Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 EAMBLES WITH A FISHING-BOD
 
 KAMBLES 
 WITH A FISHING-KOD 
 
 BY 
 
 E. S. EOSCOE 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBUEGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIII 
 
 All Rights reserved
 
 PEE FACE. 
 
 THE following sketches are the results of some 
 vacations chiefly spent in rambling about the 
 Continent with a fishing-rod. Written on 
 leisure evenings on the spot, they can pretend 
 to have little literary merit, and will doubtless 
 appear trivial to the serious traveller in search 
 of information. Indeed I should scarcely have 
 thought of republishing this selection from des- 
 ultory work done in hours of idleness, had I 
 not often been asked by friends and others 
 for hints upon fishing expeditions. Nor am 
 I certain that the angler who stays at home 
 may not find something in these pages to in- 
 terest him. I have even a faint hope, judging 
 from what people tell me at dinner-parties, 
 
 1C99353
 
 vi Preface. 
 
 that there are some unconscientious readers 
 without the moral courage to undertake the 
 perusal of the tremendous volumes in which 
 modern travellers are wont to tell us their 
 experiences not always of unknown lands 
 who may read a little book like this when they 
 are tired. 
 
 I can safely say that the actual sport obtained 
 during the tours I tell of was less than a fisher- 
 man who intended to get as large baskets as 
 possible would meet with. For these expedi- 
 tions were not undertaken with the business- 
 like and earnest energy with which we go 
 fishing in this country, if we make it the 
 chief object of a holiday, be it of a day or of 
 a month.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. AN AUTUMN RAMBLE IN THE SALZKAM- 
 
 MERGUT AND TYROL, ... 1 
 
 II. PIKE-FISHING IN THE BLACK FOREST, . 20 
 
 III. IN CONNEMARA, . . . . .35 
 
 IV. FLY-FISHING IN THE BAVARIAN HIGH- 
 
 LANDS, ...... 56 
 
 V. A SPRING RAMBLE IN NORMANDY, . . 76 
 
 VI. A WEEK AT A GERMAN CASTLE, . . 93 
 
 VII. A DIARY AT DAVOS, . . . .104 
 
 VIII. THE PROFESSIONAL FISHERMAN OF THE 
 
 EASTERN ALPS, . . . .116 
 
 IX. ON FISHING TOURS ABROAD, . . .123 
 
 X. SEA-TROUT FISHING, . . . .137 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE CLOCKMAKERS OF THE SCHWARZ- 
 
 WALD, 145
 
 EAMBLES WITH A FISHING-BOD, 
 
 i. 
 
 1 AN AUTUMN EAMBLE IN THE SALZ- 
 KAMMEEGUT AND TYKOL.' 
 
 A PLEASANT and striking sail of fifty miles 
 ** down the Danube from Passau brings a 
 traveller to Linz, a hot and dusty town, from 
 whence it is easy to find the way to the moun- 
 tains of the Salzkammergut by Gmunden and 
 the Traun See. This lake contains plenty of 
 fish trout, pike, and char. The last is the 
 kind which seems most prized, but one hears of 
 very large trout being taken from time to time 
 in the nets. Throughout its length of eight 
 1 1873. 
 A
 
 2 Rambles with a Fisking-Rod. 
 
 miles it is a characteristic piece of Tyrolese 
 scenery, for there are the limestone mountains 
 with their grey summits and dark pine-covered 
 slopes, which on calm bright days are reflected 
 in the placid lake. Gmunden is a bright and 
 pretty town, with a good deal of local colour 
 from the whiteness of the houses and the red- 
 ness of their tiled roofs ; but half-way down the 
 lake is a more lovely spot, Traunkirchen, which 
 would be a charming place from which to fish 
 the Traun See. At the upper end of the lake 
 the Traun flows in, and then, by taking the 
 road for twelve miles, you follow the course of 
 the stream to Ischl, through a deep valley magni- 
 ficently clothed with wood, made more attractive 
 to the fisherman by the pretty stream which is 
 continually in sight, the sides of which are, ex- 
 cept here and there, fairly free from trees. 
 
 At Ischl it is or was possible to obtain leave 
 to fish the Traun by paying two florins for a 
 card which allowed one person eight days' 
 angling ; and as the water is rented by the pro- 
 prietor of the Kaiserin Elizabeth Hotel, the 
 permission had to be obtained there. But the 
 amount of angling which I had was very small. 
 We reached Ischl late in the afternoon, and I
 
 Ramble in the Salzkammergiit and Tyrol. 3 
 
 had hardly more than what can be called a look 
 at the water before dinner. Indeed I had only 
 risen a couple of fish when a dam in a mill- 
 stream was opened, which poured forth a quan- 
 tity of muddy water, and at once put an end to 
 any sport for that day. The trout-fishing was, 
 from what could be gathered about it, fair in 
 the spring, especially in May and in the 
 autumn there is the grayling in season ; and to 
 any fisherman who takes a pleasure in his art, 
 the Traun must always have a kind of literary 
 interest, from being the stream by whose banks 
 so much of the delightful chat in ' Salmonia ' 
 is supposed to take place. Still Ischl is too 
 full to be pleasant, and rather expensive, though 
 if you live in a place frequented by an imperial 
 court you cannot expect to pay peasants' prices ; 
 and being low in a valley, it has not the moun- 
 tain freshness of a more open spot. From Ischl 
 the Traun may be followed to the lake of Hall- 
 stadt. The fishing on this part, which is called 
 the Hinter Traun, belongs to the same tenant 
 as that below Ischl, but is generally considered 
 the best piece of water. Then above this lake 
 comes another stream, the Ober Traun, which 
 descends from Aussee, and is in the hands of
 
 4 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 the landlord of Seeauers Hotel at Hallstadt; 
 but except for the last two miles there is next 
 to no fishing, for the river runs between tre- 
 mendous precipices of limestone rock, the Par- 
 stein descending hundreds of feet to the right 
 bank of the river. It would not, however, be 
 easy to find a finer walk than that above this 
 turbulent stream; still, it is rather an expedition 
 for the pedestrian than the angler. 
 
 It would be out of place to describe our walk 
 across the mountains from Ischl to the hamlet 
 of Alt-Aussee : the character of such a path is 
 familiar to any one who has passed his holidays 
 in the Alps. But intending it to be an easy 
 beginning to our mountain scramble, we lost 
 our way, got utterly out of our reckoning in 
 the thick mist which came down upon us, and 
 had about two hours' extra walking of a rough 
 and fatiguing kind, made more troublesome by 
 having to carry a knapsack and a fishing-rod. 
 An incident of the walk was not without a 
 strange interest. Near its end we met a fish- 
 erman just about to begin in a small stream. 
 He was fishing with a minnow : an ordinary 
 double hook appeared from the body near the 
 tail, and the head was half hidden by a bell-
 
 Ramble in the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 5 
 
 shaped piece of lead, through which the gut 
 ran and thus connected the hook with the line. 
 Forty -seven years ago the same tackle was 
 used, for Sir Humphry Davy almost on this 
 very spot was struck by it. " A fisherman of 
 Aussee went with me," he writes in his diary. 
 " His flies had a hair link, too coarse ; his mode 
 of fishing with a minnow curious, and not bad, 
 had his tackle been finer a loop of lead, two 
 hooks ; the lead supplies the head, so that it is 
 the drop minnow reversed. He caught two 
 fish to my ten." A rude sketch in the margin 
 of the book can leave no doubt of the similarity 
 of the tackles. So little do the methods of 
 angling improve among these mountaineers. 
 
 Very glad we were to find ourselves at length 
 at the Hotel Am See, which is within a stone's 
 throw of the water, as its name implies. The 
 Aussee is about a mile and a half long, and 
 half a mile in breadth, is surrounded by moun- 
 tains, and is quite 2000 feet above the sea. At 
 the north end the mountains retreat, and a 
 green slope, dotted here and there with trees, 
 touches the water of the lake, whilst to the 
 south the contrast is striking. Here the Aussee 
 is bounded by a magnificent amphitheatre of
 
 6 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 rock, and the Loser and the Lammersberg seein 
 to have divided to let in this little sheet of 
 water. As regards facilities for fishing it, the 
 proprietor of the hotel I have mentioned can 
 give permission to angle ; and if a boat is re- 
 quired, one which will hold two persons costs 
 fifty kreutzers an hour that is, about sixpence ; 
 and one which will hold four persons is charged 
 for according to the number of those who use it, 
 at the rate of thirty kreutzers a-head. In spite 
 of the fatigue of the previous day, we were early 
 out of bed, and by half-past eight were in a 
 boat on the lake. It was as smooth as glass, 
 reflecting the mountains which overhung it, 
 and the air was invigorating and fresh, as it 
 is on a fine morning in the mountains. We 
 were assured that no one takes fish mit der 
 angel, chiefly, I imagine, because no one ever 
 tries. However, we were determined to make 
 the experiment, unfavourable though the morn- 
 ing was, and I soon had a phantom minnow 
 out, and set my companion to scull leisurely 
 along where the shallows were joined by the 
 deeper water. In less than ten minutes, I 
 confess rather to our surprise, we had hooked 
 a fish, and he was presently landed, somewhat
 
 Ramble in the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 7 
 
 over a pound in weight. Another run soon 
 followed, though nothing was added to the 
 basket ; but it did not take long to secure 
 a second, a little smaller than his companion. 
 To make a long story short, we had several 
 more runs, but obtained only one more addi- 
 tion to our basket a nice fish, nearly a pound 
 and a half in weight ; and so returned, after a 
 couple of hours on the lake, with these three. 
 The fish we had taken were corregoni, but 
 which variety of this still little-known species 
 I cannot say. They were called at the inn 
 alien, but these local names tend rather to con- 
 fuse than to enlighten a traveller. The notice- 
 able fact, however, about this take was, that as 
 a rule it is popularly supposed that the corre- 
 goni are only to be caught with nets, and not 
 by angling ; but the rapidity with which they 
 came to the minnow seems to show that the 
 species which inhabit Aussee are by no means 
 shy fish, or disinclined to take a bait. It 
 would have been interesting to have spent 
 more time on this lake, and to have obtained 
 more definite conclusions from a longer period 
 of fishing than we did in this wander through 
 the Salzkammergut.
 
 8 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 I may pass over a nearly unsuccessful after- 
 noon's fly-fishing in the upper part of the 
 Gosau Bach, a tributary of the Hallstadter See, 
 which has its rise in the two blue Gosau lakes, 
 which in their turn are fed by the great Dach- 
 stein Glacier. Nor was better luck in store 
 when we reached Bad Gastein, after several 
 days' fine mountain walking. Permission to 
 fish was duly obtained at Straubinger's hotel, 
 but a morning was spent quite fruitlessly. 
 Nearer the junction of the Gastein stream with 
 the Salzach, in the more open part of the valley, 
 would probably be a better spot than so far in 
 the heart of the Hohe Tauern range as Bad 
 Gastein lies. But throughout its course, from 
 its rise among the glaciers of the Venediger 
 Alps to where it pours its grey waters into the 
 Inn at the edge of the Bavarian plains, the 
 Salzach is nourished by tributaries which, in 
 some part of their rapid course, will be found 
 to contain trout small or great. It is one of 
 the chief attractions of the district which goes 
 roughly under the name of the Tyrol, the 
 Salzkammergut, and the Bavarian Alps, that 
 t is so intersected by mountain-streams, by 
 stately rivers, and by sheets of water from
 
 Ramble in the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 9 
 
 mountain-tarns, like the Gosau See, to navig- 
 able waters, like the Lake of Gmunden. They 
 all add to the charms and variety of the scenery, 
 and they all afford more or less amusement to 
 the traveller who would fish from time to time. 
 At Heiligenblut the rod was quite laid aside 
 for the alpenstock; and at last to descend 
 from the snows of the Gross Glockner and the 
 ice-fields of the Pasterze Glacier to the glowing 
 valley and rich vineyards of Botzen and Meran, 
 was one of those changes which make up the 
 pleasures of travelling. The richness of the 
 valley of the Adige is such that to English 
 eyes it has something almost of unreality. 
 Take one step from the roadside, and you 
 may walk for miles beneath canopies of vines, 
 from which the ripe grapes are hanging ; and 
 these, with the variety and colouring of the 
 peasants' dresses, and the distant peaks of the 
 dolomite mountains, broken into sharp and 
 jutting points, create a scene of great fertility 
 and beauty. But my stay in this rich land was 
 short. Fifteen miles of dusty road, and Meran 
 is reached, lying completely underneath the 
 mountains, and greatly frequented in the 
 autumn by delicate persons, who sun them-
 
 io Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 selves, and imagine that they have found a 
 panacea for their complaints in the very pleas- 
 ant "grape cure" about as harmless a system, 
 if moderately indulged in, as the " whey cure," 
 and if anything more agreeable. From Meran 
 through the Vintsgau and valley of the Upper 
 Adige, or Etsch, runs one of the trunk-roads 
 which connect Italy and Germany. Thirty- 
 five miles from Meran comes the small town 
 of Mais. Here the Trafoi Thai branches off 
 to the west, and the traveller passes through 
 it over the Stelvio Pass to the Baths of Bormio, 
 and on to the Lake of Como. Still another 
 seven miles, and the highest part of this long 
 valley is attained, and here is the little village 
 of St Valentin auf der Haid, or, more properly, 
 der Heide the village on the heath. 
 
 A stage further is the village of Nauders, on 
 the river Inn ; one road proceeds up the valley 
 to the Engadine, another down the valley to 
 Innsbruck, which again "bifurcates," as the 
 French say, at Landeck, and forms one route 
 to the Lake of Constance. At the top of this 
 valley lie three small lakes ; that nearest Mais 
 is known as the Haid See. On its banks is St 
 Valentin, then comes the smaller Mitter See,
 
 Ramble in tlie Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 1 1 
 
 and next the dark Reschen See, in which the 
 Adige rises ; at its upper end are the white 
 houses of Dorf Reschen. Most travellers pass 
 these lakes by without much notice, intent 
 only at gazing at the Ortler Spitz as it rises 
 high above all the other mountains. But years 
 ago I had observed a little Gasthaus zur For- 
 elle, and could not now leave these lakes with- 
 out a short stay. The inn at St Valentin is the 
 Gasthaus zum Weissen Kreuz, where I found 
 myself about nine o'clock on a cold and cloudy 
 morning, which made the place look somewhat 
 dreary and desolate. The little lake was ruffled 
 by a good breeze, so I lost no time in putting 
 rny rod together, and was soon at the water's 
 edge. But for an hour I fished without suc- 
 cess; and then, having noticed that the river 
 entered the lake a field or two off, hoped for 
 better luck about the gravel banks at the mouth 
 of the stream. I was not disappointed ; a fine 
 grayling was soon hooked and landed, a good 
 pound in weight, after much anxiety of mind, 
 for, travelling with as little luggage as possible, 
 I had come without a landing -net, and the 
 banks were somewhat steep. Very soon there 
 was another rise ; and before an hour was gone,
 
 12 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod, 
 
 I was the possessor of three handsome grayling. 
 Then the sun came out, and the wind went 
 down, and the clouds cleared away, and there 
 was an end of the fishing. But there was still 
 the magnificent Ortler Spitz to gaze at. In 
 the foreground was the sparkling lake, then 
 came darkly wooded hills, and last of all the 
 white mass of the Ortler towering above Monte 
 Oistallo and the peaks of the snowy range. 
 It is one of the finest views I know, and is best 
 seen from the doorstep of the Weissen Kreuz ; 
 it is quite equal in all respects, except that of 
 gracefulness, to the Jungfrau or Gross Glock- 
 ner, and should be some consolation to the un- 
 successful fisherman who cares at all for beauti- 
 ful scenery. 
 
 After dinner a visit was paid to the Fischmeis- 
 ter, or fisherman, who rents the lake and river as 
 far as the Mitter See, Carl Stocker by name, 
 a thoroughly obliging man, who was ready to 
 give all the information he could. He and the 
 others who rent the other lakes send their fish 
 to Botzen, Meran, or Innsbruck, and obtain for 
 grayling and trout twenty-five kreutzers (six- 
 pence) per pound ; so, when the expense of the 
 journey and the innkeepers' profits are taken
 
 Ramble in the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 1 3 
 
 into consideration, it is no wonder that the 
 innocent foreigner, who imagines he is eating a 
 cheap dish, finds, when he gets the bill, that he 
 has been indulging in a luxury. This same 
 amount per pound the angler might perhaps be 
 required to pay for all the fish he takes ; but, 
 as a matter of fact, a gulden when he leaves is 
 all the fisherman expects. Indeed he would not 
 take any money at all from me, but begged to 
 have two or three of my flies, with which he 
 was quite captivated. He made his own flies, 
 and rough specimens they were, not very vari- 
 ous though that matters little ; but they were 
 very rude, chiefly things which had a distant 
 resemblance to large red palmers the body a 
 piece of red wool, and the hackle long and strag- 
 gling, of a light-brown colour. Having soon got 
 on friendly terms with this man, I was able to 
 borrow his curious old boat, but it leaked like a 
 sieve, and from its peculiar build persisted in 
 turning round and round; so it soon became 
 apparent that it was hopeless to look after both 
 the trolling-line and the boat. A better amuse- 
 ment seemed to be to accompany the fisherman 
 in a netting expedition up the stream. He 
 used a triangular net on a long pole, which he
 
 14 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 scraped along the bottom, and round stones 
 and into holes. Soon he had a nice grayling, 
 and then, to my horror, a fine trout became a 
 victim a beautiful fish, which one longed to 
 have at the end of the line. But I was almost 
 glad he took no more while I remained with 
 him not very long, however, for it began to 
 grow dark, and visions of broiled grayling for 
 supper, and an appetite excited by mountain 
 air, made a return to the inn necessary. 
 
 Next morning a cloudless blue sky greeted me 
 on rising, but I was soon off to the head of the 
 Mitter See, half an hour's walk beneath some 
 rugged mountains, which surround the lakes 
 on all sides. It was a likely place for grayling, 
 as a stream entered here, and there were plenty 
 of gravel banks, but there was no wind, and 
 the sun at nine o'clock was very hot; so I 
 turned to the main river, the very first part of 
 the Adige as it flows between the Mitter and 
 Eeschen Sees. To my delight, after all the 
 torrents I had lately seen, it proved to be a 
 narrow but bright clear stream, with a gravel 
 bottom, large clumps of weeds, and some splen- 
 did pools, high banks flowing through meadow- 
 land, in which herds of pretty fawn-coloured
 
 Ramble in tJie Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 1 5 
 
 cows, belonging to the neighbouring hamlet of 
 Graun, with tinkling bells, were feeding. But 
 it was low and clear ; I scarcely hoped for 
 sport ; but to overcome difficulties is not the 
 least of an angler's pleasures. Then my rod 
 came to grief ; it had to be temporarily patched 
 up, and the sun grew hotter. But with a lit- 
 tle blue dun fly and fine casting-line, and a 
 good deal of manoeuvring about the banks, I 
 was not yet without hopes of sport. Soon a 
 nice fish came up, looked at the fly, and went 
 off again ; then a little fellow inspected it ; 
 and at last came one with a rush, and the blue 
 dun had not been in vain. The banks were 
 very high, and there was some difficulty in 
 bringing safely out of the water a grayling 
 of three-quarters of a pound. Another com- 
 pleted the morning's total ; but I lost quite 
 deservedly, for he was treated too roughly a 
 fine fish, in the best pool in the stream ; and 
 another or two ought perhaps to have been 
 taken, but catching soft-mouthed fish like gray- 
 ling with very small flies is delicate sport. 
 The heat at last grew too much for me, and I 
 stopped fishing shortly before twelve o'clock. 
 In the afternoon I borrowed both the old boat
 
 1 6 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 and the fisherman's son, and took a minnow all 
 round the lake, but without any success. But 
 some fishing .when the sun went behind the 
 mountains, about the mouth of the stream, 
 added four more grayling to my day's basket. 
 The artist or the tourist would have sighed 
 for such a brilliant day, but the fisherman 
 would have done better with a sky of less 
 Italian clearness and splendour. 
 
 Next morning, I determined to have a real 
 good day, fishing up the stream to Graun. By 
 the way, I ought to say that there are two inns 
 at the village of Eeschen, and two boats at the 
 lake, so a change of quarters from St Valentin 
 is easy. I intended to dine there, and go over 
 the same water when the sun went down. At 
 eight o'clock operations were begun with a 
 small whirling dun. There was a pleasant 
 north wind blowing, which tempered the sun's 
 rays and ruffled the water on the pools, and 
 some clouds at the end of the valley seemed to 
 portend a good day's sport. It would be tedi- 
 ous to a reader to relate each little circumstance 
 of the morning. Soon the clouds gathered and 
 the rain fell in heavy showers. The grayling 
 were hungry ; by half-past eleven my bag con-
 
 Ramble in the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 1 7 
 
 tained a dozen. One o'clock came : I was wet 
 and hungry, and not inclined to go on with the 
 fishing ; so I took down my rod and returned 
 to St Valentin with a dozen and a half of gray- 
 ling, some strung schoolboy-fashion on a stick, 
 for my bag was but small. The "Englischer 
 Herr," as he passed through the village, created 
 quite a sensation among the unsporting peas- 
 ants. A few ounces over 10 Ib. weight of fish 
 had been taken, the largest being rather more 
 than If Ib., the smallest \ Ib. Several more 
 would have come to hand with the aid of a 
 landing-net, others escaped from various causes ; 
 but on the whole, it was a pleasant morning's 
 sport. 
 
