8 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [cHap. 1. 
depths, were as distinctly seen in the lake as on the shore ; while 
here and there a trout rising at a fly dimpled the smooth water, 
and in my idle mood I watched the circles as they gradually 
widened and disappeared. The white gulls floated noiselessly by, 
as if afraid to disturb the stillness of the scene, instead of sa- 
luting their common enemy with loud cries. I had been for 
some time stretched on the ground enjoying the quiet heauty of 
the picture, till I had at last fallen into a half-sleeping, half- 
waking kind of dreaminess, when I was suddenly aroused by a 
Glasgow steamer passing within a hundred yards of me, full of 
holiday people, with fiddles and parasols conspicuous on the 
deck, while a stream of black sooty smoke showered its favours 
over me, and filled my mouth as I opened it to vent my ill 
temper in an anathema against steam-boats, country-dance tunes, 
and cockneys. , 
There have come in my way, during my rambles through the 
Highlands, many a fair and beauteous loch, placed like a bright 
jewel in the midst of the rugged mountains, far out of reach of 
steam and coach, accessible only to the walking traveller, or at 
most to a highland pony, where the only living creature to be 
seen is the silent otter playing its fantastic gambols in the quiet 
of the evening, or the stag as he comes to drink at the water’s 
edge or to crop the succulent grass which grows in the shallows. 
There are so many small lochs which are known but to few indi- 
viduals, but which are equally beautiful with those whose renown 
and larger size have made them the resort of numberless visitors, 
that it is difficult 10 single out any one as pre-eminent. In Inver- 
ness-shire there are many lovely lakes, and many an hour and day 
have I passed in fishing on some of these. There was one beautiful 
lake to which I used sometimes to take net and boat, as well as 
rod. It was a piece of water about four miles long, and one or 
two broad; at one end were two sandy bays, forming regular 
semicircles, with their beaches covered to a width of a fow feet 
with small pebbles. Between these two bays was a bold rocky 
promontory running into the lake, and covered with fine old 
pine trees. Along one side was a stretch of perhaps three miles 
of grey precipitous rocks nearly covered with birch and hazel, 
which hung over the water, casting a dark shade on it. The 
other end of the lake was contracted between the rocks till it 
