SEA TROUT 149 



shallow pebbly bottom of the upland streamlet in 

 which he found himself. He had to all appearance 

 no knowledge of the sea even of that kind which 

 creatures are said to have in dreams, and he would 

 choke and die if placed in salt water. But the time 

 came when he Hved in another world. The lust of 

 life came upon him and he travelled. Now when the 

 angler meets him he is back from the unknown with 

 the grey and silver livery of the sea upon him, a 

 salmon, or all but a salmon, in appearance. Large 

 he has grown, plump and strong and full of the fight 

 of Ufe. Very different must have been the fare upon 

 which he lived in the sea from that which his 

 mountain eddy provided, yet here he is now return- 

 ing to meet his mate in the mountain burn and with 

 all the old Ufe being slowly reimposed as it were 

 upon him. 



It is one of the most interesting of life-studies how 

 it can all possibly happen. Here, for instance, when 

 the skilful boatman drifts before the wind, there is a 

 long reach of particular bottom. Elsewhere the 

 waters of the loch may be deep, but here the point 

 is that they range from a few fathoms to a couple of 

 feet, and that the ground is pebbly or stony. It is 

 the kind of bottom which produces feeding which 

 reminds the returning trout of his early haunts. He 

 thinks again of the larvae of water-flies and water- 

 beetles. He rises after the winged and perfect 

 creatures almost as soon as he has left the sea. 

 Swish ! he rushes upwards like a streak of silver to 

 your own teal and yellow monstrosity, " coming 

 short," as the sea trout so often does. In a little 

 time niore these same fish will be back in mountain 

 streams, where there is water scarcely deep enough 