 The stream, after half a mile, divides into 
 two branches, each of which is excellent 
 ground ; it then reunites again opposite the 
 village of Graun. There is scarcely a tree 
 upon the banks, though here and there a soli- 
 tary willow dots the plain. Fishermen, like 
 everybody else, must live : and I can honestly 
 say that the Weissen Kreuz, though rough to 
 look at, affords excellent quarters ; and that 
 were every landlady as kind and attentive as 
 Frau Paldorf, inns would become almost homes. 
 B
 
 1 8 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 But one trait of the Tyrolese, which every 
 traveller will vouch for, is their unvarying 
 kindness to strangers ; it is a pleasure to wan- 
 der among so happy and good-hearted a people. 
 St Valentin stands 4000 feet above the sea- 
 level. To the east are the snow mountains 
 and wild valleys of the Oetzthal Alps, which 
 can be easily reached. The Langtauferen Thai 
 from Grauns leads right under the snow-capped 
 Weisse Kugel. Around the hamlet is the heath, 
 cultivated entirely in square chessboard-looking 
 patches of hay, grass, or corn ; then pine-trees, 
 and then the rocky peaks. In May and June, 
 which is the only time of the year when the 
 Fischmeister uses a fly, the fisherman will get 
 some trout. My sport shows that grayling may 
 be caught in September. The largest fish taken 
 in the lake with the net this year was said to 
 be 9 Ib. As to the number of anglers, you fish 
 for days and weeks, and are alone. Within 
 mortal memory this place appears to have been 
 visited only by two, a gentleman from Vienna 
 and an English captain ; so the fish are not like 
 their Welsh or Scotch brethren ever sought 
 after and terrified. Nor is it likely that this 
 state of things will change ; and should I re-
 
 Ramble in the Salzkammergut and Tyrol. 19 
 
 visit St Valentin, I shall probably be able to 
 repeat with satisfaction a Latin pun which 
 was painted on a library door in an old 
 German castle, and which anglers as much as 
 students can appreciate 
 
 ' ' Solitudo sola beatitude. "
 
 20 
 
 II. 
 
 PIKE-FISHING IN THE BLACK FOEEST. 1 
 
 TT is probable that the very nearness of the 
 -* Black Forest to one of the chief routes to 
 Switzerland is a cause of its being so little 
 frequented by travellers. Of all those who are 
 hurrying to and from Switzerland, and passing 
 by the main line of railway which runs along 
 the valley of the Ehine from Strasbourg to 
 Bale, not one in a hundred forsakes the beaten 
 track for the primitive recesses of the Schwarz- 
 wald. A hurried look from the carriage-win- 
 dow is cast at the hills darkened in places with 
 the sombre green of the pine-trees, and lighted 
 here and there with the bright pastures and 
 cheerful villages which form the outskirts of 
 this interesting tract of country. For interest- 
 1 1874.
 
 Pike-Fishing- in the Black Forest. 2 1 
 
 ing it is both from the natural attractions of its 
 scenery and from the admirable character of 
 its people. But forest, in the common accepta- 
 tion of that word, it is not. Indeed, the gen- 
 eral idea that a tract of country denomin- 
 ated by this name is necessarily overgrown for 
 miles on every side by ancient trees, is abso- 
 lutely erroneous. In medieval days the forest 
 was what would now be termed uncultivated 
 land, on which, no doubt, trees to a great ex- 
 tent were the predominant feature. Thus the 
 great forests of Normandy were never simply 
 and solely masses of trees. But the main fea- 
 tures of the people of the Black Forest are cer- 
 tainly their simplicity and their industry. Prob- 
 ably throughout Europe no class of men are 
 more well-to-do than the clockmakers of the 
 Black Forest. By their own exertions they 
 have localised in a comparatively small tract of 
 Country a trade requiring ingenuity and clever- 
 ness. For if Tryberg and Furtwangen be taken 
 as the centres, the clockmaking trade of the 
 Schwarzwald will be found in and around 
 these two towns or rather, populous and flour- 
 ishing villages. But a most interesting in- 
 dustry is passed by innumerable travellers,
 
 22 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 many of whom, from the nature of their occu- 
 pations and studies in this country, would find 
 an inspection of this ancient and flourishing 
 trade a source of long - continuing pleasure. 
 Without an actual visit, it is almost impossible 
 to understand the wonderful hold which clock- 
 making has taken over this ingenious people, 
 and how thoroughly the Schwarzwalder must 
 be identified with the clockmaker. His trade 
 is an hereditary and ancient heirloom, handed 
 down from generation to generation since re- 
 mote medieval times. 1 But even the most 
 interesting industry would not be a sufficient 
 attraction for the stranger without those nat- 
 ural beauties which are one of the chief 
 pleasures of the holiday-maker. The country 
 has a certain sternness and wildness which 
 are quite different from the grander beauties 
 of Switzerland, or those alternations of mag- 
 nificence and sweetness which are presented 
 by the mountains and valleys of the Tyrol. 
 It may be that this is one of the reasons 
 why this tract of country is so little visited 
 by the English tourist. He is here com- 
 paratively unknown; but schools from Heid- 
 1 See Appendix "The Clockmakers of Schwarzwald."
 
 Pike-Fishing in the Black Forest. 23 
 
 elberg or other German towns, university stu- 
 dents walking from place to place, are, on the 
 other hand, frequently met with. Thus the 
 absence of American and English travellers has 
 prevented the construction of large hotels, and 
 the tourist must be contented with the rough 
 accommodation of essentially country inns. 
 But it is the houses of the Black Forest which 
 give not a little the peculiar character to its 
 scenery ; for the upper storey of many of them 
 serves as the hayloft of ;the farm which lies 
 outside the village. The great black and wide- 
 spreading roofs are thoroughly in keeping with 
 the dark background formed by the neighbour- 
 ing pine-woods. 
 
 But it is time to leave these generalities and 
 introduce the reader to our hotel at the village 
 of Schluch See. The Gasthaus zum Sternen is 
 a fair example of the half hotel, half beer-house 
 which serves the stranger for a resting-place in 
 the Black Forest. As the top storey is a hay- 
 loft, and as the smell of the hay pervades the 
 whole house, it is not surprising that the 
 stranger is continually under the impression 
 that he has got by mistake into a hay-bay. 
 Bedrooms fill the first floor of the long low
 
 24 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 building, whilst a somewhat dreary Speise Saal, 
 adorned with portraits of the Emperor and 
 Empress of Germany, takes up most of the 
 ground-floor. The Schluch See itself is nearly 
 two miles long, and from a quarter to half a 
 inile in breadth, lying almost due east and 
 west. The hills to the south are covered with 
 thick pine -woods, which come down to the 
 edge of the water, giving the lake a dark 
 and sombre character. But below the vil- 
 lage there is plenty of cultivated land, chiefly 
 these carefully tended and closely mown fields, 
 crossed by tiny water-courses, which are so dif- 
 ferent from the English meadow. Among these, 
 perched on a hill well above the lake, stands 
 the village, some 2000 feet above the sea, 
 which from its situation is undeniably healthy 
 more so than many places which, standing 
 at a greater elevation, are locally less fresh 
 and airy. 
 
 In the Black Forest the lake is well known 
 as a good fishing-ground; but unfortunately, 
 this reputation is caused only by the pike- 
 fishing. No angler will despise a good day's 
 pike-fishing ; but it is, piscatorially at least, sad 
 to see a fine sheet of water, fed by and supply-
 
 Pike-Fishing in the Black Forest. 25 
 
 ing small trout-streams, almost devoid of trout, 
 excepting a few large ones which have sur- 
 vived a youth of peril. As soon as I began to 
 talk to Herr Otto Ganter, the landlord of the 
 Zum Steruen, I soon found that he was a 
 
 * 
 
 fisherman himself, and, like all of the craft, 
 greatly loved to catch his fish over again. As 
 proof of his skill, he showed me in his tank a 
 jack of seven pounds which he had taken the 
 previous day. But what pleased him most was 
 to tell of the huge pike which, a year or two 
 before, an Italian prince had had the good 
 fortune to catch in the lake. It was 30 Ib. 
 in weight; and this piscatorial feat was pre- 
 served for future anglers by a photographer 
 at Ober Lenzkirch, who pictured the prince 
 like St George over the Dragon, with the 
 pike lying at his feet. A photograph had also 
 been taken of the fish alone, and certainly I 
 have seldom seen a finer specimen of a pike. 
 It was easy to understand he would be hard to 
 land; indeed Herr Ganter affirmed that the 
 contest between prince and pike lasted for 
 three hours. The result of mine host's best 
 day's fishing this summer (1874) was 30 Ib. 
 of fish ; but he seemed to consider from 15 to
 
 26 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 20 Ib. to be a fair day's sport, he and the said 
 Italian having during seven days' fishing taken 
 150 Ib. weight of pike. 
 
 The first morning of our stay was too hot 
 and still for fishing ; and though we. went on 
 the lake, we returned for the mid-day table 
 d'hote at half-past twelve, to find the table 
 graced by a German school master and mistress, 
 with a dozen pupils, who were engaged on one 
 of those holiday tours through the Black Forest 
 which are so common in Germany. It is a 
 practice for which there is much to be said. 
 It gives boys and girls an opportunity of seeing 
 the world in an intelligent way ; but it is one 
 which could not be followed in England, where 
 the expense of hotels and railways would soon 
 disgust parents. At half-past five we again 
 wended our way to the lake, as the sun was 
 sinking, and the opposite side beneath the pine- 
 woods was fully shaded. We had not rowed 
 for ten minutes in the pleasant shade of the 
 dark pines before we hooked and landed a jack 
 of 3 Ib. This was an unexpectedly good be- 
 ginning, since the air was hot and the water 
 quite calm ; but though we rowed about for 
 another hour, not another pike would look at
 
 Pike-Fishing in the Black Forest. 27 
 
 the minnow. Here live bait is considered 
 inferior to artificial bait, and that which is 
 generally used is a bright piece of metal shaped 
 somewhat like a dace. The shores are lined in 
 many places with beds of reeds, which stretch 
 some way into the lake, and afford excellent 
 hiding for pike. But in many parts the sides 
 slope quickly down, and the water is deep close 
 to the bank. In addition to pike, the lake is 
 full of roach or Schoppen, as they are locally 
 called which may be seen playing about in 
 shoals in the still water. One of the boys of 
 the school which I have mentioned, took a 
 dozen or two in the morning with grasshoppers, 
 a bait which is easily procured, as the mea- 
 dows resound with the "click, click" of this 
 brisk little insect. Fishing for roach can 
 scarcely be dignified with the name of sport, 
 but it must afford as much pleasure as catch- 
 ing gudgeon from a punt beneath the woods of 
 Bisham and Cliveden ; and to sit in the shade 
 of a fragrant and weird pine-wood, with scarcely 
 a sound to break the stillness but the tinkle of 
 the cow-bells, and see the sun lighting up the 
 pastures and village opposite, is a pleasant form 
 of quiet enjoyment. The same tranquil pleas-
 
 28 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 ure is found, too, in the evening, whether one 
 is walking home exchanging " good - nights " 
 with the cheery peasants, or later on is listen- 
 ing to them as they sit round a table with big 
 pipes and equally big tankards of beer, singing 
 some of their simple songs. 
 
 The following morning was again too hot for 
 fishing; and when "the noonday quiet holds 
 the hill," and the sun shines from an unclouded 
 sky, it is more enjoyable to sit and read on 
 soft cushions of moss, with a sturdy pine for 
 a support, than be scorched in a boat on the 
 water. But as the afternoon grew cooler, we 
 were tempted on to the lake though, so far as 
 fishing went, we might as well have remained 
 on shore. We did not get so much as a run 
 from a small jack; but in truth, the beauty of 
 the day and the scene compensated largely for 
 the absence of sport. Every yard we rowed 
 showed us the distant landscape in varying 
 forms and under different shades of light, 
 whilst a bit of foreground, a grey rock, a 
 lichen-covered pine, were noted as we passed 
 along. It is this existence of compensations 
 that is one of the greatest of attractions to a 
 fisherman who is not wholly absorbed in the
 
 Pike-Fishing in the Black Forest. 29 
 
 mere pleasure of capturing fishes; for when 
 they are in an unfavourable humour as regards 
 the angler, it is probable that nature is visible 
 in her most attractive forms. 
 
 Before we had finished our breakfast next 
 day, Herr Ganter appeared in the Speise 
 Saal with an invitation to accompany him 
 on the lake. The day was overcast, and the 
 surface of the lake was ruffled by a brisk 
 breeze. As we went off to the boat, I could 
 not prevent a laugh to myself at the comical 
 appearance of my host. His short little body 
 was arrayed in a grey suit, bound with green. 
 His little felt hat was pulled well down over 
 his nose, which was ruddy with exposure to 
 the sun and wind. His small eyes twinkled 
 behind a large pair of spectacles, and a perpet- 
 ual laugh was on his face. A rod and a reel 
 he despised, but used a large wooden winch 
 and a large flat steel artificial bait, made by 
 Hearder of Plymouth the relic, probably, of 
 some other English visitor. English fishing- 
 tackle is always the envy of foreigners. More 
 than once I have had offers both for rods and 
 tackle, at prices which would have been dis- 
 tinctly remunerative.
 
 30 Rambles with a FisJiing-Rod. 
 
 It was nearly eleven before we were in the 
 boat, and we at once rowed across to the other 
 side of the lake, and had not been fishing for 
 more than eight or ten minutes before a small 
 jack was safely housed in the tank beneath the 
 seat. This looked well as a beginning. The 
 dark waves, too, were becoming larger, and the 
 cloudy sky made the air cool and pleasant after 
 the recent hot weather, and the sombreness of 
 the day harmonised well with the gloominess 
 of the pine-woods ; so that, more than on pre- 
 vious days, there was a feeling that we were in 
 the Black Forest. Soon came another "Aber 
 noch ein " (here is another) from Herr Ganter, 
 and his little eyes twinkled excitedly behind 
 his spectacles, and he puffed energetically at a 
 huge cigar of horrid tobacco. But the excla- 
 mation was premature, though presently we 
 did secure another fish in the great triangu- 
 lar landing-net a small pike of 3 Ib. But 
 we had now to wait for some time before we 
 had another run; at last out went the line 
 with a rush, and a distant splash showed that 
 we were fast in a better fish. But all anglers 
 know that a pike has no pluck ; and whereas 
 a trout of similar size would have fought gal-
 
 Pike-Fishing in the Black Forest. 3 1 
 
 lantly, a pike of 6 Ib. soon allowed himself to 
 be landed. 
 
 We had now been out somewhat more than 
 an hour ; and as I was to leave the Schluch See 
 early in the afternoon, I could remain no longer 
 with my good-natured acquaintance. But often 
 in Germany, to vary the French proverb some- 
 what, man proposes, but the postmaster dis- 
 poses. It was so in our case ; for an inexor- 
 able rule obliged the traveller to have his 
 luggage at the post an hour and a half before 
 the Post-wagen departed. Five minutes were 
 amply sufficient to label and book it ; but red- 
 tape was victorious. We had to remain, or to 
 go on ourselves without any clothes ; and to 
 the astonishment of the officials, we preferred 
 not to desert our garments, having no reason to 
 urge us on our journey in a state of inconven- 
 ience. Once before much the same thing had 
 happened to me ; but in that instance I over- 
 came the dominant spirit of Germany. It was 
 at Offenburg, on the Baden State Eailway. My 
 portmanteau was lying in the office, whither it 
 had been sent to await my arrival. The train 
 was about shortly to depart, and everything 
 was in order. But it was impossible for me to
 
 32 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 have my property, because the superintendent 
 had gone to his dinner, and the clerk on the 
 spot was not authorised to give out luggage. 
 But eventually perseverance prospered, and I 
 went off with my portmanteau. But to return 
 to the Schluch See. My enforced stay had 
 one good consequence, at any rate. I was en- 
 abled to ascertain the result of Herr Ganter's 
 fishing. He returned home at half-past three ; 
 but he had added only two more to the three 
 fish I had helped him to take. The weight of 
 the whole basket was between 13 and 14 Ib. 
 
 Next day, with the sun shining brightly, we 
 said good-bye to the Schluch See and its pure 
 and bracing air, where we lived on comfortable 
 German fare for seven-and-sixpence a-day, a 
 higher rate than we should have paid had we 
 remained for a longer time. Two hours' walk, 
 and of course less time in a coach or carriage, 
 brought us to St Blasien, a small village in a 
 pleasant wooded valley, with some neat pensions, 
 two or three small hotels, and an ancient abbey. 
 The Alb rises some way above the village, 
 where it is a small and rather shallow stream, 
 and flows on through the fine scenery of the 
 Albthal to join the Rhine at Albruck. When
 
 Pike-Fishing in the Black Forest. 33 
 
 I have been along it which I have more than 
 once it seemed to contain plenty of small trout ; 
 but the water was so low and clear that I 
 never cast a fly in it. But at St Blasien, at 
 least, it is what we at home should call 
 "poached." The Schwarzwalders' method of 
 catching trout was in this wise : A number of 
 stones are placed together at one end of a pool 
 in the shape of a V, though the two sides do 
 not join as in the actual letter. A net is held 
 in this narrow part ; and then the sportsmen 
 proceed to splash about the pool, turn up stones, 
 and do all they can to drive the fish between 
 the two walls. Once inside, the only means by 
 which most can escape is into the net at the 
 bottom. When this sort of thing goes on, 
 the angler is naturally not only disturbed from 
 time to time in his day's fishing, but no little 
 havoc is played with the stock of trout, especi- 
 ally when the water is low. 
 
 Some five or six miles below St Blasien, in the 
 best part of the valley, is a neat little inn, Zum 
 Engel, which, from all appearances, would be 
 the best headquarters for the fishermen in the 
 Albthal. These surmises are apt to be mislead- 
 ing. Still, I may add that the Kinsig from 
 c
 
 34 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 Offenburg upwards has always looked to me a 
 stream which should hold some fair trout and 
 grayling; and it will lead the wanderer not only 
 into the most characteristic parts of the Black 
 Forest from the point of view of the sketcher, 
 but to the interesting villages of Tryberg and 
 Furtwangen, ideals of neatness and content- 
 ment, and the centre of the clockmaking trade, 
 an industry the growth and nature of which 
 is full of attraction to any thoughtful observer.
 
 35 
 
 III. 
 IN CONNEMARA. 1 
 
 TT is inconceivable that there can be any 
 pleasure in undergoing the various discom- 
 forts which are shortly summed up in the two 
 words " roughing it." Some people, indeed, 
 seem to like discomfort for its own sake, and in 
 a boating tour, for example, prefer to be under 
 canvas, with all its attendant nuisances, such as 
 cooking your own breakfast, and making your 
 own bed or what is supposed to be a bed, 
 rather than in a country inn. But there are 
 times when a considerable amount of incon- 
 venience can be borne if a sufficient recom- 
 pense is found for it. Good fishing, cheap 
 living, and pure air seem fully to counter- 
 balance many temporary annoyances. The rea- 
 1 1876.
 
 36 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 son of these remarks would be fully obvious 
 if the reader would place himself for a moment 
 by the writer's elbow. The room contains a 
 somewhat rickety deal-table ; a fireplace, which 
 at this hour of the evening is full of brightly 
 burning and fragrant peat. There are algp two 
 queer-looking beds, upon one of which the 
 ceiling threatens shortly to descend in frag- 
 ments ; and two tables, to which it is diffi- 
 cult to assign a specific name. They can 
 scarcely be called side-tables, though they con- 
 tain a few odd glasses and a plate or two, not 
 to mention the whisky-bottle of the establish- 
 ment. Nor yet can they be termed dressing- 
 tables ; for though they bear a looking-glass 
 and some few pieces of crockeryware, the ele- 
 ments of the sideboard must not be left out of 
 consideration. It is needless to add that the 
 floor is uncovered by a carpet ; that the once 
 white walls would be all the better for a new 
 coat of whitewash ; and that a few chairs, some 
 fishing-tackle, and portmanteaus complete the 
 furniture of the room. Another function still 
 does this room fulfil; for unless the door, open- 
 ing to the road, is securely locked, it forms the 
 entrance-hall to the little Irish cottage, half
 
 In Connemara. 37 
 
 tavern, half farm, twenty-nine miles from Gal- 
 way, known as the Half - way House. Here 
 dwells one Lynch, who, when he is not farming 
 his thousand acres, mostly bog and moorland, 
 for which he pays a trifling rent per acre, looks 
 after the passing traveller, or acts as boatman 
 to the fisherman who may be living in his 
 house. It is a spot which is habitually resort- 
 ed to by a few enthusiastic fishermen, some 
 half-dozen or more during the season, who 
 have known the place for some length of time. 
 The mail-road between Galway and Clifden 
 passes three yards from the door, in front of 
 which is a piece of ground which, almost in 
 any part of England or Scotland, would be 
 turned into a neat patch of pretty garden. 
 Here it is a desolate bit of waste ground full 
 of weeds and rank grass. In describing the 
 fishing-places adjacent to this half-way house 
 which, by the way, stands in a wild moorland, 
 or rather bogland valley, on the highest piece 
 of ground between Clifden and Galway it 
 may be well to give a brief sketch of the fish- 
 ing of Connemara. 
 
