and the salmon cast murmurs hard by the Wizard’s grave.  They are all gone now, the old allies and tutors in the angler’s art—­the kind gardener who baited our hooks; the good Scotch judge who gave us our first collection of flies; the friend who took us with him on his salmon-fishing expedition, and made men of us with real rods, and “pirns” of ancient make.  The companions of those times are scattered, and live under strange stars and in converse seasons, by troutless waters.  It is no longer the height of pleasure to be half-drowned in Tweed, or lost on the hills with no luncheon in the basket.  But, except for scarcity of fish, the scene is very little altered, and one is a boy again, in heart, beneath the elms of Yair, or by the Gullets at Ashiesteil.  However bad the sport, it keeps you young, or makes you young again, and you need not follow Ponce de Leon to the western wilderness, when, in any river you knew of yore, you can find the Fountain of Youth.

LOCH AWE

THE BOATMAN’S YARNS

Good trout-fishing in Scotland, south of the Pentland Firth, is almost impossible to procure.  There are better fish, and more of them, in the Wandle, within twenty minutes of Victoria Station, than in any equal stretch of any Scotch river with which I am acquainted.  But the pleasure of angling, luckily, does not consist merely of the catching of fish.  The Wandle is rather too suburban for some tastes, which prefer smaller trout, better air, and wilder scenery.  To such spirits, Loch Awe may, with certain distinct cautions, be recommended.  There is more chance for anglers, now, in Scotch lochs than in most Scotch rivers.  The lochs cannot so easily be netted, lined, polluted, and otherwise made empty and ugly, like the Border streams.  They are farther off from towns and tourists, though distance is scarcely a complete protection.  The best lochs for yellow trout are decidedly those of Sutherland.  There are no railways, and there are two hundred lochs and more in the Parish of Assynt.  There, in June, the angler who is a good pedestrian may actually enjoy solitude, sometimes.  There is a loch near Strathnaver, and far from human habitations, where a friend of my own recently caught sixty-five trout weighing about thirty-eight pounds.  They are numerous and plucky, but not large, though a casual big loch-trout may be taken by trolling.  But it is truly a far way to this anonymous lake and all round the regular fishing inns, like Inchnadampf and Forsinard there is usually quite a little crowd of anglers.  The sport is advertised in the newspapers; more and more of our eager fellow-creatures are attracted, more and more the shooting tenants are preserving waters that used to be open.  The distance to Sutherland makes that county almost beyond the range of a brief holiday.  Loch Leven is nearer, and at Loch Leven the scenery is better than its reputation, while the trout are excellent, though shy.  But Loch Leven is too much cockneyfied by angling competitions; moreover, its pleasures are expensive.  Loch Awe remains, a loch at once large, lovely, not too distant, and not destitute of sport.