DRAGGING A LOCH 



enclosed space within the net, or dashing at the net itself, drag- 

 ging for a moment half the corks under water. The head man 

 of the crew, a little peppery Highlander, invariably got into a 

 state of the most savage excitement, which increased as the net 

 approached the shore ; and if any stoppage occurred from its 

 being caught by a root or stick, he actually danced with excite- 

 ment, hallooing and swearing in Gaelic at the net, the men, and 

 the fish, When all went on smoothly and well, he acted the 

 part of fugleman with no little dignity, perched in the bow of 

 the boat, and keeping the men in proper place and time as they 

 dragged in the net. We generally caught a great number of 

 trout and pike, some of very large size. By the time we had 

 killed all the fish, and arranged them in rows to admire their 

 beauty and size, the little captain (as the other men called him) 

 subsided into a good-humoured calm ; and having offered a 

 pinch of snuff to the gamekeeper, whom he generally fixed upon 

 in particular to shout at, in consequence of a kind of rivalry 

 between them, and also in consequence of his measuring some 

 head and shoulders higher than himself, he made a brief apology 

 for what he had said, winding it up by saying, " And after all, 

 that's no so bad, your Honour," as he pointed to some giant 

 trout ; he then would light a pipe, and having taken a few 

 whiffs, deliberately shove it alight into his waistcoat pocket, 

 and extracting a netting-needle and string, set to work, mend- 

 ing any hole that had been made in the net. This done, and 

 a dram of whisky having been passed round, the net was 

 arranged on the stern of the boat, and they rowed round the 

 \yooded promontory to the other creek, keeping time to their 

 oars with some wild Gaelic song, with a chorus in which they 

 all joined, and the sound of which, as it came over the water 

 of the lake, and died gradually away as they rounded the 

 headland, had a most peculiarly romantic effect.. 



Sometimes we did not commence our fishing till sunset, 

 choosing nights when the full moon gave us sufficient light for 

 the purpose. Our object in selecting this time was to catch 

 the larger pike, who during the day remained in the deep water, 

 coming in, at night to the shore, and to the mouths of the 

 burns which run into the lake, where they found small trout and 

 other food brought down by the streams. During the night- 

 time, a>lso, towards the beginning of autumn, we used, to catch 