 The fishing - ground of Connemara proper 
 may be said to lie between Killery Har-
 
 38 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 bour on the north and Galway Bay on the 
 south, some twenty-five miles apart as the crow 
 flies. Up towards Westport and Clew Bay, 
 and still farther north towards the Donegal 
 Highlands and the northern coast of Ireland, 
 there are many rivers flowing into the sea, and 
 loughs, which white trout enter; and other 
 pieces of water, which, though not joined by 
 any stream to the sea, contain plenty of brown 
 trout. But it is this mountainous district, cut 
 up by river and lake between the two points 
 named, which contains the fishing-places of 
 Connemara. The coast is jagged and broken 
 by numerous small bays, into which descend 
 short rivers. They are too numerous to be 
 mentioned here one by one. There are, for in- 
 stance, the Dawros, the Owenglinn, the Cashla, 
 and the Owenboliska. A peculiarity of this 
 district is, that nearly every one of the rivers 
 unites several lakes, forming a continuous chain 
 of water, up which, to the farthest points, the 
 enterprising white trout force their way in 
 swarms after a heavy downfall of rain. A mail- 
 road from Galway cuts through this country, 
 at first some distance from the sea, and then 
 close to the coast, passing by Clifden and
 
 /;/ Connemara. 39 
 
 Leenane, until it reaches Westport, where the 
 railway is again met. The last part, from Lee- 
 nane to Westport, is somewhat out of the dis- 
 trict described in this paper. It is among these 
 mountains, moorland from the summit to the 
 bogs at their foot, devoid of trees, and except 
 when the sun throws upon them those delicate 
 tints of light and shade which are so beautiful 
 on the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland 
 gloomy and depressing, that some of the best 
 sea-trout fishing in the United Kingdom is to 
 be found. It is a part of the world which can 
 have few attractions for the ordinary tourist. 
 The beauty of the land (except the actual sea- 
 coast) is inferior to that of much more acces- 
 sible spots ; and though the compilers of guide- 
 books may be loud in its praises, it may be 
 said with some certainty that no one who has 
 seen it once will ever care, for its own sake, to 
 revisit it. This is a sure test ; for who would 
 not be ever ready to spend holidays again and 
 again at scores of places in England or abroad 
 which every one can call to mind for himself? 
 But the fisherman will not echo this sentiment ; 
 for to him it is a land of sport, if the various 
 elements which go to afford good fishing are in
 
 4O Rambles with a Fisliing-Rod. 
 
 any way favourable. But at the same time, 
 with hardly an exception, all the rivers and 
 loughs containing " white " trout (this one 
 name must be taken to express all the dif- 
 ferent species of sea -trout) and salmon are 
 let either to proprietors for their private 
 use, or to lessees, who make a profit from 
 the fishery either by hauling with nets or 
 by hiring out the fishing to those who are 
 residing at the adjoining hotels. Thus, when 
 the wandering angler arrives in Connemara, he 
 no longer finds, as he would have done ten or 
 twelve, or even five or six, years ago, that he 
 can fish in any place. Nous awns changd tout 
 ccla; and unless he is a friend of some pro- 
 prietor, or cares to pay in most cases a good 
 round sum for his fishing, he must not unpack 
 his rod. The prices of the fishing vary, so 
 that it is not fair to give one or two as any- 
 thing like those which may be considered as 
 general. Angling, however, on the Ballyna- 
 hinch fishery costs ten shillings a-day, and two 
 pounds ten a-week. 1 Again, at Skreeb, where 
 
 1 For full particulars, apply to G. J. Robinson, Esq., 
 Roundstone, vid Galway. The river Erriff at Leenane can 
 also be fished at the same rate.
 
 In Connemara. 41 
 
 there is a small piece of river and two lakes 
 near the sea, there is a solitary house ; and in 
 this fishermen are lodged, and a certain sum is 
 paid for the fishing. These lakes, again, are 
 joined to others the Lake of the Fall and the 
 Heather Lake which again are joined to an- 
 other, locally known as the Causeway, which 
 again is connected with the topmost lake of 
 the chain Lough Shindilla. Nearer Galway, 
 too, we find, for example, a stream at Spiddle 
 which is in private hands. But it is quite 
 possible that a fisherman may come for a 
 week's fishing, pay a good deal for his rod, not 
 a little to boatmen, and something probably 
 for car-hire, and have bright, dry weather, and 
 absolutely get no sport at all. On the other 
 hand, he may be fortunate, and think his sport 
 cheaply obtained though this, indeed, will 
 depend to a large extent on the length of his 
 purse. 
 
 The white-trout fishing does not commence, 
 unless the weather be exceptionally wet, so as 
 to bring up the fish earlier than usual, until 
 the middle of July, and it continues till 
 the end of October. Skreeb and the other 
 places on the coast can be reached by devia-
 
 42 Rambles with a fishing-Rod. 
 
 tions from the main road already mentioned, 
 which carries the fisherman right past Shindilla, 
 round the topmost lake of what may be termed 
 the Ballynahinch chain, and within reach of 
 Derryclare, Inagh, and the other lakes and 
 rivers more distant from Galway. But the 
 angler is not confined to white trout, for capital 
 brown-trout fishing is to be had in all these 
 lakes, and in others scattered among the hills, 
 some of which are mere ponds in the bogs. 
 Thus any one who chooses to come to Con- 
 nemara for a fortnight in May or June will 
 obtain many an excellent day's sport when 
 the brown trout are in the heyday of their 
 season. Let him look out for an inn near a 
 lake, and once having got some sort of idea 
 of the country, the line of the roads, and 
 the situation of the lakes, he ought to have no 
 possible difficulty in amusing himself for some 
 time. But the sport shown by the fresh-run 
 white trout is often so brilliant, and they come 
 up at so convenient a season for the fisherman 
 who is also a man of business, that the brown 
 trout of Connemara are neglected, generally 
 speaking, when they are in the very best con- 
 dition for sport and for eating. There is Lough
 
 In Connemara. 43 
 
 Boss, Lough Arderry, Lough Inagh, and many 
 others which might be mentioned, if it were 
 worth while to spin out a geographical list of 
 brown-trout lakes. Indeed, from Galway to 
 Clifden there is plenty of fishing after the 
 village of Moycullen, six miles from Galway, 
 is reached. There is a mountain-stream at 
 this village. Farther on, at Outerard, a busy 
 and more cleanly village than most in this 
 desolate part of the world, there is the 
 pretty Owenriff river, with some good pools, 
 and likely, if there be plenty of water, to amuse 
 the angler for a day or two. Beyond this, he 
 comes upon a perfect chain of waters, some of 
 which have just been mentioned, and many of 
 which only possess local names, and are un- 
 marked on any except the larger-scale maps. 
 They are all of the same character a mile or 
 two in length, with low boggy sides and dark 
 water, full of brown trout up to a pound in 
 weight, and if connected at all with the sea, 
 inhabited also temporarily by the venturous 
 white trout. They are seldom fished, except 
 by some local angler on a Sunday or a saint's 
 day, until you come to Shindilla and approach 
 those lakes, where the comfortable hotel at
 
 44 Rambles with a FisJdng-Rod. 
 
 Ballynahinch has caused fishermen and travel- 
 lers to remain. Is not this, then, a rich coun- 
 try for the fisherman? where, if nature is 
 not to be seen in her most genial aspect, 
 she at any rate has not been unkind to the 
 fisherman. 
 
 Just below the Half-way House lies the head 
 of Lough Shindilla, a piece of water about two 
 miles in length, and in breadth from a quarter 
 to half a mile. It is dotted over with two or 
 three wooded islands, rare features in this bleak 
 landscape. On the one side extends a boggy 
 moorland, above which rise the three summits 
 of the Shonafaola Mountains ; on the other side, 
 the green sides of Mount Oorid separate the 
 fisherman from the Atlantic Ocean ; whilst at 
 the western or upper end of the lake, the promi- 
 nent rounded summit of Mount Cashel shows 
 where the coast extends. The Twelve Pins of 
 Bunnabeola form a striking background in the 
 distance. To the east the hilly moorlands 
 which border upon Lough Corrib sink away 
 in the distance, generally a melancholy land- 
 scape, unless lighted up by the fine tints of the 
 setting sun. 
 
 But a description of the favourite flies for use
 
 /;/ Connemara. 45 
 
 on this and the neighbouring lakes will be more 
 apposite than of the scenery around. Those 
 most in vogue are generally large lake-flies, and 
 nothing is more justly a favourite than one 
 made with grouse or guinea-hen feathers for 
 wings, and a claret or rather blood-red body 
 roughly tied. Smooth bodies are not, as a rule, 
 in favour here ; but two of the best fish of our 
 visit a brace of white trout of a couple of 
 pounds each were taken with a small-sized 
 lake-fly, with grouse wings and a red-silk body 
 with a twist of gold. The more gaudy flies 
 which find favour at Galway are not of much 
 use, unless "the shades of night are falling 
 fast." An excellent fly on the smaller Scotch 
 lakes familiar, doubtless, to all who are ac- 
 quainted with the north, namely, with a 
 rough scarlet body and wings of the blackcock, 
 was not tried; but, if others had failed, it 
 would have been interesting to observe how 
 this fly served on the waters of Connemara. 
 It is very often the case that local people find 
 one or two flies kill well, and then assume that 
 any other fly is useless. As a matter of fact, 
 though the local favourites are no doubt very 
 good (for there is nothing like experience in
 
 46 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 these things), yet what may be called, for the 
 sake of distinction, some foreign flies, will do 
 just as much execution as those more gener- 
 ally used. 
 
 The lakes of the west of Ireland were this 
 September exceedingly low, and two hours' fish- 
 ing during the first afternoon only yielded a 
 half-pound brown trout. The succeeding mor- 
 ning was all that could be desired by the tourist, 
 just what was not wished for by the fisherman. 
 The lake glimmered in the sunlight, which 
 stole through the scarcely veiling clouds ; and 
 the rocks of the shore, and the green mountains, 
 were distinctly reflected in the waters, whose 
 stillness was only broken now and again by a 
 gentle autumn breeze, which scarcely ruffled 
 the surface. It was a pleasant day enough, as 
 we found, to stroll about the islands among the 
 blackberries, and browning ferns, and the tufts 
 of the large-blossomed bell-heather. But it was 
 quite impossible to get what friendly Mr Lynch 
 called a good drift that is, to drift well before 
 the breeze from one end of the lake to the other. 
 For this, in his parlance, a good " duster " was 
 required ; but no " duster " did we meet with 
 on that pleasant September day so that half-
 
 In Connemara. 47 
 
 a-dozen trout alone rewarded our day's fishing, 
 two of which turned half a pound, and one was, 
 fortunately for our breakfast, a "jackeen." By 
 this name are those spirited little fellows, small 
 sea-trout, known in the west of Ireland, which, 
 for their size and strength, are the gamest fish 
 that swim. Now if, as is the case on some of 
 the lakes, considerable expense has been gone 
 to for the sake of this day's fishing, a wan- 
 dering angler might well feel disgusted. But 
 who, with such weather, could hope, in such a 
 season and after such a summer as that of 1876, 
 for better, or indeed any sport ? The next day 
 seemed rather more favourable, though the 
 wind was bitterly cold, which boded ill for the 
 feeding propensities of the trout. But before 
 luncheon, a little basket of a dozen had been 
 collected, which averaged about a quarter of a 
 pound apiece. After luncheon the great cold 
 was explained, for there came a heavy down- 
 pour of rain; but three hours' fishing again 
 brought another dozen, including a pretty white 
 trout well over half a pound in weight, and 
 three or four smaller fish of the same kind. Of 
 course this was not much of a day's sport as 
 compared with many that are experienced in this
 
 48 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 district, but still it kept a light single-handed 
 rod not altogether idle. There is certainly, in 
 many ways, more satisfaction to be had out of a 
 nice single-handed than a powerful double rod. 
 Smaller fish make a much better fight, and one 
 does not get into a rough way of handling fish, 
 which is fatal to good fishing, when clear water 
 and light tackle necessitate plenty of care and 
 skill. A white trout of three-quarters of a pound, 
 on a small rod, affords not bad amusement for a 
 few moments. On the other hand, if the day is 
 at all rough, and the fish to be taken are at all 
 likely to be large, there can be no question that 
 a double-handed rod should be used. Much 
 greater command can be had over the line, and 
 no well-hooked fish is likely to escape. There 
 is also this further advantage, that if in a lake 
 it is blowing freshly, and a good fish is hooked, 
 it is a matter of some importance to be able to 
 land him without loss of time ; otherwise, whilst 
 the oarsman is handling the landing-net, one 
 may be drifted far away from one's ground, or 
 the boat may knock the paint off her sides on 
 some projecting rock. 
 
 The rain of the night was succeeded by a 
 heavy gale from the westward, which promised
 
 In Connemara. 49 
 
 better sport, though inany were the lamenta- 
 tions of our boatman as he came to us in 
 the morning, that more water had not come 
 down from the hills; but, at any rate, we 
 should have a good "drift," and, not, in his 
 language, have to "dodge down" some par- 
 ticular bit of shore. And a true " duster " 
 the wind proved to be, raising white and toss- 
 ing waves at the far end of the lake. But 
 the sport was not satisfactory ; good fish 
 were not moving, and the double-handed rod 
 was ignominiously employed, for no trout of 
 more than half-a-pound would rise. At length 
 our patience was rewarded, for in the half 
 shelter of a rocky point a fine white trout 
 bounced bodily out of the water at the red- 
 bodied dropper, and was soon sailing away, 
 firmly hooked. After a frantic rush or two, a 
 handsome sea-trout of a couple of pounds was 
 adorning the bottom of the boat. Then an- 
 other throw or two, and another fierce rise, 
 and off flew a vigorous white trout, with a 
 couple of those preliminary leaps which are 
 the sure characteristic of these fish, and which 
 have before now secured the liberty of many 
 a good trout, and bitterly disappointed many 
 D
 
 5O Rambles with a Fisking-Rod. 
 
 an eager angler. The sport seemed now to be 
 about to become really first - rate ; but this 
 momentary gleam was all that came that morn- 
 ing, though when luncheon - time arrived four- 
 teen trout were laid on the grass. 
 
 The " drifts " were still good along the moor- 
 land shore, underneath whose overhanging 
 banks, when the lake is at its normal level, the 
 large trout love to lie and dart out at a fly 
 dropping unwarily from the fragrant bog-myrtle. 
 But "jackeen" and suchlike small fish were 
 alone basketed, and things did not look well for 
 the afternoon. After sunset, however, when the 
 gloaming was fast verging into darkness, a final 
 try was made round some isolated rocks near 
 the outflow of the lake. At length there was 
 a pleasantly loud splash, and a good fish was 
 evidently fast on the little single-handed rod. 
 Some vigorous leaps showed that a sea-trout 
 was at the end of the line, and the strong runs 
 and deep bendings of the light little rod were 
 pleasing to see. At last the fish was tired out, 
 and was safely in the folds of the landing-net, 
 proving to be a well-fed sea-trout, which scaled, 
 when brought home, just two pounds and a 
 half. Night was now setting in, and a row of
 
 /;/ Connemara. 51 
 
 a couple of miles had yet to be gone through. 
 But this day's fishing was the best of the three, 
 and gave a hint of what might be done among 
 the mountains of Connemara with plenty of 
 water and plenty of wind ; for two dozen and a 
 half of trout were brought to book that day, 
 three of which alone made up six pounds 
 and a half between them. And what fish 
 shows finer sport than a good white trout? 
 Until one has caught him and has eaten him, 
 it is impossible to understand the enthusiasm 
 that all fishermen who have had sport with 
 him feel when he is mentioned. What fish 
 leaps so high from the water as he does, and 
 then rushes wildly away with the line ? 
 
 I am far from feeling a contempt for those 
 milder kinds of fishing which are the delight 
 of metropolitan anglers, but there is something 
 in the union of the fresh mountain air, the 
 rushing breeze, the tumbling waves of the lake, 
 and the wild fish, which makes sea-trout fish- 
 ing one of the most enjoyable of the fisherman's 
 pleasures. A good day on this and the other 
 lakes of the district would be some three or 
 four dozen trout, with several two or three 
 pound white trout among them, and perhaps
 
 52 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 a dozen and a half or more of the latter species 
 of fish in all. But then to ensure a good day 
 you require a combination of several things. 
 First of all, there must be plenty of water in 
 the lakes ; for water the white trout must 
 have to ascend from the sea, and water they 
 must afterwards have to induce them to feed. 
 Then, for lake-fishing, a breeze and the stronger 
 the better, so long as it does not make the boat 
 unmanageable is necessary. However, the 
 story of these three days will have already 
 shown to any reader not accustomed to lake- 
 fishing, the absolute or almost absolute use- 
 lessness of fishing on a calm day. When 
 considerable expense is incurred for the hire 
 of boats and men, and payment given for the 
 right of fishing, a bad day becomes a serious 
 mortification to many men. With us this was 
 not a matter of consideration : a moderate sum 
 for the man and boat was only due ; and the 
 living, as might be expected, from the descrip- 
 tion of the Half-way House, was not very ex- 
 travagant. The fish which fell to our lot, 
 some fresh eggs, and milk-cakes, sufficed for 
 breakfast, and who could wish for a better ? 
 A duck or a young goose, which had lived his
 
 In Connemara. 53 
 
 short life in the clear waters of the lake, and 
 fed in the oat -fields, and which tasted more 
 like a wild-duck' than a Michaelmas goose in 
 England, formed a dinner to which, though 
 simple, the air of the mountain proved a sure 
 and appetising sauce. And the whisky of 
 the country, or the water from a mountain- 
 spring, formed as good and healthy a beverage 
 as could be desired. The hens and the ducks 
 might cackle at night in the next room, as 
 some inmate turned over in bed, and a child 
 might cry; but exercise and air rendered the 
 sleeping angler quite undisturbed by these 
 usually irritating noises. At the same time, 
 though very suitable for hardy bachelors, there 
 are many men who would prefer more comfort, 
 who might like to bring ladies with them. 
 A place like this could hardly be considered 
 suitable for such fishermen, and these would 
 have to go on to the Glendalough Hotel, 
 close to lakes forming part of the chain of 
 which Oorid is the last lake. Here com- 
 fort and fishing can be combined, though 
 not without bringing their usual consequences 
 higher charges. When people come so 
 far to fish, as many persons do, they are in
 
 54 Rambles with a Fisliing-Rod. 
 
 no hurry to run away again, and therefore, 
 comfort is of more moment than it is in 
 some other kind of pleasure. Once in a way 
 one may not object to pass a night in the hay 
 in a mountain chalet on the Alps : a week of such 
 a bed would be intolerable. Still, the Half- 
 way House, a lonely cabin in the mountains, 
 the most annoying characteristic of which 
 was the beggars, old and young, who persecuted 
 one as soon as the door was opened, and who 
 seemed to spring out of the ground is a place 
 one leaves with a certain regret ; and that re- 
 gret is especially felt when one sees the lake 
 rippling under the influence of a fresh morning 
 breeze, and one recognises each point and bay, 
 one may almost say each rock and stone, 
 where a good fish has been taken, or a fine 
 white trout has been raised. 
 
 Let me say another word about flies. No 
 large variety is required for these lakes. But 
 any one who wants good flies and advice has 
 only to go to Mr Flint, the fishing-tackle 
 maker in Essex Quay, Dublin, who will 
 supply him with all necessary flies. He is 
 in the habit of fishing in these lakes himself, 
 and therefore is a better person to go to than
 
 In Connemara. 55 
 
 those who are not fishermen themselves. All 
 the lakes in Connemara are of the same char- 
 acter, surrounded by the same kind of soil, 
 and therefore require the same kind of flies. 
 It is a most interesting question, the reason 
 why trout in one lake refuse certain flies, and 
 greedily take others. Probably the state of the 
 bottom is to some extent the cause, which 
 affects the colour of the water. But the prin- 
 ciple that the natural fly should be closely 
 imitated which, as regards what the Irishman 
 of the west contemptuously calls " midge flies," 
 is undoubtedly correct clearly does not apply 
 to lake any more than to salmon fishing. Nor 
 does nature produce any flies bearing a resem- 
 blance to a clean lake fly ; on the other hand, 
 a wet one may possibly be taken by a fish for 
 some kind of grub or caterpillar.
 
