100 LOCH AWE TEOTJT. 



robed by nature for the fetes of summer, and, despite the sneers 

 of some poets and naturalists, is new and charming in the high- 

 est degree. Town living people should visit the country in 

 May, and see and feel its industry, pastoral and simple as it is, 

 and at the samcf time view the charms of its scenery in aU its 

 vivid freshness and fragrance. 



Some anglers delight in pike-catching, others try for perch ; 

 but give me the trout, of which there is a large variety, and all 

 worth catching. In Loch Awe, for instance, there is the great 

 lake trout, which, combined with the beauty of the scenery, 

 has sufficed to draw to that neighbourhood some of our best 

 anglers. The trout of Loch Awe, as is well known, are very 

 ferocious, hence their scientific name of Sahno ferox. It attains 

 to great dimensions ; individuals weighing twenty pounds have 

 been often captured j but its flavour is indifferent and the flesh 

 is coarse, and not prepossessing in colour. This kind of trout 

 is found in nearly all the large and deep lochs of Scotland. It 

 was discovered scientifically about the end of last century by a 

 Glasgow merchant, who was fond of sending samples of it to his 

 friends in proof of his prowess as an angler. The usual way 

 of taking the great lake trout is to engage a boat to fish froln, 

 which must be rowed gently through the water. The best bait 

 is a small trout, with at least half-ardozen strong hooks pro- 

 jecting from it, and the tackle requires to be prodigiously strong, 

 as the fish is a most powerful one, although not quite so active 

 as some others of the trout kind, but it roves about in the 

 deeper watersji enacting the part of bully and cannibal to all 

 lesser creatures, and driving before it even the hungry pike. 

 Persons residing near the great lochs'^capture these large trout by 

 setting night lines for them. As has been abeady mentioned, 

 they are exceedingly voracious, and have been known to be 

 dragged for long distances, and even after losing hold of the 

 bait to seize it again with much eagerness, and so have been 

 finally captured. These great lake trout are also to be found 

 in other countries. 



In Lochleven, at Kinross, twenty-two mUes from Edin- 

 burgh, there will be found localised that beautiful trout which 

 is peculiar to this one loch, and which I have already referred 

 to as one of the mysterious fishes of Scotland. This fish — 

 although 'its quality is said to have been degenerated by the 

 drainage of the lake in 18.30, at which period, it was reduced 

 by draining to a third of its former dimensions — is of con- 



