74 ANGLING SKETCHES 



quarters of a pound ; but we never succeeded in 

 landing any of the really big ones. 



A local angler told me he had caught one of 

 two pounds, and lost another ' like a young grilse,' 

 after he had drawn it on to the bank. I can 

 easily believe it, for in no loch, but one, have 1 ever 

 seen so many really big and handsome fish feeding. 

 Loch Beg is within a mile of a larger and famous 

 loch, but it is infinitely better, though the other 

 looks much more favourable in all ways for sport. 

 The only place where fishing is easy, as I have 

 said, is a mere strip of coast under the hill, where 

 there is some gravel, and the mouth of a very tiny 

 feeder, usually dry. Off this place the trout rose 

 freely, but not near so freely as in a certain corner, 

 quite out of reach without a boat, where the 

 leviathans lived and sported. 



After the little expanse of open shore had 

 been fished over a few times, the trout there seemed 

 to grow more shy, and there was a certain 

 monotony in walking this tiny quarter-deck of 

 space. So I went round to the west side, where 

 the water-lilies are. Fish were rising about three 