 IV. 
 
 FLY-FISHING IN THE BAVAEIAN 
 HIGHLANDS. 1 
 
 A MONG the tributaries of the Danube none 
 ^ has a better reputation for fish than the 
 Iller, which, commencing in the three streams 
 of the Trettach, the Stillach, and the Breitach, 
 among the Alps of the Algau, passes through 
 the Bavarian plains until it reaches the chief 
 river of Eastern Europe. In the first thirteen 
 miles of its course this stream flows down the 
 picturesque mountain valley generally known 
 as the Iller Thai, at the head of which is the 
 flourishing Bavarian village of Oberstdorf, sur- 
 rounded on the south by the high summits of 
 the Madelegabele, the Trettach Spitze, and the 
 i 1878.
 
 Fly -Fishing in the Bavarian Highlands. 57 
 
 other peaks which form the group of moun- 
 tains called the Algauer Alps. It is about a 
 mile and a half below this village that the 
 Iller as such receives a distinctive name, 
 where one river is formed by the junction 
 of these three streams. Oberstdorf is about 
 thirteen miles from Immenstadt, through 
 which runs the main line from the Lake of 
 Constance to Munich; and thence a little 
 branch line runs up the valley to Sonthofen, 
 half-way to Oberstdorf, so that the head- waters 
 of the Iller are within seven miles of a railway 
 station. It would not be easy to find a place 
 more suited for a stay of a few days or weeks 
 than this picturesque Bavarian village. Among 
 the numerous and very beautiful valleys which 
 branch up into the surrounding Alps, are many 
 walks suited to all capacities ; and the peaks 
 which rise above them will afford a field for the 
 exertions of the active climber. But few Eng- 
 lish tourists come to Oberstdorf, though through- 
 out the summer and autumn it is a favourite 
 resort for many Germans ; and the two inns 
 the Gasthof zum Mohren and the Gasthof zur 
 Goldenen Sonne are generally well filled from 
 the beginning of June to the end of September.
 
 58 Rambles witli a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 During a stay of a few days in this pleasant 
 spot, a couple of them were devoted to fishing 
 in the Iller ; for since Herr Max von dem Borne, 
 in his useful little handbook for anglers (' Weg- 
 weiser fur Angler durch Deutschland, Oester- 
 reich und die Schweiz : ' Berlin, 1877), points 
 out that at Immerstadt the river contains heavy 
 trout, grayling, and pike, and by Oberstdorf is 
 an excellent trout stream, it seemed well not to 
 neglect a good opportunity. 
 
 The fishing in the three tributary streams, 
 and two small mountain lakes which contain 
 char the Freiberg and the Christales Sees 
 is at present the property of one of the usual 
 peasant fishermen who form so curious and 
 distinctive a class among the mountains of 
 Austria and Bavaria. He has it for three 
 years, and has paid for it for that period 1700 
 florins. But our introduction to him was far 
 from happy. We arrived at Oberstdorf about 
 mid-day, and during the course of luncheon 
 made careful inquiries of the waitress as to 
 whether strangers could fish in the adjoining 
 streams. Whether we misunderstood her or 
 she misunderstood us does not matter, but we 
 left her with the impression that the fishing
 
 Fly-Fishing' in the Bavarian Highlands. 59 
 
 was free. It was then the most natural thing 
 in the world to stroll up these branches, fly- 
 rod in hand, though, so far as any success 
 went, we might as well have left our tackle at 
 the inn. In the middle of supper our after- 
 noon's fishing was recalled to our minds by an 
 inquiry by the host as to whether we had 
 been fishing that afternoon, as the fisherman 
 was complaining about it. As he was actually 
 in the hotel, it was obviously best to smooth 
 his ruffled feathers, make our excuses, and obtain 
 permission for a day or two's angling. But 
 our diplomacy was in vain, the fisherman was 
 angry, not to say rude, and the interview ended 
 to everybody's dissatisfaction. We thought we 
 had done with our friend, but he seemed to 
 have the knack of surprising us at the most 
 unexpected moments. Next morning, as I was 
 preparing to shave, arrayed in slippers, knicker- 
 bockers, and shirt, a rather loud knock made 
 me expect a supply of hot water. But it was 
 hot water of another kind to what I anticipated. 
 To my astonishment, on opening the door, I 
 found myself confronted by quite a fine-looking 
 person in green uniform, with a sword by his 
 side, who proved to be the Oberstdorf edition
 
 60 Rambles with a Fisliing-Rod. 
 
 of that mild limb of the law in England, the 
 rural police constable. 
 
 The mission of this magnificent person was 
 to convey us before the tribunal at Sonthofen, 
 there to answer for our offences of the previous 
 day. But all's well that ends well, as the saying 
 goes ; and after a considerable amount of talk- 
 ing had taken place between the policeman and 
 my brother, who was more familiar with German 
 than myself, the constable expressed the opin- 
 ion that the fisherman's wrath might be mol- 
 lified by a pecuniary gift, which would put an 
 end to all further legal proceedings. Such a 
 hint as this was too obvious to be let slip ; for 
 amusing as this interview would certainly have 
 been to a bystander, it was not wholly pleasing 
 to us ; so very soon a ten-mark piece not only 
 caused bygones to be bygones, but brought 
 forth a permit to fish in the Freiberg See, a 
 permission which had a certain irony about it, 
 as though we had a most glorious day on the 
 miniature sheet of water boating, and sun- 
 ning, and bathing not a fish could be moved. 
 Sometimes when we met the constable making 
 his rounds, with rifle slung over his shoulder, 
 and looking very soldier-like, a grin broke over
 
 Fly-Fishing in the Bavarian Highlands. 6 1 
 
 his face, whether of mere friendly recognition, 
 or whether of amusement at our having been 
 exploits by native ingenuity to the amount of 
 half a sovereign, we never knew. Into such 
 troubles as these even the best-intentioned 
 rambler must sometimes fall, when in search 
 of fishing in foreign countries. But it would 
 never have done to have left Oberstdorf with- 
 out fishing in the lller ; and fortunately better 
 success attended our application to the person 
 who rented the fishing in the lller from the 
 junction of the three streams as far as the 
 village of Fischen, a distance of about three 
 miles. For the sum of 5 marks (5s.), and 
 without any condition as to giving up the fish 
 which were taken, Herr Schwarz Kopfse gave 
 leave for two days' fishing for two rods though 
 he also kept strongly impressing upon us that 
 we were 011 no account to use nets, so little 
 idea of sport, as regards fishing, is there in the 
 German mind. The lller is a very rapid stream, 
 often divided into several branches, for its wide 
 bed of white stones and gravel is never wholly 
 covered except after a flood. Therefore, under 
 ordinary circumstances, the fishing along quite 
 half the course of the stream has to be done
 
 62 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 from the bed of the river, as there is often an 
 expanse of small stones between the actual 
 stream and the actual bank. But this is in 
 many respects an advantage to the angler, for 
 there is no danger of losing casts and flies on 
 the branches of trees. On the other hand, there 
 is a great deal of very rough walking and 
 scrambling in many places, not only up and 
 down the banks, but among slippery stones of 
 all shapes and sizes ; and often there must be no 
 hesitation in wading above the knees. 
 
 The first day we took the right bank, which 
 proved, however, in one sense, to be the wrong 
 one ; for near the village of Rubi, where we 
 struck the river, high wooded cliffs begin, 
 which overhang it for a mile, and these proved 
 quite a bar to fishing downward from the vil- 
 lage. The day was hot and bright, and a 
 morning's fishing up stream only produced half- 
 a-dozen small trout. But in one deep pool 
 beneath a rock, clear as crystal, fifteen or twenty 
 half-pound fish were seen quite still at the 
 bottom. The most lively grasshoppers, the 
 most tempting worms collected in the meadows, 
 on the finest of gut, let down from the rock 
 above, merely caused them to move with languid
 
 Fly-Fishing in the Bavarian HigJilands. 63 
 
 contempt from one part of the pool to another ; 
 and yet they would not depart from the tan- 
 talised gaze of the angler above. And this 
 reminds me of the characteristics of the trout 
 of the Iller. They are almost white, with faint 
 pink spots, showing, like the black little fish 
 which one takes in a Highland loch, the great 
 effect of the place upon trout ; for the bed and 
 sides of the Iller are absolutely devoid of vege- 
 tation and earthy deposits, and the rapid grey 
 waters rush over a mass of bare and smooth 
 white stones. 
 
 As luncheon-time was drawing near, and we 
 were more inclined to eat than our friends 
 in the pool below, we crossed the fields to 
 a cottage in the village, which is also the 
 inn and which apparently has no custom 
 in the middle of the day, since it was left in 
 charge of a number of children, the eldest only 
 fifteen years old. There we got a wholesome 
 repast of bread and milk, and then a start was 
 made for the river lower down, wherever it 
 might be accessible ; but after walking through 
 meadows lawn-like and bright with the autumn 
 crocus, and peering through pine-woods and 
 over cliffs at the river below, it was opposite
 
 64 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 Fischen before the banks became low, and we 
 were enabled to approach the river. Here two 
 very small grayling were taken, and presently 
 another grayling was fast on the little yellow 
 dun, and he gave some spirited sport in the 
 rapid water before he was placed on the stones 
 a fish of three-quarters of a pound. A smaller 
 one managed thanks to the strength of the 
 current to escape ; and no more were stirred 
 till the sun began to sink behind the opposite 
 pine-woods, when, in a pool beneath a rapid, 
 another grayling was raised, and, being well 
 hooked, was landed after showing good sport. 
 This time it was a fish of a pound. 
 
 We had now come to a place where no more 
 progress could be made along the bed of the 
 river, so we hoped by following a woodman's 
 path to find a way round the steep cliffs. It 
 was a picturesque and charming walk, with the 
 pretty peeps of the river below, and the cul- 
 tivated lands and bright villages beyond ; but 
 it was also a very hot and tiresome one, for in 
 the narrowest parts of the pathway a branch 
 would be sure to hinder the passage of rod and 
 line ; and when most careful management of our 
 tackle was needed, the path would be the slip-
 
 Fly-Fishing in the Bavarian Highlands. 65 
 
 periest. At last, after following it for some 
 time, we were abruptly faced by a precipice, 
 caused by the earth having slipped away, thus 
 bringing the slight path to a complete and 
 sudden end. With much scrambling among 
 pine-trees and fir-branches, our way had therefore 
 to be wholly retraced, and when we again were 
 opposite Fischen it was time to turn home- 
 wards, for the white rocks on the summit of 
 the Eubihorn were rosy with the setting sun, 
 and Oberstdorf was already in the shade. So 
 taking down our rods, we began our tramp 
 back ; and when the Gasthof zum Mohren was 
 reached, darkness had quite covered the valley, 
 and the evening star was bright above the 
 Himmelschrofen, though the industrious Bava- 
 rian peasants were still here and there bringing 
 home their loads of autumn hay. 
 
 A basket of thirteen was the total for the 
 day for two rods, one of which was in less ex- 
 perienced hands than the other ; but as hardly a 
 single rise had been missed, scarcely more than 
 a dozen and a half would in any case have been 
 secured. 
 
 The next day was dark, and the clouds hung 
 low over the surrounding mountains. This 
 E
 
 66 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 time we took the left bank of the stream, 
 which is bordered all the way to Fischen by a 
 thick pine-wood, rich in delicate mosses and 
 graceful ferns, and through which the small 
 mountain cattle wander. A rough cart-road 
 skirts the stream. The trout taken were some- 
 what better in size, and again a basket of 
 thirteen was the result of our fishing, consist- 
 ing of two small grayling, each about a quarter 
 of a pound, and eleven trout, from an eighth 
 to a quarter of a pound. A small dun with a 
 yellow body was "quite the favourite fly on 
 both days, though a March brown and a red- 
 bodied dun also took one or two fish. Probably 
 in May and June much better sport would be 
 had with the trout, since many are certainly 
 taken by the fishermen in the course of the 
 summer with nets ; and more continuous fish- 
 ing than we gave to the Iller would in the 
 autumn certainly reward the angler with some 
 fair sport with the grayling. 
 
 But Sonthofen would really be the best spot 
 to fish from ; for the Iller there, though swift, 
 is yet a more tranquil stream, and the trout 
 would certainly be larger and the grayling 
 more numerous. On the other hand, Oberst-
 
 Fly-Fishing' in the Bavarian Highlands. 67 
 
 dorf is better situated for mountain excursions. 
 The living, too, is both cheap and good : for 
 five shillings a-day a comfortable room and 
 good food can be had. A dinner of fair soup, 
 good beef-steak, and excellent native cheese, 
 with beer or wine, will not cost more than 
 eighteenpence. 
 
 These few days at Oberstdorf are good ex- 
 amples of the difficulties and pleasures which 
 await an angler who rambles over the Con- 
 tinent. The best part of the first day, when 
 preliminary difficulties at the village were over- 
 come, was spent in gaining a knowledge of the 
 water; and even the second was to some ex- 
 tent experimental. But -the beautiful scenery, 
 the grey crags of the mountains rising from 
 the sombre pines, whose graceful forms are 
 also scattered over the bright green of the 
 hill pastures, and the brisk mountain air, would 
 outweigh even smaller baskets than were se- 
 cured on the two autumn days we gave to 
 fishing in the Iller Thai. 
 
 From Oberstdorf we made our way to Thann- 
 heim, a high village in a broadish valley at the 
 junction of a small side valley, some miles 
 up which is a little lake, the Vilsalper See,
 
 68 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 a gloomy sheet of water lying in broad green 
 alps, dotted with scores of cattle in the summer 
 time, and shaded by the precipitous mountains 
 which rise from the sides of the green basin. 
 This lake is fished with nets, but I was unable 
 to see the fisherman, and it was so still that 
 there would have been little chance of sport 
 on it. A small stream winds through the 
 meadows in the main valley, and here we 
 caught plenty of small trout, and once I took 
 two or three ide, which were feeding in a weedy 
 shallow. But these fish are not superior to 
 any of the coarse British fresh- water fish ; and 
 though their acclimatisation in England would 
 increase the number of our species, there is no 
 apparent gain to be obtained from their culti- 
 vation from any other point of view. 
 
 The inn at Thannheim was more primitive 
 than comfortable, and the innkeeper more kindly 
 than desirable. In the little back parlour, 
 where he regaled us on trout " done blue," and 
 potatoes with long fibres, and the universal veal, 
 he conceived it to be his duty as a host to sit 
 and smoke and watch us at our meal, and try 
 to carry on a conversation which his patois 
 rendered nearly incomprehensible. But it sud-
 
 Fly-Fishing in the Bavarian Highlands. 69 
 
 denly occurred to him that Thannheim possessed 
 an attraction for us strangers of which it would 
 be wrong to deprive us, so " the American " 
 was quickly brought on the scene. This man 
 was a villager who had emigrated, made a little 
 money, and returned to his native village; a 
 person of considerable shrewdness, but who 
 had lost the simple courtesy of the mountaineer, 
 and caught the free-and-easy style of the Yan- 
 kee. The chief thing he seemed to have gained 
 by his stay in the States was an impression 
 that the whole art of conversation is to mix it 
 with as many oaths as possible. In fact he 
 adopted the principle of the well-known whist 
 maxim, and when in doubt of a word, invari- 
 ably substituted the most horrible oath his 
 vocabulary possessed. So the last state of the 
 dinner was even worse than the first, for neither 
 of these excellent villagers dispensed with a 
 pipe, and we had finally to bid them good- 
 night in rather a peremptory manner. They 
 subsequently, however, never forgot to appear 
 at meal-times, and it was necessary to cut their 
 interviews shorter than they probably con- 
 sidered courteous. 
 
 The Post Inn of the village of Thannheim
 
 /o Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 possessed only a single einspanner, so the result 
 was that a singularly loaded vehicle appeared 
 one September afternoon at the little Austrian 
 town of Reutte. Inside were two of the party 
 comparatively comfortable, but perhaps too 
 tightly packed. On the somewhat narrow seat 
 in front were seated the third rambler and 
 the driver, with their feet resting on the long 
 pole. To this was harnessed " Johannes," the 
 greatly admired steed of the postmaster, more 
 used to the hay-cart than the carriage. As 
 his natural paces were erratic, the whole pro- 
 gress of the vehicle became somewhat curious, 
 since the driver was so little of a whip that 
 he could not at the best of times steer a 
 straight course ; and moreover, the carriage, 
 like the tail of Lord Dundreary's celebrated 
 dog, did not a little in the way of moving the 
 horse. But this was one out of the many little 
 incidents which must be put up with in the 
 Tyrol or the Bavarian Highlands. There was 
 a bitterly cold east wind blowing straight up 
 the Lech Thai when we reached our destina- 
 tion, but after a walk, inquiries were made as 
 to the Fischmeister of the place. His abode 
 was discovered in the main street, but he him-
 
 Fly-Fishing in the Bavarian Highlands. 7 1 
 
 self was absent, and his wife spoke an utterly 
 unintelligible patois. However, it turned out 
 that he had only the fishing in the Plan See 
 (about three miles from Eeutte), and in the 
 stream which flowed out of it, in both of which, 
 by the way, early in the year there is said to 
 be capital trout-fishing, whilst there is a con- 
 venient little inn on the shores of the lake. 
 
 So more inquiries had to be made ; and, 
 satisfied by the assertions of the postmaster, 
 the tobacconist, and the ostler of the Post Inn, 
 that the fishing in the Lech was free, we deter- 
 mined to try it in the morning. Like all the 
 rivers which run from the Eastern Alps and 
 are tributaries of the Danube such as the 
 Iller, Loisach, and the Isar the Lech is a rapid 
 river, running over a wide bed of grey stones 
 and gravel, through which it winds its devious 
 way in streams and pools. To fish it well, 
 a double - handed rod would be best, even 
 though it is cumbersome among the stones 
 and bushes not, however, that the latter are 
 numerous here. We fished about half a mile of 
 the Lech on this cold September morning, from 
 half -past ten to half -past one, with only an 
 occasional gleam of sunlight breaking through
 
 72 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 the heavy clouds. Our bag was a dozen and a 
 half of trout and grayling. The former were 
 very small, but the latter were in fine condition, 
 broad and hard, and with sides shining like 
 silver. There were three half-pounders, and 
 the rest were almost below a quarter of a pound 
 each. In these rapid streams a grayling in 
 good condition shows excellent sport. He lies 
 generally against a bank of gravel where the 
 stream is not the strongest, but when he is 
 hooked he is at once away for the quick water, 
 and with his tender mouth he is not at all 
 unlikely to escape. Moreover, if, as is very 
 likely the case, one is fishing on a bed of 
 gravel, at the end of which the river is deep 
 and rapid, there is no possibility of following 
 a fish down stream, so that a grayling is often 
 lost, when a trout, with his strong jaws, would 
 be secured. 
 
 In the afternoon we intended, after walking 
 down the opposite or left bank of the 
 stream with the third of our party a lady 
 to fish up, and leave her to move along 
 homewards sketching at her leisure; but the 
 heavy clouds burst into rain when we were 
 about two miles down the stream, so I had to
 
 Fly -Fishing in the Bavarian Highlands. 73 
 
 return home with my wife, leaving my brother 
 to try a cast or two. He secured in an hour 
 only three small trout. Having seen my wife 
 safely secured from the rain in the hotel, I was 
 quickly off to the ground of the morning, not 
 ten minutes' walk from the inn. During an 
 hour's fishing alone, a couple of small trout 
 and a half-pound grayling rewarded me for the 
 time spent in a biting east wind and down- 
 pour of rain. But it does not seem an undue 
 conclusion to draw from such a leisurely day's 
 sport, that two rods on a favourable day, work- 
 ing well from " morn to dewy eve," could come 
 home with a heavy basket of good grayling. 
 A visit to the river early on the following 
 morning, with the rain still pouring down after 
 a fourteen hours' descent, showed it thick and 
 rapidly rising, so that there was no chance of 
 fishing that day, and time would not permit 
 the third day to be spent in Eeutte. 
 
 But the place is very accessible, either by 
 way of the railway to Kempten, and thence 
 via Fussen by coach or carriage, or else by way 
 of Innsbruck from the south-east. So we left 
 somewhat reluctantly, with decidedly expressed 
 hopes that on some other autumn holiday we
 
 74 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 might be able to establish ourselves at the 
 Gasthof zur Post (where the usual five shillings 
 a-day will cover all expenses), and, though 
 the village itself is by no means attractive, 
 enjoy ourselves by having several days' good 
 steady sport with the grayling in the Lech. 
 
