for us to go,' and by 

 cautious tugging I got him through the reedy 

 jungle, and ' gruppit him,' as the Shepherd would 

 have said. He was simply but decentl}' wrapped 

 round, from snout to tail, in very fine water-weeds, 

 as in a garment. Moreover, he was as black as 

 }-our hat, quite unlike the comely yellow trout who 

 live on the gravel in Clearburn. It hardh' seemed 

 sensible to get drowned in this gruesome kind of 

 angling, so, leaving the Lake of Darkness, we made 

 for Buccleugh, passing the cleugh where the buck 

 was ta'en. Surel}' it is the deepest, the steepest, 

 and the greenest cleugh that is shone on by the 

 sun ! Thereby we met an angler, an ancient man 



