98 THE LAND OF A THOUSAND LOCHS. 



the angler is among the brawling hill streams of Scotland, or 

 on the expansive bosom of some Cumberland lake, while tiying 

 for a few delicious charr. A congregation of fish brought 

 together by means of a scatter of food and an angler's taking 

 advantage of the piscine convention over its diet of worms, is no 

 more angling than a battue is sport. An American that I have 

 heard of has a iish-manufactory in Connecticut, where he can 

 shovel the animals out by the hundred ; but then he does not 

 go in for sport; his idea — a thoroughly American one — is 

 money 1 But despite this exceedingly commercial idea, there 

 are a few anglers in America, and as water and game fishes 

 abound, there is plenty of sport. In North America are to be 

 found both the true salmon and the brook trout ; and as a great 

 number of the American fishes visit the fresh and salt water 

 alternately, they, by reason of their strength and size, afford 

 excellent employment either to the river or sea angler. One of 

 the best American fishes is called the Mackinaw salmon. 



To come back, in the meantime, to Scotland and the trout, 

 and where to find them, I may mention that that particular fish 

 is the stock in trade of the streams and lochs of Scotland, — 

 Scotland, the " land of the mountain and the flood," — and there 

 is an ever-abiding abundance of water, for the lochs and streams 

 of that country are numberless. One county alone (Sutherland, 

 to wit) contains a thousand lochs, and one parish in that county 

 has in it two hundred sheets of water, all abounding with fine 

 trout, affording sport to the angler — rewarding all who persevere 

 with full baskets. As I have already hinted, the fisher must 

 study his locality and glean advice from weU-informed residents. 

 The gipsies of a district can usually give capital advice as to 

 the kind of bait that wiU please best. Many a time have 

 anglers been seen flogging away at a stream or lake that was 

 troutless, or at their wit's end as to which of their flies would 

 please the dainty palate of my lord the resident trout. But I 

 ■shall not further dogmatise on such matters ; most people given 

 to angling are quite as wise, on that subject at least, as the 

 writer of these remarks ; and there are as fine trout in England, 

 I daresay, as there are in Scotland ; indeed there are a thousand 

 streams in Great Britain and Ireland where we can find fish — 

 there are splendid trout even in the Thames. Then there are 

 the Dove and the Severn, as well as rivers that are much 

 farther away, so that on his second day from London an active 

 angler may be whipping the Spey for salmon, or trolling on 