 Between Eeutte and Langries no attempt 
 was made to fish. At Partenkirchen the days 
 were given to walking, and the Walchen See 
 was, while we were there, never ruffled by a 
 breeze. As we passed through the quiet woods 
 and pastures of the Jachenau Thai, the stream, 
 a tributary of the Isar, from which the valley 
 takes its name, raised tempting visions of spring 
 trouting. But when we struck the Isar " rolling 
 rapidly" rather too rapidly, in fact, at Langries 
 we tried to have a final day's fishing before 
 we quitted the Bavarian Highlands. The pos- 
 sessor of the fishing in this fine river at this 
 place is the Duke of Nassau, and when we had 
 found his agent, we had no difficulty in obtain- 
 ing a card from him. The Fisch-Jcarte in 
 question was available for the months of May, 
 June, July, August, September, and October, 
 for rod-fishing for trout, grayling, and " white 
 fish." In addition to specifying the limits to
 
 Fly-FisJiing in the Bavarian Highlands. 75 
 
 which the angler's leave applied, it stated that 
 trout under fourteen and grayling under twenty- 
 four centimetres in length were to be returned 
 to the water. But unfortunately there had 
 been heavy rains in the mountains ; and the 
 Isar rolled through the valley in thick volumes, 
 bearing down to the plains great rafts of timber, 
 on which the woodmen and raftsmen steered on 
 their unrestrained way with noticeable skill and 
 strength. The result was that we secured but 
 three small grayling in one shallow, and in a 
 short time left the river, as it was hopeless to 
 wander longer by its banks. Our next view of 
 the Isar was when we stood on the bridge at 
 Munich, but our fly-fishing was then ended for 
 that autumn at least.
 
 V. 
 A SPEING EAMBLE IN NOEMANDY. 1 
 
 TT is probable that Normandy has been more 
 often the subject of works widely different 
 in their character than any other part of France. 
 Some of them, it is true, are rather worthless, 
 and it is not very creditable to modern travel- 
 lers that their writings should be inferior to 
 those that were composed years ago. Thus Mr 
 Henry Blackburn's ' Normandy Picturesque ' 
 will bear no comparison with Mr Dawson Tur- 
 ner's ' Letters from Normandy.' But consider- 
 ing how so much literature has been devoted to 
 this small part of France, and how accessible it 
 is from England, it is singular that it is not by 
 any means overrun by English travellers, and 
 
 1 1878. Reprinted by permission of Messrs Sampson 
 Low & Co.
 
 A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 77 
 
 is essentially more purely, foreign than numer- 
 ous places hundreds of miles more distant from 
 London. There is scarcely a hotel in Nor- 
 mandy where it is considered worth while to 
 take in the ' Times.' At Kouen, at Evreux, at 
 Louviers, the tourist is free from the daily 
 doings of English politicians and the fluctua- 
 tions of railway stocks and shares. It is need- 
 less to point out that it is in such complete 
 changes as necessarily result from this absence 
 of the daily routine of English life that the 
 greatest relief is found by all those who really 
 are in want of change of scene. Neither is 
 there much doubt that April and May are the 
 proper months in which to visit Normandy. 
 At this season of the year the country is free 
 from English travellers, and it is possible in 
 the towns of Eure and Calvados to live com- 
 pletely the life of the inhabitants ; and thus the 
 cost of living, though higher than it used to be, 
 is more moderate than in many parts of the 
 Continent. 
 
 But there are other and more solid advan- 
 tages to be found in a visit to Normandy in the 
 early spring. The heat and the dust in summer 
 are considerable ; and though more hilly than
 
 78 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 many parts of France, it is in no respect a 
 mountainous country, and any walking that 
 has to be done must be done along roads, and 
 not over mountain turf. If there is one thing 
 more to be avoided than another, it is hot and 
 dusty roads, and hot and dusty roads form a 
 natural part of a fine summer in Normandy. 
 Most travellers, also, are more familiar with the 
 Continent in the summer than the spring, and 
 hence the spring-time adds many charms and 
 novelties to the natural features of the country. 
 The orchards, masses of white and pink flowers 
 the banks, rich with cowslips and wood-anem- 
 ones and the bright silver foliage of the pop- 
 lars which line the streams in the meadows 
 are features partially characteristic indeed of 
 English landscapes, but which derive new 
 charms from the clearness of the atmosphere 
 in which they are set. 
 
 But it must be confessed that the possibili- 
 ties of trout-fishing occupied our minds quite 
 as much as landscapes and flamboyant archi- 
 tecture, when we arrived at Havre, from South- 
 ampton. Crossing by steamer to Honfleur, 
 and thence by train to Lisieux, the first night 
 saw my companion and myself housed in the
 
 A Spring' Ramble in Normandy. 79 
 
 Hotel du Normandie. Next morning, some 
 time was spent in looking over this quaint old 
 town, whose antique features are, however, 
 now rapidly passing away. Then, setting off 
 with our rods up the valley of the Toucques, 
 we prepared to see whether there were any fish 
 to be taken in the stream. Having got well 
 outside the town, and gone about a mile along 
 the road, we struck the river. What a sight it 
 presented ! A rapid current of chocolate was 
 what it most resembled ; obviously it was 
 utterly useless for fly-fishing purposes : still, 
 we asked a few questions of a civil labourer 
 on the neighbouring farm, who told us that 
 any one could fish there, that all sorts of fish 
 lived in the waters of the Toucques, and that 
 the trout were fine. But, as a matter of fact, 
 unless a Frenchman or a German happens to 
 be a fisherman himself, his information is, as 
 a rule, seldom to be relied on. He either 
 speaks solely from imagination, or with so 
 slight a substratum of fact, that his remarks 
 are quite valueless. If cordially minded, he 
 will fancy that he has heard of trout being 
 taken, and consequently will endeavour to 
 please the stranger by assuring him that the
 
 8o Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 river is alive with fish. If he is in a hurry, or 
 cross, he will probably forget if he ever heard 
 of any one taking a trout in the waters in 
 question, and he will say, in a downright 
 fashion, that no fish inhabit the stream. How- 
 ever, we followed the river another mile, as far 
 as the hamlet of St Martin de la Lieu. We 
 could admire the fertile valleys, covered with 
 orchards in the pure beauty of their white 
 blossoms, even if our feelings as anglers suffered 
 disappointment. True, it had rained heavily 
 the previous day, but it is doubtful if at any time 
 the Toucques can be of much good as a fishing 
 stream. The rivers more to the north, in the 
 department of the Eure, as we afterwards found, 
 were clear enough. At any rate, as it is nat- 
 ural to have heavy rains in the spring-time, 
 and as the ten days' traveller cannot afford to 
 wait three or four days for a stream to fine 
 down, I put a mark against the Toucques, as 
 one not to be thought of by the angler travel- 
 ling in the spring. So much for essay number 
 one. We had seen much charming country 
 a richer and a sunnier England but trout 
 there were none brought home that night. The 
 next day, Caen being one of the places to be
 
 A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 8 1 
 
 visited, it was determined to pass on further, 
 taking a look at the Dives where it passes by 
 the large village of Mezidon ; but it was in 
 exactly the same state as the Toucques. The 
 accounts as to fish were contradictory ; but it 
 seems doubtful whether the trout are numer- 
 ous enough to make it worth while for the 
 angler to take the Dives into his calculations. 
 Faute de mieux, it seemed the only course, 
 after Caen had been thoroughly Adsited, and 
 consequently the second most remarkable 
 town of Normandy had been made familiar to 
 the mind, to turn back into the department of 
 the Eure, to try what the Charentonne at Ber- 
 nay was like ; and if that were useless, finally 
 to make the best of the Iton near Evreux, 
 which I had of old discovered to be a good 
 trout- stream. Bernay is a town charmingly 
 situated much more primitive in its manners 
 and customs than some of the larger Norman 
 towns. Thus, the maitre d'hotel sat down to 
 dinner as one of the company, and in all 
 respects considered himself the equal of his 
 guests ; whilst at the same time, with true 
 French tact, he was always on the qui vive to 
 take care that every one obtained what they 
 F
 
 82 Rambles with a Fisliing-Rod. 
 
 required. But the accounts of the Charen- 
 tonne were far from favourable : it appeared 
 a sluggish stream, more likely to hold coarse 
 fish than trout, and it seemed very doubtful 
 whether, even some miles above the town, it 
 would be worth trying. Still, we determined 
 that if the morning were fine, as the scenery 
 was pretty, no harm could be done by walking 
 up to the village of Broglie which is also the 
 seat of the once famous political duke who has 
 disappeared into political darkness and try- 
 ing on our way for a trout. 
 
 But the first of morning sounds was the 
 steady pour of the rain. So, soon after eight 
 o'clock, the railway station, and not the road to 
 Broglie, proved to be our object; and before 
 noon we were at Evreux, in the valley of the 
 Iton a town three hours' distance by rail 
 from Eouen. The wet morning turned into a 
 warm day, with puffs of west wind, so that, 
 after a good walk, the cider of the country was 
 very acceptable. The cider of Normandy is an 
 excellent beverage, and is always given gratis 
 as part of the dinner; and many a thirsty 
 traveller must often, as he quaffs it, think of 
 old Oliver Basselin, the typical poet of medi-
 
 A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 83 
 
 eval Normandy, who, in his simple fashion, 
 sang, in the Vaux de Vire, " Hommage aux 
 Cidre " 
 
 " soulas de gosiers, 
 tres bon jus de pomme, 
 Prions pour le bonne homme 
 Qui planta les ponimiers." 
 
 A walk of a couple of miles from the Hotel 
 du Grand Cerf brought us to the village of 
 Arnieres, where a large mill stands on the Iton. 
 Permission was obtained here to fish on M. le 
 Due's the miller's property. The stream 
 was rapid for some distance. There was a dam, 
 then a long stretch of dead water, until the 
 rapid now from the mill again changed its 
 character. Nothing seemed on the move, 
 though the water, unlike that of the streams of 
 Calvados, was but little affected by the late 
 rain. At last a small trout fell a victim to the 
 attractions of a March brown, and then another 
 or two. In the dead water there were un- 
 doubtedly good trout; but the puffs of west 
 wind ruffled the water only here and there, and 
 a stronger breeze was needed to make it really 
 satisfactory fishing. However, at last, dropping 
 the cast gently beneath a willow, a good fish
 
 84 Rambles with a FisJiing-Rod. 
 
 dashed at the March brown. Whir went the 
 reel, and away went the trout. But then there 
 was a sudden rush toward the bank, and the 
 dropper was securely anchored in the low 
 overhanging branch of a neighbouring willow. 
 The fish was out of reach of the landing-net, 
 and before the branch could be brought within 
 reach of the net, the trout gave himself a twist 
 and disappeared. Another small trout or two 
 was added to the basket, and a fair-sized fish 
 was risen at the beginning of the dead water 
 above the mill ; and by that time it was nec- 
 essary to turn our steps homeward, with only 
 half-a-dozen small trout. This first afternoon 
 on the Iton was rather provoking, because at 
 the mill a gentleman from Evreux was en- 
 countered also, like ourselves, an amateur de 
 la peche, who, with his small artificial min- 
 now, had secured a fine trout over a pound, and 
 a second nearly half the weight. 
 
 Of course, in an English trout -stream, a 
 minnow would not have been allowed in water 
 which should have been kept exclusively for 
 fly-fishing; but in the chasse, the foreigner 
 looks rather to the bag than to the sport, 
 whatever be his nationality, as I have found
 
 A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 85 
 
 whenever I have encountered him in this pur- 
 suit in the Tyrol, in the Black Forest, or in 
 France. 
 
 The following day was chiefly passed in a 
 walk down the valley, through crofts and past 
 mills, so that a thorough investigation of the 
 river was made for fully ten kilometres down 
 stream, to below the village of St Germain des 
 Angles ; but from the amount of water carried . 
 through the meadows for the purpose of ferti- 
 lisation, and the many cuts, it was pretty clear 
 that the real fishing-ground of the Iton was 
 above the town of Evreux. 
 
 Next morning we started off up the valley, 
 with a bright sun and a blue sky above, and a 
 feeling that the day would be more like one 
 in England in the leafy month of June, though 
 in Normandy the primroses and wild violets, 
 the wood-anemones, the more stately purple 
 orchids, graced the banks in profusion, and the 
 meadows were yellow and fragrant with cow- 
 slips. About a mile above the village of 
 Arnieres there was a large mill, with a good 
 piece of water below, so we determined to try 
 for permission here. But on demanding if 
 monsieur the miller was at home, we were re-
 
 86 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 ferred to a stout lady, who, with great abrupt- 
 ness, refused permission. We pleaded that we 
 were strangers, and in all probability might 
 never have the opportunity of fishing there 
 again. This appeal ad misericordiam only 
 caused niadame to refuse even more decidedly. 
 The offer to present her with any trout we 
 might take made a look of scorn break over 
 her not very beautiful features ; and argument 
 and entreaty being alike exhausted, we re- 
 treated in no very amiable frame of mind from 
 the mill-yard. Half a mile higher up was the 
 village of Aulnay, where there was yet another 
 mill. Here we were confronted with another 
 madam e, the wife of M. Delille, the miller, but 
 quite different from the person we had just left. 
 The old Norman type of countenance, the 
 signs of a descent from the old Scandinavian 
 rovers, the followers of Eoric and Eollo, are 
 still to be seen in Normandy; and Madame 
 Delille preserved them in her fair hair, her 
 bright complexion, and her clear blue eyes. 
 At first she hesitated, but soon she seemed to 
 come to the conclusion that her husband would 
 not object to her exercising his authority, and 
 presently she ended her sentence with "Allez
 
 A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 87 
 
 pecker, messieurs." But it was unfortunately 
 a jour de fete, and consequently all the dains 
 in the river seemed to be discharging their 
 waters : it was fully a foot and a half above 
 its usual height, and somewhat muddy into the 
 bargain. However, before long two small trout 
 were taken, and then I moved over a half-built 
 wall into the next field, where I was confronted 
 with a hard-featured old peasant, who vouchsafed 
 the information that it was his property ; and 
 apparently his dignity was so much injured by 
 the mode of entry, that he would in no way 
 budge from his obstinate " Non, nonf" The 
 next cottage being empty, the following one 
 was tried, and here another blue-eyed matron 
 kindly vouchsafed her leave, and also went to 
 the part belonging to the empty house, which 
 belonged to her brother-in-law, and I was soon 
 joined by her husband, a handsome and kindly 
 peasant proprietor. Presently one trout, which 
 was, however, less than a quarter of a pound, 
 was landed ; and in the meantime, much con- 
 versation on all subjects, from angling to 
 politics, took place. The main gist of the 
 political subjects was that, before all else, 
 Frenchmen desired peace. And then a small
 
 88 Rambles with a Fishing Rod. 
 
 trout or two were taken before two o'clock ; 
 but the water was very unfavourable, and 
 the " pounders," which seemed to inhabit the 
 waters, were not to be allured. We parted 
 from our friends in a properly cordial manner. 
 The family were seated at dinner not at the 
 cabbage and bacon of an English labourer, but 
 at rolled veal and asparagus, camembert cheese, 
 washed down by cider, and followed by cafd 
 noir. But a bottle of Bordeaux was opened 
 in our honour, and mutual healths were drunk 
 with much clinking of glasses. 
 
 As we came out of the village we met the 
 fisherman who shared with a gentleman from 
 Evreux the right of fishing for half a mile down 
 the stream, for which he paid seventy francs 
 a-year. He was a professional fisherman, who 
 sold the fish which he took, and his sole instru- 
 ment was a net. His companion in this fishery 
 was a professor at a lycte in Evreux ; and as 
 we watched the former deftly cast his bell- 
 shaped net into the stream, the companion- 
 ship of the two seemed, to the English mind, 
 incomprehensible. So far, indeed, as regards 
 fishing, it would seem to have been a case 
 over again of the iron and earthen pots sail-
 
 A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 89 
 
 ing down stream together. However, eight 
 casts did he ineffectually make, with many 
 good-humoured growlings at the mauvaise 
 peche and the eau forte et trouble, which 
 were doing him out of his day's earnings. Of 
 course the trout he sometimes took were mon- 
 sters, 5 to 7 Ib. in weight a tale I ques- 
 tion ; though doubtless in the deep mill-pools 
 there are some fine trout, very likely 2 or 3 
 Ib. in weight. Another small trout, nearer M. 
 le Due's mill, was basketed on the way home ; 
 but half-a-dozen was the result of the day's 
 fishing, thanks, we may fairly opine, to the 
 flooded state of the river. Two days' fishing on 
 the Iton had thus only brought a dozen small 
 trout, and from the point of view of sport alone, 
 were essentially poor days, though in other 
 respects they had been most enjoyable; for 
 we had seen many charming landscapes, such 
 as we associate in our minds with Corot's pic- 
 tures, and had met with rebuffs from some 
 people which amused us, and with kindness 
 from others which was genuine and hearty. 
 
 Next day the time had come for us to leave 
 Evreux ; but having a few hours to spare in the 
 morning, they seemed best spent in M. le Due's
 
 9O Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 meadows, especially as there was a fresh breeze 
 from the south-west, and little suri. The river 
 at Arnieres was still more or less abnormally 
 large ; yet it was worth trying, especially in 
 the usually dead water, which to-day was not 
 a little ruffled by the wind. Before very many 
 minutes of fishing, a nice trout was hooked and 
 safely brought to the bank, turning the scale 
 at half a pound. Presently another rise, and 
 another fish was hooked ; but managing clev- 
 erly to secure the line to a branch in the 
 stream, he made his escape. Soon after, the 
 more rapid water was left, and the rest of the 
 bank was lined with willows and poplars some 
 little distance apart, bordering a more slow- 
 flowiog portion of the Iton. Here the fishing, 
 with the strong wind, became rather delicate ; 
 but the trout were clearly on the look-out for 
 insects dropping from the trees, and some of 
 them were nice fish, which showed good sport 
 when secured. Nearly at the end of the reach, 
 just as the fly was making a circle with a 
 gentle eddy beneath a willow-tree, there was 
 a barely perceptible breaking of the surface, 
 and away went a trout for the opposite bank, 
 running out several yards of line before his
 
 A Spring Ramble in Normandy. 9 1 
 
 course was completed. Delicate handling, under 
 the circumstances, was needful ; but after a 
 little patience, an excellent trout was placed 
 among the daisies and buttercups, which brought 
 the scale down to the pound mark. He was 
 the best and the last trout I took from the Iton. 
 When the contents of the basket were counted, 
 nine trout were placed side by side one a 
 pound, four half-pounders, and two under a 
 quarter of a pound. This was a very pleasant 
 morning's sport for the two hours we were at 
 work. The fly which took every fish was a 
 moderate - sized February red, or rather one 
 with a roughish claret body ; while the March 
 brown was quite out of favour. The two fisher- 
 men with whom I had a talk on the previous 
 day assured me that larger flies were better, 
 and that mine were too small. This I doubt, 
 for the morning's fishing clearly proved that 
 the trout of the Iton took a moderate-sized 
 English fly very readily. As a matter of fact, 
 the French fishermen do not understand much 
 about artificial flies. I bought a native-dressed 
 fly, the Papillonjaspt, au soleil, a clumsy thing, 
 with big wings of a cock's wing, and a large red 
 body, which I have kept as a curiosity. The
 
 92 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 better class of flies resembled an English May- 
 fly, and had all large light wings. The com- 
 mon kinds were all very gaudy, red and blue, 
 some palmers and others winged, but all quite 
 inferior to those of English make. Indeed 
 you scarcely ever see a fishing-tackle shop in 
 France, and these flies were quite an excep- 
 tional sight to me among the wares in an iron- 
 monger's shop. Where there is any fly-fishing 
 to speak of, there must be plenty of flies to be 
 sold ; and the fact that you seldom see arti- 
 ficial flies for sale in France is a kind of cir- 
 cumstantial evidence that fly-fishing is really 
 scarcely practised at all and therefore, that 
 anything which is said as to the best size of 
 flies by native fishermen, is probably based 
 on the merest prejudice, and should not weigh 
 in the balance against the judgment and the 
 experience of an English angler.
 
 93 
 
 VI. 
 
 A WEEK AT A GEEMAN CASTLE. 1 
 
 T HAD the good fortune this autumn to be 
 out of the beaten track of tourists, and to 
 find myself resting in an old German castle on 
 the borders of Bavaria and Wurtemberg. Its 
 massive walls and deeply recessed windows, its 
 courtyard ruddy with the warm hues of the 
 Virginian creeper, its spacious oak- staircases 
 and the sombre panelling, the armour and the 
 weapons of a bygone age, carried me back into 
 distant years. But of all parts of the house, 
 the most delightful was the library. Though 
 its windows did not open, like those of some of 
 the rooms, above the topmost branches of the 
 ashes and the firs which clung to the bank 
 below the castle walls, and almost hid the 
 
 1 1882.
 
 94 Rambles with a FisJting-Rod. 
 
 glistening waters of the Argen where it gleamed 
 below, yet its own attractions compensated 
 for its more contracted views. 
 
 Opposite to one sitting at the writing-table 
 was the door, the two panels of which depicted, 
 in elaborate carving of the period of the Ee- 
 naissance, a strong castle, with courtyard and 
 towers ; the panelled walls were likewise en- 
 riched with foliage and heads, and on the door- 
 post was plainly to be seen the date 1539. 
 Leaning back in the chair, the eye would 
 rest upon the handsome bosses and tracery of 
 the wooden ceiling. Imagination would carry 
 one back to the days of medieval Germany, 
 were it not for the well-filled bookcases, and 
 bronzes after the antique, which showed that the 
 room of the noble of the past had become the 
 library of the reader of the nineteenth century. 
 It was the gem of one of those architectural 
 remnants of the past which tell where a noble 
 family at one time dwelt, possessors of the 
 land which is now covered by the farms of the 
 peasant proprietors of Bavaria and Wurtem- 
 berg. Below in the valley wound the Untere 
 or Lower Argen, which there for many miles 
 forms the frontier line of Bavaria and Wiirtem-
 
 A Week at a German Castle. 95 
 
 berg. If you went up the hill at the back of 
 the castle, your eye ranged over an undulating 
 country of hedgeless fields of grass and corn, 
 much intermixed with clumps of dark fir-trees, 
 and sprinkled with solid - looking dwellings, 
 half farmhouses and half cottages, with cheer- 
 ful red roofs and white walls, and a square 
 bit of garden bright in September days with 
 phloxes and dahlias, among which rises a tall 
 pole surmounted by what seems to be a doll's 
 house. This is where the starling lives in 
 spring, ready to devour the insect known here- 
 abouts as the May-bug. These are the dwell- 
 ings of the freeholding farmers of Bavaria and 
 Wlirtemberg, who own nearly all the land, 
 and cultivate from twenty to sixty acres apiece. 
 The agricultural labourer, who exists only by 
 selling his labour, is unknown, for the larger 
 farmers employ their smaller brethren, and the 
 whole of the farmer's family toil in the fields. 
 You see a woman reaping whilst the husband 
 and children are making hay in the next field, 
 or a husband and wife managing an ill-matched 
 team in the shape of a leggy horse and a 
 small cow. When a farmer dies, his posses- 
 sions are equally divided ; but in practice, one
 
 96 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 son will usually buy the shares of his brothers 
 and sisters if the farm is too small to be use- 
 fully subdivided. None of the evils which are 
 supposed to follow the compulsory subdivision 
 of property seem visible here. Poverty is un- 
 known ; every house is comfortable and roomy. 
 Here, too, there is no high farming, but thrift 
 and hard work have produced a contented and 
 flourishing agricultural population. 
 
 But turning to the southward of the height 
 on which we stand, the summits of the Algauer 
 Alps are visible, whilst a hazy line to the west 
 shows where the Sentis and surrounding moun- 
 tains rise above the opposite shores of the 
 Boden See. The Argen flows into this lake, be- 
 tween Friedrichshafen and Lindau; some ten 
 miles higher it passes the little town of Wan- 
 gen, where it divides into the Upper and Lower 
 Argen. In its course from the mountains the 
 Upper Argen passes the large village of Isny, 
 which is but a few miles from the other branch. 
 Both Wangen and Isny can now be reached by 
 rail from Stuttgart or Ulm, and also by car- 
 riage from stations on the Munich and Lindau 
 line the Bavarian State Eailway Wangen 
 from Hergatz, and Isny from Kempten. Wan-
 
 A Week at a German Castle. 97 
 
 gen is perhaps the best situation, as it com- 
 mands the lower reaches of the Argen, as well 
 as the upper and lower branches. The right of 
 fishing is mostly in the hands, not of the ripa- 
 rian owners, but of several proprietors, some of 
 whom retain it in their own control, whilst 
 others let it out to one or more persons. But, 
 once arrived at either Wangen or Isny, there 
 is no difficulty, I understand, in obtaining leave 
 to fish. 
 
 There had been heavy rain before my arrival 
 at the castle, but the river the Untere Argen 
 had had time to fine down, and when I got 
 to its banks it was thick with a grey sedi- 
 ment, but yet clear enough for fly-fishing. 
 Immediately under the fir-covered bank which 
 rose precipitately from the river to the castle, 
 was a weir-pool ; and here, on a bright and 
 warm September morning, I made my first 
 cast. No one who has fished in Germany 
 would think of fishing without a green-bodied 
 fly, and to this was added, to make up the cast 
 a red-bodied one, with some gold twist, and 
 blackcock wings. The appetites of the Argen 
 trout I found of the keenest ; and in a couple of 
 hours ten nice trout were in my basket, which 
 
 G
 
 98 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 turned the scale at 2| Ib. Ten or a dozen more 
 had been returned to the water, as I did not 
 consider them large enough to keep. 
 
 Upon getting back to the house, my friends 
 told me that the fishing which they rented 
 extended down, and not up, the river, and that 
 this pretty pool was not comprised in their 
 water ; so after luncheon I began to fish down 
 stream. The Argen ran through meadows over 
 a bed principally composed of white pebbles, 
 mixed here and there with marl and sand. It 
 was, piscatorially, indeed a charming bit of 
 water. Here it ran lightly over shallows, and 
 there it inclined with circling eddies under a 
 bank shaded with alder - bushes. Again it 
 would make a sudden curve, and rush over a 
 bank of gravel into a deep pool ; and then it 
 grew calm and widened, till again the ripple 
 showed where was the shallow barrier from the 
 next deep water. The only fault to be found 
 with this stream was, that in many places it 
 was guarded on both sides by the thick alder- 
 bushes, backed by young firs, so that from time 
 to time it was absolutely impossible to cast 
 with safety without wading to the depth of a 
 foot or two. I very soon found that the fishing
 
 A Week at a German Castle. 99 
 
 was even better than in the morning, and took 
 fish after fish. In one broad pool a hardly per- 
 ceptible movement showed where a fish was 
 feeding. I threw over him, and another almost 
 imperceptible break of the water proved that 
 my invitation was accepted. After a brisk 
 struggle, a handsome grayling between three- 
 quarters of a pound and a pound was credited 
 to the little green. A German grayling in 
 sharpish water in the autumn is distinctly a 
 gainer and stronger fish than a trout of the 
 same size, and will show a surprising amount 
 of sport. I have seldom fished for them in 
 England, but those I have taken were not so 
 game as their German brethren. Possibly the 
 more rapid character of the German streams 
 makes the grayling in them a stronger and 
 more active fish. 
 
 The dinner-hour at the castle was a quarter 
 past four, and I quitted the banks of the river 
 a quarter of an hour before that time. Sitting 
 down on the edge of a meadow covered with 
 the delicate pink of the autumn crocus, varied 
 with the pale-blue flowers of the wild succory, 
 which were very abundant, I turned out the 
 contents of the basket at the foot of a clump of
 
 ioo Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 dark-blue monk's-hood. It would have been a 
 charming picture for one who possessed the 
 brush of a Hunt. There were eleven bright 
 and shapely fish, which turned the scale at 4| 
 Ib. Fully a couple of dozen others had been 
 returned to the water, many of them but little 
 short of a quarter of a pound. The sport of 
 the afternoon but whetted my appetite for the 
 evening, so at six o'clock I was again throwing 
 the fly with equal success. In half an hour I 
 had taken nearly a dozen trout, from half a 
 pound to 2 oz. But enough is as good as a 
 feast, and I began to grow tired of the ease 
 with which trout after trout was hooked ; so at 
 half-past six I climbed up to the castle, well 
 satisfied with my first day on the Argen. 
 
 The following day was brilliantly fine : white 
 clouds flew across the sun, but in the intervals 
 he shone with a power which we do not know 
 in our cooler climate. This is one of the draw- 
 backs to Continental fishing in the summer 
 or autumn. It is impossible to stand under 
 a big white umbrella ; and after half an hour's 
 roasting, one becomes wholly disinclined for 
 more fishing. However, during the worst part 
 of the day some two dozen and a half of trout
 
 A Week at a German Castle. 101 
 
 were taken, though I only actually killed seven, 
 each of which was between a quarter and half 
 a pound; each, too, was a bright and well- 
 shaped trout, showing the effect of the light 
 stones and equally bright-coloured water from 
 which he came. A whirling dun and the 
 green body were about equal favourites. 
 
 The next day the Argen had become much 
 brighter and clearer, and the sun was every- 
 thing which the industrious hay-makers, who 
 were gathering in their second and third 
 crops, could desire. But it was too w r arm for 
 mid-day fishing ; it was evident that even 
 from three to four was too early, for nothing 
 but some small fry and a quarter of a pound 
 grayling rewarded an hour's stroll. However, 
 an hour in the evening, from six to seven, 
 afforded some pleasant fishing ; the soft pure 
 air was in itself delicious ; the river rushed 
 downwards in the still evening with a music 
 which is one of the most delightful of sounds 
 to the town-dweller, suggestive as it is of free- 
 dom and sport. I came home with six or seven 
 fish, including a half-pound grayling, which had 
 been compelled, after a brave fight, to leave 
 his gravelly home at the foot of a rippling
 
 IO2 Rambles witJi a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 stream. Other smaller fish were returned, to 
 give sport when they had attained more mature 
 years. 
 
 The weather remained delightful for the tra- 
 veller, making the somewhat sombre country 
 charmingly bright and cheerful ; but it was not 
 such as to tempt me for long hours to the river- 
 bank. However, on the next evening but one, 
 I took a regretful farewell of the Argen, by 
 basketing four half-pounders and some small 
 fry in the still evening. In some respects this 
 more delicate fishing was pleasanter than the 
 easier-obtained basket of the first day. There 
 is a greater attraction and excitement in drop- 
 ping a fly neatly under a root-entwined bank, 
 and enticing a fish from his home, than in secur- 
 ing a hungry feeder in mid-stream in thickish 
 water. Any one who likes this contemplative 
 kind of fishing might enjoy many pleasant 
 evenings on the Argen ; sometimes standing on 
 firm dry banks of gravel, at others wading on 
 equally firm ground in mid-stream, where the 
 water swirls gently over a wider bed. The 
 pools and deeper runs always would be fishable, 
 even in the driest weather, so that from four 
 o'clock to seven one might be sure to get some
 
 A Week at a German Castle. 103 
 
 fishing. Probably no one would care to go so 
 far as the Argen solely for the sake of the 
 angling ; but whoever wished to see something 
 of Germany, and especially of the most flour- 
 ishing kind of peasant proprietorship, or desired 
 to have a few days' trouting during some part 
 of a summer holiday, might certainly have 
 many a pleasant hour on its banks. He would 
 have the water almost entirely to himself. I 
 never saw a single angler the country-folk are 
 far too busy with their daily toil to trouble 
 aboiit fishing ; and the river holds abundance of 
 fish. My first day's fishing shows what may 
 be done under very favourable circumstances ; 
 the others, that even in brighter weather, with 
 clear water, fish may also be taken.
 
 IO4 
 
 VII. 
 A DIARY AT DAVOS. 1 
 
 "VTOTHING is more difficult than to form a 
 ** fair estimate of the angling value of a lake 
 or river after giving it only a short trial : it is for 
 this reason that so little reliance can be placed 
 upon the recommendations which are given of 
 this or that locality unless the sum of a number 
 of experiences can be obtained. On the other 
 hand, information as to fishing on the Conti- 
 nent is so often asked for, that some short 
 notes of recent fishing experiences in Switzer- 
 land may be useful, especially as, having had 
 frequent opportunities of trying the lakes and 
 streams of most of the neighbouring countries, 
 the nature of the fishing was more or less 
 familiar to me. But the object of this expedi- 
 
 1 1882.
 
 A Diary at Davos. 105 
 
 tion to Switzerland was not primarily for the 
 purpose of fishing. As usual, however, I was 
 quite prepared for a day's angling. 
 
 The valley of Davos is known by reputation 
 as a celebrated " health resort," at any rate 
 to most English people ; but it should not be 
 forgotten that, in fact, there are two places of 
 this name about a mile apart : the upper one, 
 Davos-Dorfli ; the lower, Davos Platz, a spot 
 which is now a village of hotels and their 
 attendant shops, not to speak of the invalids 
 who frequent them. Two routes lead to this 
 place ; one from Landquart, up the Prattigau 
 another from Chur, up the Albula valley and 
 the Davoser Thai, following the course of the 
 Landwasser, a road which abounds with mag- 
 nificent scenery. I journeyed from Landquart 
 to Davos, going as far as the village of Klosters, 
 through the Prattigau, and by the stream which 
 waters it the river Landquart an ever-foam- 
 ing cataract. Some fourteen miles up the 
 valley, at the little village of Kublis, I had 
 a morning to spare, and, with fly and min- 
 now, tried to entice a trout from the rushing 
 waters but absolutely in vain. I had one 
 fellow-angler, a small boy, with a short rod,
 
 io6 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 fishing with grasshoppers. Higher up, in the 
 neighbourhood of Klosters, there were opportun- 
 ities of looking into the odd little barrels which 
 numerous anglers carried on their backs. They 
 generally contained two or three small trout, 
 taken with a grasshopper. But I 1 am sure that 
 no real sport can be had in the Laudquart ; 
 though just below the junction of the streams 
 which issue from the Sardasca and Yereina 
 Thaler, and which together form this river, 
 there are some slower pieces of water, where 
 the stream hurries, but somewhat more gently, 
 through pine-forests and cattle-feeding alps. 
 These I noted in a walk to the Sardasca chalets; 
 but as, in the following night, torrents of rain 
 fell, greatly raising the river and making it 
 very turbid, I did not care to go over the same 
 ground without a chance of using a fly, though 
 it should have been a spot where one with a 
 green body ought to have landed some trout. 
 At Davos there is a lake, " Sehr fischreich" 
 say the German guide - books, " where good 
 trout-fishing may be had," say the Englishmen. 
 It is about a mile in length, and half a mile 
 in breadth. On one side are those green well- 
 watered slopes so characteristic of Switzerland ;
 
 A Diary at Davos. 107 
 
 ou the other, the pine-woods, which cover the 
 base of the Seehorn, darken the waters of the 
 little lake. Davos Dorfli is not more than five 
 minutes' walk from the lower end of the lake ; 
 whilst the more fashionable Davos Platz, where 
 the majority of visitors stay, is fully half an 
 hour's walk distant. About half-way down the 
 lake is another small inn, the Gasthaus Seehorn ; 
 but the Hotel Fluela, in Davos Dorfli, is the 
 best place for any one to take up his quarters 
 at who wishes to try his luck in the Davoser 
 See. It is a comfortable and homely house, 
 carried on in a patriarchal fashion, almost by an 
 entire family, from Herr Gredig, the proprietor, 
 downwards. Two boats one for rowing as we 
 understand the word, another for rowing d la 
 gondolier are possessed in common by the 
 Fluela and the Kurhaus Davos Dorfli. Two or 
 three boats also belong to the Seehorn ; so that 
 any one who wishes to fish must, if he can, 
 obtain one of these, as there seem to be no 
 others on the lake. In the meadows below, 
 the Landwasser runs the first mile of its 
 course, not quite so foaming a torrent as the 
 Landquart, but yet a very rapid stream. As 
 regards the Landwasser, it seems to be much
 
 io8 Rambles with a Fisliing-Rod. 
 
 over-fished. There is hardly a moment of the 
 day on which a weary-looking peasant, with a 
 long rod and an appendant grasshopper, is not 
 dangling this luckless insect on its waters ; and 
 for a very good reason, as trout are sold for 
 three francs the pound, so that every fish is a 
 small fortune to the frugal Swiss. The water 
 is very clear, and there is little opportunity, so 
 rapid is it generally, for any of the fly-fisher's 
 skill. On a warm day two or three fair-sized 
 fish may be taken here or there ; but to my 
 mind it is not worth any thought from an 
 angler who does not, like one of the inhabitants 
 of the valley, wish to make a few centimes by 
 his rod. 
 
 I will give my opinion of the lake shortly ; 
 and then any one who may think of fishing 
 there, can form his own views from some short 
 notes of my fishing at Davos. There are plenty 
 of trout, probably some large ones, but the aver- 
 age size is about a quarter to half a pound ; a 
 good trout is three-quarters to one pound. They 
 seem to be shy risers ; and though, doubtless, on 
 a favourable day a good basket of fish might 
 be taken with the fly, yet on the whole it is not 
 a trustworthy lure. On all hands it is agreed
 
 A Diary at Davos. 1 09 
 
 that the fish will not rise in cold weather ; but 
 5000 feet above the sea-level, cold weather is 
 necessarily more common than warm. Again, 
 on a warm sunny day there is probably no 
 wind, and in really fine weather in the Alps 
 wind is generally absent. It is on the cold 
 stormy days when there is most wind, and this 
 is just the weather in which the Davos trout 
 prefers not to rise. On the other hand, when 
 there is any wind, and the sun is not too bright, 
 a trout or two may be taken with the minnow ; 
 and again, after sunset, if there is a breeze, and 
 the day has been warm, there is sure to be some 
 sport for an hour or two, and on a day in which 
 the trout are on the feed the minnow will ac- 
 count for a good basket. But on the whole, 
 and taken one day with another, the Davoser 
 See is distinctly, I think, a bad lake for angling, 
 though it may very well beguile a day or an 
 afternoon, when there are plenty of walking 
 and climbing expeditions to form the staple 
 of amusement. 
 
 First Day (end of August}. A piercingly 
 cold north wind, with snow on the tops of the 
 mountains. The Landwasser was tried in the 
 morning with fly and minnow. It was quite
 
 no Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 useless, as only one small trout was taken. A 
 wet afternoon followed, with falling snow on 
 the higher parts of the mountains, and a strong 
 wind. Fished the lake from the bank with 
 fly, minnow, and artificial grasshopper, but 
 only took a small trout at the mouth of the 
 Landwasser. 
 
 Second Day. Bright sun and cold wind. 
 Fished the Landwasser for an hour in the 
 morning, and took a small trout. From eleven 
 to one wandered about the banks of the lake, 
 and took a couple of small trout with a dun 
 fly. In the afternoon took a few more small 
 things. 
 
 Third Day. Fished the lake from ten to 
 twelve, and took a small trout, and lost a 
 better-sized one, but had no other rises : a 
 fair northerly wind. On this day I made 
 the acquaintance of Conrad Lattner, the fisher- 
 man who attends to the nets on the lake. 
 The privilege of fishing with nets belongs to 
 the proprietors of the Fluela and Kurhaus 
 Davos Dorfli : it has been obtained for a 
 valuable consideration. Lattner is rather an 
 oddity, with some contempt for rod -fishing 
 on a lake, though he occupies most of the
 
 A Diary at Davos. . in 
 
 day with his rod on the Landwasser. The 
 nets are set every evening. I agreed to meet 
 him at half-past six on the following morning, 
 and go with him to lift the nets. 
 
 Fourth Day. At half-past six I was on the 
 banks of the lake, feeling rather cold, and not 
 well pleased at having to wait for the fisher- 
 man. From the three nets which were laid 
 but one half-pound trout was produced, the 
 startling result being caused by the cold wind 
 and bright moon so my informant said. It 
 was satisfactory to find that the course of the 
 net fisherman does not run smooth. The night 
 before, four trout had been the result, and the 
 same number were secured the following night, 
 but of these facts I was not an eyewitness ; 
 and possibly the sport was improved for the 
 benefit of the inquisitive Englishman. Of 
 course spots were shown where monsters of 
 10 or 12 Ib. had been taken ; but a daily 
 netting ought occasionally to land something 
 out of the common. I was also treated to a 
 story of how the said Lattner rowed an Eng- 
 lishman up and down the lake for three hours 
 while he threw his fly, and how only one fish 
 was caught somewhat, I think, to the fisher-
 
 1 1 2 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 man's delight. In fact, when, as on the Con- 
 tinent, the fisherman regards trout-taking as a 
 serious business, the amateur is looked on as 
 an oddity to be tolerated, but not encouraged. 
 I gathered, also, that three or four to the pound 
 is the average size of the Davos trout. 
 
 In the afternoon I obtained the use of the 
 Fluela Hotel boat, having tried the bank-fishing 
 with so little success ; but though there was a 
 fresh northerly breeze, the trout would not rise 
 at all to any fly, large or small. It is true, 
 there was a very bright sun; but the breeze 
 was sufficiently strong to give plenty of motion 
 to the surface of the lake. The fly being use- 
 less, I had recourse to a moderate-sized Devon 
 minnow, but trolled until about a quarter past 
 five without success, though the magnificent 
 view of the Piz St Michel and the Taschen- 
 horn, closing in the lower outline of the valley, 
 was alone sufficient to make the rowing on the 
 lake a pleasure. Hardly, however, had the sun 
 dropped behind the Weissfluh, and the lake 
 grown dark with the evening shadows, than, 
 from an absolutely torpid state, the trout became 
 lively, and more than one run at the minnow 
 showed that they were on the feed. By half-past
 
 A Diary at Davos. 113 
 
 six I had secured a brace of pretty half-pound 
 trout, having had at least seven or eight runs. 
 Whether the trout took shyly, or whether the 
 hooks of the minnow were too small, I should 
 not like to say, though I have a strong opinion 
 that tackle-makers do not dress the Devon 
 minnows with sufficiently large hooks, and are 
 wrong in not placing a triangle near the head, 
 which is the spot which the trout attacks. A 
 hook two or three sizes larger than is usually 
 allowed the fisherman, shows no more than the 
 small-sized ones if a minnow spins well, and 
 will often hook a trout, or hold him if hooked, 
 when the smaller size will only cause disap- 
 pointment. 
 
 Fifth Day. A couple of hours' trolling in 
 the morning produced a couple of trout, one a 
 nice fish of three-quarters of a pound, bright 
 and silvery, with pale-orange fins and a great 
 broad tail, and not a single pink spot. The 
 difference in colour and shape of the trout in 
 the lake is noticeable. Some are dark, and 
 resemble an ordinary lake-trout (Salmo fario) ; 
 others, such as this, might be fresh run from 
 the sea. The latter, so far as I can judge, are 
 small specimens of the great lake-trout (Salmo 
 H
 
 1 14 Rambles ^vitJl a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 ferox), or, as it is called by Continental writers, 
 Trutta lacustris. A short description and 
 drawing of this fish is given in that handy 
 little book, Weber's ' Die Fische Deutschlands 
 und der Schweiz;' 1 but it is noticeable that 
 the author states the flesh to be white, whilst 
 that of the Davos trout which were cooked 
 was quite pink. 
 
 Sixth Day. After rowing about the lake in 
 the afternoon under a deep blue sky, with a 
 light south-easterly wind, as soon as the western 
 side of the lake was in shadow, I went across 
 into the darker water, and was barely within 
 the line of shadow before a trout was at the 
 minnow. In brief, from five o'clock to half-past 
 six I secured a brace of half-pounders, lost an- 
 other as I was about to lift him into the boat, 
 and had my minnow carried off with a rush, as 
 a bad swivel gave way. In addition I had 
 several runs, so that but for misfortunes, I 
 should have secured a couple of brace of trout. 
 
 Such were my experiences of the Davoser 
 
 See at the end of August and the beginning of 
 
 September. The days noted above were not 
 
 consecutive, but occurred during a stay of ten 
 
 1 C. Kaiser : Miinchen, 1870.
 
 A Diary at Davos. \ 1 5 
 
 days in very varying weather. I think they 
 bear out the result which has been stated at the 
 commencement of this paper, that fishing on 
 this charming lake is very well as a break in 
 the regular amusements of a mountain resort ; 
 but that it is not good enough to form the main 
 amusement, or to bring a stranger to this valley 
 who desires to have plenty of sport.
 
 n6 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE PROFESSIONAL FISHERMAN OF 
 THE EASTERN ALPS. 
 
 professional fresh-water fisherman is a 
 -*- person quite unknown among the sporting 
 characters of Great Britain. For though here 
 and there in Scotland and Ireland there are 
 men who make their living by trout and salmon 
 fishing, it is rather as attendants on anglers 
 than as fishermen themselves. But in the 
 Alps, and on the various rivers and lakes which 
 are fed by these great mountains, all this is 
 changed. The angler as such, the man who 
 fishes in his leisure hours for the sake of sport, 
 may be said to be wholly unknown; and the 
 trout and grayling of the rivers of Austria and 
 Bavaria fall victims not to the scientific lures 
 of the fishing amateur, but to the nets and
 
 Fisherman of the Eastern Alps. 1 17 
 
 spears of the professional fisherman. Angling 
 as a sport is really ignored on the Continent, 
 though here and there in France an amateur 
 de la peche may be found. In France, the fact 
 that the right of fishing in a stream belongs to 
 the riparian owners, and that they are usually 
 legion, is a great bar to any general letting or 
 tenancy of the fishing. But in Germany, either 
 the State, or the commune of some village or 
 town, or some great proprietor, nearly always 
 owns the right of fishing, and consequently 
 there is no difficulty in finding large stretches 
 of water under the ownership of one man. 
 Amateurs there are, broadly speaking, none ; so 
 the professional fisherman has it all his own 
 way, and works his will with many charm- 
 ing rivers and lakes. How much the epicures 
 of large towns like Munich or Milan owe to 
 him is scarcely thoroughly known ; but as a 
 matter of fact, live trout are sent scores of 
 miles from some mountain-lake to appear on 
 the table in the fashionable restaurant of the 
 capital of a kingdom. Thus the lake-trout in 
 the little Vilsalper See, far up in the Bavarian 
 Alps, are despatched to Kempteu and Munich; 
 and many other lakes and rivers on the northern
 
 1 1 8 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 and southern slopes of the Alps, would serve as 
 similar examples. Trout in the Munich market 
 fetch, towards the end of the season, from two 
 marks seventy-four pfennigs per pound (about 
 2s. 7d.) to three marks ; and even the pike, 
 much despised in England, will fetch from 
 Is. 2d. to Is. 3d. a pound : so that, since all 
 these fish are supplied through the agency of 
 the professional fresh-water fisherman, it will 
 be obvious that he holds no unimportant place 
 as a supplier of food, especially when the diffi- 
 culty, if not impossibility, of obtaining sea-fish 
 in the inland towns of Europe is considered. 
 
 Generally the professional fisherman rents 
 his lake or piece of river by the year, and has 
 to take it afresh every year. Sometimes it is 
 put up to auction, and then the price for the 
 year may be double that which was given the 
 preceding year. Occasionally the fisherman 
 will rent his water for two or three years, 
 paying a lump sum down for a three years' 
 tenancy. The rents, as may be imagined, vary 
 considerably. As a rule, they would be con- 
 sidered small according to English notions ; 
 but the professional fisherman, unless which 
 is very rarely the case he happens to be the
 
 Fisherman of the Eastern Alps. 1 19 
 
 proprietor of a hotel, is never a rich man. 
 On poor streams, where there is little or no 
 market for the fish, a stretch of water will be 
 rented for 1, 10s. or 3 a-year. Another 
 lake or stream, where the fish are good, and 
 where there is a brisk demand on the spot, or 
 the means of communication with towns are 
 easy, will fetch from 50 to 100 a-year. 
 
 The professional fresh -water fishermen are 
 a class with whom travellers are not usually 
 brought much into contact; but no one can 
 go a few times into the Eastern Alps with a 
 fishing-rod without becoming acquainted with 
 them ; for, with some exceptions, when the 
 water happens to be the property of a large 
 proprietor, it is the fisherman who has first 
 to be sought out. Although a peasant, or 
 a little above one, he considers himself some- 
 what superior to the ordinary workers of the 
 village ; for he earns his bread without the con- 
 stant toil which the peasants of the Alps have 
 to undergo. He throws his nets, and brings in 
 his fish and sells them to the hotel-keepers, or 
 despatches them to the town, and his day's 
 work is done ; and he has then only to mend 
 his tackle, smoke bad tobacco, and drink five
 
 I2O Rambles with a FisJting-Rod. 
 
 or- six pints of Bavarian beer before bedtime. 
 Thus in his own mind he is generally a person 
 of importance ; and it is much worse to wound 
 his pride by fishing in his waters without his 
 permission, than it would be to injure his pro- 
 perty by taking dozens of his trout. Moreover, 
 he is generally somewhat toadied to by the 
 landlord of the village inn, who naturally de- 
 sires to obtain the fish which he can supply on 
 the easiest possible terms. 
 
 The professional fisherman is no sportsman, 
 and regards any one who angles merely for the 
 pleasure of the thing as an oddity who is rather 
 to be pitied. His main object is to catch as 
 many fish as possible; and for that purpose he 
 will net his lake or river, and spear his trout, 
 without more thought for sport as such, than 
 the Yarmouth herring-fishers. Sometimes he 
 will fish with the fly or the minnow, and then 
 his lines are of the rudest kind; and he will 
 regard English tackle with vast surprise. But, 
 as a rule, angling as such is wholly out of his 
 thoughts, and not a part of his work. Yet in 
 this respect he is not more singular than the 
 hundreds of Germans who have good trout and 
 grayling fishing within easy distance of their
 
 Fisherman of the Eastern A Ips. 1 2 1 
 
 homes without caring one jot about it. Gen- 
 erally speaking, if civilly dealt with, he will 
 give an English fisherman leave to angle in his 
 waters, sometimes gratuitously, sometimes for 
 a few marks; but in nearly every case he is 
 careful to impress on the angler that on no 
 account 5s he to use nets ; and he is generally 
 anxious that a kind of small barrel should be 
 borne by some small boy for the purpose of 
 keeping alive the fish which are taken. 
 
 Of course, towards the end of the season the 
 professional fisherman has considerably lowered 
 his stock of fish ; so that the angler has not the 
 same chance of sport as in the beginning of the 
 year. But since he usually, year after year, 
 occupies the same water, he does not kill 
 spawning fish ; and has often, indeed, as fervid a 
 dislike of poor peasants who indulge in a little 
 poaching on moonlight nights in autumn, as 
 any gamekeeper in England. Thus the supply 
 does not decrease as it otherwise would do. 
 Moreover, the heavy Alpine snows which begin 
 to descend about the end of October are excel- 
 lent protectors of gravid fish. For years to 
 come the professional fishermen of the Alps 
 are sure to exist as a distinct class ; for there
 
 122 Rambles ivitJi a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 is apparently no more love of angling in the 
 higher orders on the Continent now than there 
 was ten years ago, and therefore these men will 
 long remain the chief tenants of the lakes and 
 rivers of Germany and Switzerland. In some 
 respects this is not a thing to be regretted by 
 the Englishman who spends his holidays fishing 
 for trout or grayling in the rivers which rise in 
 the Eastern Alps.
 
 123 
 
 IX. 
 
 ON FISHING TOURS ABROAD. 1 
 
 TT is a curious delusion, especially among 
 * writers of guide-books, that when an Eng- 
 lishman crosses the Channel and takes up his 
 abode as a traveller in a strange country, he 
 thereupon necessarily ceases to care for that 
 truly English pastime angling. The sports- 
 man is expected to become a connoisseur of 
 architecture, to delight in nothing but sweet 
 or majestic landscapes, or to feel unwonted 
 pleasure in a continual series of mountain 
 walks. That some such delusion must exist, 
 is shown by the persistent manner in which 
 hundreds of persons who at home are ardent 
 fishermen, and who gladly take a holiday in 
 
 1 Reprinted, with additions, by permission from the 
 ' Pall Mall Gazette.'
 
 1 24 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 Hampshire or seek some Scottish river, pass 
 by the excellent streams and lakes which 
 abound throughout the Continent. The angler, 
 with a martyr-like resignation, thinks only 
 with a sigh of the trout feeding beneath the 
 old grey willow -tree at home, but never 
 attempts to try that skill in foreign waters 
 which practice from boyhood has often ren- 
 dered almost perfect. It is singular, indeed, 
 how fishing is neglected on the Continent by 
 those who would find it a continual pleasure ; 
 for in whatever land it may be pursued, no 
 amusement is more refreshing to the brain- 
 worker, with its variation of gentle or strong 
 exercise, and its pleasant alternations of mo- 
 notony and excitement. 
 
 The number of those who ever cast a thought 
 to the obtaining of their favourite amusement 
 when they have left Dover behind them, or 
 who seek to vary the regular tourist's round 
 by a day or two by the side of some little 
 stream, where the inhabitants look upon a 
 fishing-rod as quite an unusual sight, is sin- 
 gularly small. And yet many a man who, as 
 he drives along a Tyrolese valley, or passes 
 a sombre lake shaded by pine-trees, must in-
 
 On Fishing Tours A broad. 125 
 
 voluntarily recall pleasant days spent by some 
 Highland stream. The river ripples by the 
 roadside, the trout ai*e " on the feed " ; but flies 
 and fishing-rod are safe at home, and the 
 alpenstock alone is at hand. 
 
 But if angling is a fascinating pastime to 
 numbers of thoughtful minds among the famil- 
 iar scenes of an English landscape, it is quite 
 as attractive when practised amid the scenery 
 of a country new to the beholder. The angler 
 finds many features in the landscape, charming 
 perhaps in their minuteness, which the through- 
 going traveller, who rushes quickly from place 
 to place, can never enjoy. Nor are the oppor- 
 tunities of mixing with the various country- 
 folks to be lightly prized; for the increasing- 
 number of large hotels, the numerous railways, 
 and improved systems of travelling, not to 
 speak of the numbers of actual travellers, ren- 
 der a leisurely acquaintance with the natives 
 more and more difficult. And it must always 
 be a pleasure to look back to the quaint, 
 honest, and kindly folk with whom the tra- 
 veller would never have come in contact had 
 he left his rod and tackle at home. 
 
 One of the great drawbacks to modern travel
 
 126 Rambles ivit/i a FisJdng-Rod. 
 
 is the fact that only a few common features in 
 the mere outward lives of the people are ob- 
 served ; and even of their habits but few can 
 really be properly gleaned by the passing tra- 
 veller. The self-inflicted melancholy and un- 
 fortunate reserve of most English travellers is 
 also a strong barrier against familiar inter- 
 course with foreigners. The English tourists 
 who flock to the spots where their countrymen 
 congregate, have not yet fully acquired the 
 secret of enjoyable outing, and often get but a 
 poor return for their money. Certainly modern 
 travellers would do well to notice how Words- 
 worth, for instance, and his sister Dorothy, 
 associated with those among whom they tra- 
 velled ; how Dr Johnson would talk as readily 
 with a gillie as he would argue with a Presby- 
 terian minister. 
 
 "Whilst the most imperfect fisherman hardly 
 ever sets out for a holiday in Scotland or Ire- 
 land without his trout-rod, the keenest angler 
 generally leaves his tackle behind him when 
 he departs for Germany or France; yet for 
 the pleasantest and most satisfactory fishing 
 tours these latter countries are the best. To 
 enjoy Scotch or Irish fishing one place must be
 
 On Fishing' Tours Abroad. 127 
 
 selected ; and then in a stay of two or three 
 weeks the weather and the water are certain to 
 afford sport ; whereas . if a day or two's stay 
 only is made, it is quite as likely as not that 
 the water gets into the right trim just as the 
 unwilling angler is paying his hotel bill. But 
 in a fishing tour, paradoxical as it may seem, 
 fishing should not be the sole, but only the 
 chief or central, object of the traveller's wan- 
 derings. He should be prepared to do a great 
 many other things besides fishing ; though the 
 arrangements and the plans should always be 
 made with a view to obtain as good fishing as 
 is compatible with such other objects as pic- 
 turesque scenery, good air, and the other aims 
 of a Continental tourist. One of the great ad- 
 vantages of an angling tour is that it usually 
 counterbalances the miserable consequences of 
 wet weather, especially among the mountains. 
 A day of rain and mist is to the mountaineer 
 a period of purgatory; on the other hand, the 
 fishing and mountaineering traveller only finds 
 one amusement superseded by another, unless 
 it has caused the rivers to descend in floods. 
 This in itself is a strong recommendation in 
 favour of fishing tours. But while wet weather
 
 128 Rambles with a FisJdng-Rod. 
 
 is thus rendered comparatively harmless, the 
 same amount of rain is not required as in this 
 country ; for most of the rivers are of a larger 
 size and greater length, and therefore do not 
 run down with the same quickness as Scotch 
 rivers, and often the smaller ones are fed 
 from a more permanent source namely, the 
 glaciers of the Alps. The glaciers thus prevent 
 the smaller streams from becoming as fine after 
 a spell of dry weather as streams of the same size 
 in Scotland or Wales. Thus the passing tourist 
 is much more likely to obtain fair sport en route, 
 in the Tyrol or Switzerland than he is fishing 
 in the same way in this country. Neither 
 must it be forgotten that foreigners care but 
 little for the sport of fishing ; so that it is 
 much easier to find lakes or rivers where the 
 angling is quite free, or where rod-fishing is 
 looked upon by the proprietor of the fishery as 
 a harmless way of taking fish, and the stranger 
 has but little difficulty in obtaining a day or 
 two's sport. For where the fishing is in any 
 sense preserved, it is usually done for the sake 
 of the netting, the taking of fish being regarded 
 solely from a business point of view ; and there- 
 fore, as we have said, the fly-fisher is looked
 
 On Fishing Tours Abroad. 129 
 
 upon as a person who need not be interfered 
 with. 
 
 Of course, if the upper classes were as fond 
 of this sport in Germany or France as they are 
 in this country, the number of anglers might 
 very soon affect the netting or spearing; but 
 fishermen for the sake of sport are so few and 
 far between on the Continent, that for years to 
 come there is little danger of their being re- 
 garded with suspicion by the proprietors of the 
 fisheries. In France the greatest exceptions 
 to this general rule exist ; for if there are 
 trout-streams near towns of any importance, 
 an amateur de la pdche will from time to time 
 be found who strictly preserves for his own 
 use his own and his neighbours' share of the 
 river. But the considerable subdivision of 
 land in France among a large number of small 
 proprietors makes it almost certain that even 
 if the fishing tourist does happen to light upon 
 the ground of an amateur de la peche, he has 
 only to move a little higher up or a little lower 
 down the stream to find himself on the plot 
 of some person from whose land he may fish 
 as long as he pleases. 
 
 The choice of a companion is one of the 
 I
 
 1 30 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 most difficult matters when you are projecting 
 a fishing tour. Many an ardent angler is not 
 satisfied unless he is continually throwing his 
 fly or trolling his minDOW ; but, as we have 
 already hinted, the genuine travelling angler 
 must be able to enjoy other things besides 
 fishing. He must also be prepared for dis- 
 appointments ; for it is a different thing to 
 hunt out your fishing-ground and then to ex- 
 plore it, to stationing yourself at places such 
 as Ballynahinch, or Loch Tay, or Loch Leven, 
 where you have only to pay your money and 
 catch or try to catch your fish. Again, of 
 two friends, if one possesses the instincts and 
 aspirations of the mountaineer only, and the 
 other those of the fisherman only, it is unlikely 
 that the tour will be a success. 
 
 No two persons suit each other better for 
 a foreign fishing tour than an artist and an 
 angler; for both find materials for their skill 
 in the same places. "Where David Cox could 
 paint his grand picture of the " Salmon Trap," 
 the follower of Izaak Walton will assuredly 
 not be without hope in the exercise of his deli- 
 cate craft. Nor are ladies, if with proper 
 tastes, unsuitable companions for the angling
 
 On Fishing Tours Abroad. 131 
 
 traveller. Even if both companions do not 
 actually possess some common taste, such as 
 painting, still sketching and fishing, or fishing 
 and walking, or simply fishing and quiet trav- 
 elling, can well be combined, provided each 
 possesses a fair share of that cardinal virtue 
 of all travellers forbearance. Thus, with a 
 moderate capability of walking, nothing need 
 prevent a brother and a sister, or a husband 
 and a wife, from pleasantly enjoying a tour 
 which shall include angling. 
 
 Neither does a fishing tour, generally speak- 
 ing, add much either to the expenses of the 
 journey or to the amount of the necessary im- 
 pedimenta. In places where some kind of 
 demand for the fishing has been created, a 
 small fee may be charged. Thus at Ischl, for 
 instance, in the Austrian Tyrol, which has 
 been rendered rather a fashionable place among 
 Southern Germans, owing to the partiality with 
 which it is regarded by the Austrian Court, 
 a charge of a gulden a-day is made for fishing 
 in the river Traun ; but, on the other hand, you 
 may find plenty of places both in Germany 
 and France where the fishing is equally good 
 and quite free though two shillings a-day for
 
 132 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 fair trout and grayling fishing may well be 
 regarded as a merely nominal charge. A fish- 
 ing tour does not add to the luggage, because 
 nothing more is needed than two rods one a 
 single-handed fly-rod, the other a double-handed 
 medium fly-rod of about 14 feet, with top 
 joints, which will enable it to be used either 
 for fly-fishing, or, on an emergency, trolling, if 
 carefully used and a good supply of artificial 
 flies and minnows. Any touring angler who 
 runs short of tackle after he has left England 
 must either give up his fishing or wait until 
 he can procure more tackle from home; for 
 the flies even of the professional fisherman 
 are of the rudest kind, and half-a-dozen of 
 a first-class English make will be regarded 
 by him as a most gratifying gift. Indeed 
 scientific fishing is really almost unknown 
 abroad; the grasshopper, the worm, or the 
 live minnow exhaust the repertoire of the 
 Continental fisherman's lures. In compara- 
 tively unfished waters a moderately skilful 
 angler, with good English tackle, may thus 
 have often really excellent sport, and not only 
 in out-of-the-way places, but in those where 
 travellers most resort. Thus, at a frequented
 
 On Fishing Tours Abroad. 133 
 
 place like Schaffhausen, plenty of grayling in 
 the autumn months, when the English traveller 
 most roams abroad, would reward the fisher- 
 man who was prudent enough to bring his 
 fishing-rod with him; though, as a matter of 
 fact, probably this is not done by one per cent 
 of the tourists who visit the falls of the Ehine. 
 But dozens of them, with the love of sport 
 inherent in most Englishmen, would infinitely 
 prefer the pleasure of taking a dish of grayling 
 to gazing for half an hour at the foam-covered 
 waters of the Ehine. If the fishing abroad is 
 sometimes disappointing, there is usually some- 
 thing novel or picturesque to amuse the fisher- 
 man; whereas in Ireland or Scotland, gener- 
 ally speaking, the scenery is of a familiar 
 type, and the habits and characteristics of the 
 people are well known. In the mountains it 
 is remarkable how many curious and quaint 
 legends still remain connected with the differ- 
 ent lakes. This is more especially the case in 
 the Tyrol, where almost every tarn has some 
 story belonging to it. Even in more frequented 
 parts these mythical tales are to be found. 
 Thus there is a curious one connected with the 
 little Seelisberger See, which, far above the
 
 134 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 Lake of Lucerne, is sheltered by the dark preci- 
 pices of the Niederbauen. The story goes that 
 in it there lives a monster known as the Elbst. 
 This beast can, Proteus-like, change its form ; 
 and the trustful swimmer, resting as he sup- 
 poses on the floating trunk of a fallen pine, 
 is carried by it for ever beneath the waters of 
 the lake. But the legends of the Tyrol are 
 not only of interest as mere fairy tales ; they 
 show the way in which in bygone times the 
 powers of nature were personified, for most of 
 them arise from natural phenomena of a strik- 
 ing kind. Thus, if the angler is attentive to 
 the stories of the mountaineer and the fisher- 
 man, he will be certain to obtain a knowledge 
 of the folk-lore of the Alps, which in no other 
 way would he be so likely to acquire, or if he 
 did hear, to heed. 
 
 But a certain amount of forethought must 
 naturally be taken, though help from guide- 
 books in this respect may be looked for in 
 vain ; and no one has yet done for the Tyrol 
 and Switzerland what Mr Watson Lyall has for 
 Scotland in his admirable ' Sportsman's Guide 
 to the Eivers and Lochs of Scotland.' For 
 though Herr Max von dem Borne's little book
 
 On Fishing Tours Abroad. 135 
 
 is a creditable and by no means useless work, 
 it is not sufficiently full and detailed to be of 
 much help to a stranger. 1 No one will be far 
 wrong in going to Normandy for trout-fishing 
 in spring or the early summer; but he will 
 find in the autumn the country hot and dusty, 
 and the sport poor. If he wants the best trout 
 or grayling fishing, he will not wander about 
 the Black Forest, though in a lake such as the 
 Schluch See he may have excellent pike-fishing. 
 But in many parts of Switzerland fair trout- 
 fishing may be obtained, and in the lakes and 
 rivers of Southern Germany or of Northern 
 Italy trout and grayling may be taken in 
 abundance. Again, one for whom the study of 
 ichthyology has any attractions can scarcely 
 fail to find much to interest him when wan- 
 dering through Europe fishing-rod in hand. 
 Not only are there the trout and grayling, with 
 whose habits we should be so familiar, to study 
 in new localities, but in many of the lakes of 
 
 1 Wegweiser fiir Angler durch Deutschland, Oesterreich, 
 und die Schweiz. Von Max von dem Borne. Berlin : 
 Verlag von Wiegandt, Hempel, und Parey : 1877. Some 
 information of use may occasionally be found in the 
 Deutsche Fisherei-Zeitung and in Dunker's Fisherei-Kal- 
 endar. Stettin : Herrche und Lebelung.
 
 1 36 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 the Tyrol and Switzerland he will meet both 
 with char and with various species of that 
 fish so unknown to English anglers, the cor- 
 regonous, which, under its various names of 
 paUe, renJce, and fera, puzzles the traveller who 
 comes across it in the menus of tables d'hote. 
 A fishing tour, therefore, it is obvious, is a 
 strangely neglected mode of passing a holiday, 
 for it suits many tastes. The men who desire 
 to live solitarily or gregariously, in lonely vil- 
 lages or in crowded hotels, can all compass 
 its pleasures. And both the complete enthu- 
 siast in fishing, and the person who looks upon 
 it as the merest pastime, will find that it is by 
 no means to be despised, since it brings the 
 traveller into new scenes, into contact with 
 the inhabitants of the country, and is not more 
 costly or more troublesome than an ordinary 
 tour. So, to use the words of Herrick 
 
 " On with thy fortunes, then, whate'er they be : 
 If good, I'll smile ; if bad, I'll sigh for thee."
 
 137 
 
 SEA-TROUT FISHING.! 
 
 fTlHE literary description of angling that it 
 -" is the contemplative man's recreation 
 is an expression which, though descriptive 
 enough of one aspect of the pastime, is, as 
 applied to the whole art of rod-fishing, singu- 
 larly inappropriate. So I mused, after a capital 
 day's fishing on a sea-trout loch, sitting over a 
 bright fire in the little parlour of a quiet inn, 
 far away from tourists, on the wild western 
 coast of Scotland. To wander through the 
 fields in June among pastoral scenes, such as 
 were long ago touched on with such delicate 
 enjoyment by Walton, is to enjoy a recreation 
 essentially contemplative. The scenery of the 
 English meadows the sober scenery which 
 George Eliot has well portrayed, and the feel- 
 
 1 Reprinted by permission from the ' Pall Mall Gazette.'
 
 138 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 ing of which runs so markedly through Mr 
 Matthew Arnold's ' Scholar Gipsey, and Thyr- 
 sis/ possesses an intrinsic quietness and calm 
 which are very productive of meditation, and 
 what Wordsworth has well described as "the 
 tender peace of rural thought." If the fisher- 
 man on a June evening be casting his fly 
 on the Kentish Darent, as it circles in quiet 
 pools by the banks, white with ox-eye daisies, 
 or sways the green trails of the long-growing 
 weeds, while the notes of the nightingales 
 sound from the neighbouring elms, and 
 " drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds," 
 keen sportsman as he may be, eager as he 
 may be to take fish, and heavy as his basket 
 is, his mind will yet be contemplative, and his 
 mood will often be the same in secluded glens 
 or by lonely mountain streams : he is engaged 
 in a contemplative man's recreation. But there 
 is a very widely different kind of angling, per- 
 haps as an amusement the most perfect sort 
 of fishing, if the chief object of an amusement 
 is to take the thoughts of the fisherman from 
 their accustomed groove and to absorb him 
 in the pursuit of the moment ; and this is 
 fly-fishing for sea -trout albeit it will pall
 
 Sea- Trout Fishing. 1 39 
 
 on the taste long before the more sober kind 
 of angling has lost any attraction. Pure and 
 simple sea -trout fishing is unfortunately not 
 a common or easily obtained pleasure ; but 
 when once it has been enjoyed, an angler ever 
 looks forward to the day when he will be once 
 more, perhaps in wind and rain, eagerly watch- 
 ing for the rise of this dashing fish. It is not 
 common, because the lake or river which must 
 be the scene of the amusement must not be too 
 far from the sea ; and because in this country 
 it is confined almost entirely to the lakes and 
 rivers of Scotland and Ireland. A proprietor 
 who possesses a good sea-trout river or loch 
 can always, if he does not need it himself, find 
 plenty of men who will give him. a good round 
 sum for the tenancy ; and if it be in the hands 
 of a hotel-keeper, the charges are almost cer- 
 tain to be very high, for the stock of fish is re- 
 newed with every heavy rain, and their condi- 
 tion is as good in September as in May. Here 
 and there the fisherman may sometimes have 
 the good luck to meet with fair sea-trout fishing 
 at a small cost ; but if he does, he must be pre- 
 pared to put up with decidedly rude accommo- 
 dation, and probably uncertain sport.
 
 140 Rambles witJi a Fishing-Rod, 
 
 Sea-trout fishing, so far from being a con- 
 templative amusement, is quite the reverse. 
 The perfection of a day for this kind of angling 
 is one on which a strong gale is blowing from 
 the south-west, when now and again a drench- 
 ing shower reminds you that the mists of the 
 Atlantic are at last encountering the Highland 
 hills, and when, standing up in the stern of a 
 substantial boat, a few moments' contempla- 
 tion over the field of morals or of art will 
 end in your losing your balance, and finding 
 yourself spluttering in the water of the loch. 
 But in the excitement of the sport you are 
 unmindful of wind or rain ; and when the sky 
 is clearer, when a fresh but modest wind raises 
 the surface of the water, and the colours are 
 most charming on the mountains, you are too 
 engrossed with the sport to do more than take 
 momentary notice of hues which at another 
 time would monopolise your attention. For 
 sea-trout fishing, on a good lake with a proper 
 breeze, or in a river in which the water is in 
 good condition, must absorb an angler if he is 
 an angler at all. There is none of the uncer- 
 tainty of salmon-fishing about it. If there is 
 a fair supply of sea-trout, they are given the
 
 Sea- Trout Fishing. 1 4 1 
 
 above conditions almost certain to rise to some 
 extent. You do not know what size they may 
 be they may be half a pound or five pounds ; 
 you do not know the moment when they may 
 come dashing from the water, or shoot like 
 a silver arrow through the crest of a wave. 
 There is no deep eddy beneath a shady alder, 
 which you, as it were, besiege at your own will 
 and time where you watch a rising trout, and 
 lay your plans for his destruction: you are throw- 
 ing your fly over a rapid pool or on a brisk loch, 
 and at any moment and anywhere the sea-trout 
 may rise. He comes at the fly with a rapidity 
 which requires the utmost quickness in the 
 tightening of the line or he will be gone. He 
 must be struck and played with a dash which 
 a regular south-country angler scarcely under- 
 stands, who is inclined to treat him with a 
 ceremony which causes the gillie to have an 
 unreasonable contempt for his skill as a fisher- 
 man. If the fish misses the fly at the first rise, 
 or is untouched by the hook, he will, unlike any 
 other kind of trout, often be ready, if you give 
 him the chance, instantaneously to return with 
 fresh vehemence ; so that without a moment's 
 loss of time the fly must be over him again.
 
 142 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 And a sea-trout as a rule affords such excellent 
 sport, because he has twice the strength of an 
 ordinary trout; and, especially if lightly hooked, 
 or with a fine line or with a hook of not very 
 large kind, will make a surprising resistance. 
 The fish has, too, a peculiar and noticeable 
 manner of attempting to escape ; in which again 
 he differs from other kinds of trout, and by 
 which he can, even if he is not landed, be 
 invariably distinguished. He makes from time 
 to time a succession of leaps, which, if he is 
 a fair-sized fish, are as trying to the tackle 
 as to the hopes of the angler. He dashes 
 now a foot, now two feet, now three feet, into 
 the air ; he rushes off as if for the other end of 
 the lake or pool, rapidly carrying out the line, 
 and then returns with such quickness that the 
 line is slack before it can be reeled up; and 
 with it in this state he makes a succession of 
 leaps, which, if he be not well hooked or quickly 
 checked, probably end in his escape. And if it 
 be remembered that this is often taking place 
 on a wild day, when it is difficult to keep your 
 feet in a boat, and when the craft has to be well 
 managed, it is easy for the most unsporting of 
 men to understand that this is anything but a
 
 Sea- Trout Fishing. 143 
 
 contemplative recreation. There is also another 
 characteristic of sea-trout fishing which seems 
 to show that this species of the genus Salmo 
 ) swim in pairs or shoals, and differ in this re- 
 4 spect from all the rest of the salmon family. 
 For in many cases you are sure when you have 
 one rise to have another shortly afterwards ; so 
 that, it may be, before you have recovered from 
 the ruffled feeling of missing one fish, another 
 may give you a chance when you are least 
 capable of accepting it. And if a rod at 
 the stern of the boat hooks a fish, it is very 
 likely that the angler at the bow will pres- 
 ently be fast in another. Moreover, the sea- 
 trout are in themselves singularly beautiful : 
 their small head, slender but vigorous body, 
 powerful tail, the silver of their sides, and the 
 delicate green or pink tints which merge imper- 
 ceptibly in the light glitter, are all points for 
 special admiration. To contemplate a fish as 
 it lies dead at the bottom of a boat, may appear 
 to some to resemble too much the study by a 
 butcher of his carcasses as they hang at Christ- 
 mas-tirne before his shop. But there are few 
 more beautiful natural objects, whether you 
 take the actual lines of the form or the colouring,
 
 144 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 than fish fresh from the sea or the river. Per- 
 haps the only part of the pleasure of the sea- 
 trout fisher which can at all be considered as 
 contemplative, is that which consists in the satis- 
 fied admiration with which he regards the fish 
 which has just fallen a prey to his skill. But 
 this cannot make sea-trout fishing in any sense 
 the recreation of a contemplative man.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE CLOCKMAKERS OF THE SCHWARZWALD. 
 
 THE Baden State Kailway, running in an unbroken 
 line from the Ehine plain at Mannheim to the 
 shores of the Boden See at Constance, forms two 
 sides of that part of the Grand Duchy of Baden 
 which in Germany is called Badischer Schwarz- 
 wald. Along this line go great numbers of Eng- 
 lish tourists hurrying to Switzerland, and rushing 
 back again to England ; but they seldom set foot 
 in any part of this district, except in the town of 
 Freiburg, a pleasant point to break a long and 
 somewhat tedious journey. The dark hills thickly 
 covered with pine-trees, which the traveller sees 
 from the windows of his carriage, generally serve 
 to remind him of the grander mountains he has 
 left, or of the peaks which he hopes to climb. 
 But among these hills is much picturesque and 
 quaint scenery, of a character at once unique and 
 distinct from that of countries more frequented by 
 K
 
 146 Rambles with a Fishing- Rod. 
 
 the traveller. From any high ground, lofty hills 
 can be seen extending towards the horizon, more 
 or less clothed with black pine-forests, broken 
 here and there by the lighter foliage in the 
 valleys, or by open patches of cultivated land. 
 There are cottage farms, with huge black and 
 spreading roofs, better built, and showing signs of 
 greater prosperity and comfort than in mostmoun- 
 tainous districts. The village houses are less 
 thickly grouped, and everything indicates an active 
 and industrious people. In the valleys are many 
 charming landscapes : the scale is small, but the 
 perfect union of water and rock, of wood and 
 meadow, produces harmonious and delightful pic- 
 tures. Among the thick and fragrant woods the 
 scenes are different more weird and wild, but 
 none the less attractive. Among these woods 
 and hills dwell a people who unite the simplicity 
 and kindness of the mountaineer and agriculturist 
 with the shrewdness and energy of the artisan of 
 the town. They cultivate their land with sur- 
 prising care, and work at the manufacture of 
 clocks and watches, glass and straw articles, with 
 a diligence which has been rewarded by great 
 success. They are so energetic and desirous of 
 doing well in life, that like the men of the Canton 
 Graubiinden and the Oetzthal Alps, they willingly 
 leave their own country and go away to England, 
 America, or France, where they work hard, chiefly 
 at clocks and watches. But to this desire for 
 bettering their condition is united a strong love 
 of home, so that in three or four years they come 
 back with sufficient money to buy themselves a 
 piece of land, on which for the rest of their days
 
 Appendix. 147 
 
 they live ; they settle down, and their children 
 will do as they have done. 
 
 The first thing to be done at Furtwangen is 
 to see the exhibition of the Gewerbevereins, and 
 at Tryberg the Gewerbe Hall, open from May 
 to October. The latter is a wooden building of 
 some taste, where every variety of clock can be 
 seen which the ingenuity of the Schwarzwalder 
 can devise or his fingers execute. Round the 
 walls and on the tables are clocks of every sort. 
 Nearly all are of wood, though here and there is 
 a fragile one of straw or ivory. The first which 
 attracts attention is a very fine specimen of wood 
 carving : the figures and design are cut in lime- 
 wood, and it stands two feet high ; the fingers 
 and hours are of ivory. The attendant puts it to 
 two o'clock, and it forthwith plays a melodious air, 
 as of the most delicate flutes. The next is still 
 larger ; and as the hour strikes, a miniature band 
 plays ' Der Wacht am Rhein." We pass on to 
 one made of beech and walnut, the dark and light 
 wood being charmingly blended. As the fingers 
 touch the hour, two helmeted trumpeters step out 
 and blow the reveille. Then there are cuckoos 
 which strike up at the hour, and thrushes which sing 
 at the quarter; venerable monks standing beneath 
 the belfry ring the hour when midnight comes. 
 The automaton clock comes next, and we watch a 
 sort of Pickwickian fat boy feed himself with rolls 
 till three has finished striking. The taste and 
 minuteness of "the carving in the largest or the 
 smallest point are very great ; the regulator on 
 the pendulum of the smallest clock represents, 
 perhaps, an oak-leaf, or some simple but still
 
 148 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 graceful object. Nor are more methodical and 
 stronger-looking clocks wanting ; they are of every 
 kind ; they will suit the kitchen or the boudoir. 
 The excellence of the external work is equalled 
 by that of the machinery ; for having once gained 
 a reputation, the inhabitants of these hills take 
 care that it shall not be lost. The Gewerbeverein, 
 or Union, guarantee the goodness of each clock 
 which hangs on the walls. 
 
 Thirty years ago a really good little clock could 
 have been bought for sixpence or eightpence, but 
 now, with communication more easy, the small 
 ones are sold for four or five shillings, the cheap- 
 est trumpeter for six pounds. Every workman 
 has his special piece of work, one carves the 
 figures, another prepares the dial, a third the 
 wheels, a fourth the pendulum, so that on one 
 clock many hands are employed. Under this 
 system, within a radius of sixty English miles, 
 the number of clocks or watches turned out 
 annually is nearly seven hundred thousand. Fig- 
 ures convey but small impressions to the mind ; 
 but if it is remembered that five thousand men 
 are working at this trade, and that there are only 
 about two thousand five hundred inhabitants in 
 Furtwangen and fifteen hundred in Tryberg, it 
 will be seen how strong a hold this trade has 
 upon the people of the Schwarzwald. s 
 
 Glancing at the history of this industry, we 
 find that towards the end of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury a family named Kreuz, more enterprising or 
 clever than their neighbours, lived in the village 
 of Neukirch. They made a rude clock, works 
 and frame of wood, with a weight, and this was
 
 Appendix. 149 
 
 given or sold to the parish priest. This idea 
 was not lost upon others of the enterprising 
 Schwarzwalders, and the example was soon fol- 
 lowed, and not long afterwards the farmhouses of 
 the district began to be adorned with other wooden 
 clocks. Two men were very apt at the work, 
 they may almost be called the fathers of the art ; 
 their names were Lorenz Frei, called " the Wood- 
 worker," and Solomon Henniger, of St Margen. 
 The germs now rapidly developed ; the simple 
 carving of wooden stands or frames gave place to 
 the more elaborate work of ornamental clockmak- 
 ing ; the wood, the want of other occupations, the 
 uncommon industry, acuteness, and union of the 
 people, the freedom from political and other dis- 
 turbing causes, all promoted this quick growth. 
 Hawkers sold the clocks throughout Germany, 
 and the Schwarzwald soon became celebrated 
 throughout the empire. 
 
 The clocks were at first very simple in construc- 
 tion, with wooden wheels and carved frames. It 
 was not until between the years 1730 and 1740 
 that the first cuckoo-clock which is one of the 
 class called Spieluhren, or clocks of amusement 
 was introduced by Franz Ketterer of Schonwald, 
 a small hamlet on the hill above Tryberg, who is 
 the real originator of the description of clock for 
 which the Black Forest is most noted. This was 
 novel enough for a time ; but more minds set to 
 work, and forty years later Anthony Duifner de- 
 vised the first flute-clock. Soon a real, note- 
 worthy advance took place, by the introduction of 
 the first pendulum clock. Then the fancy of one 
 Kirner, a Schwarzwalder, who had become Court
 
 1 50 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 Painter to the King of Bavaria, suggested that 
 very pleasant instrument, the trumpet-clock. There 
 were now five hundred persons engaged in the 
 clock trade in the Black Forest, and it had become 
 the recognised occupation of the people. The 
 work was all done by hand ; not for some years 
 was machinery used. But instead of the primi- 
 tive fashion of each family working for them- 
 selves, masters and workmen began to appear ; 
 and as time went on, the change became more 
 and more complete, till, in 1849, the Grand Duke 
 Leopold was asked to assist in founding a clock 
 and watch makers' school. The Government of 
 Baden at once acceded, and they gave 10,000 
 florins for the purpose of defraying some of the 
 building expenses and to carry on the work of the 
 institution the community of Furtwangen gave 
 wood and materials and in 1850 the Clock- 
 makers' School at Furtwangen was opened. 
 Thus, almost before the workmen of England 
 had begun to think of technical schools, the 
 peasants of a distant German province had 
 already set one on foot. It has given new impetus 
 to the work, and by the introduction of a special 
 literature and instruction, has in no small degree 
 aided the general education of the people of this 
 and^the neighbouring villages, as well as the ac- 
 tual technical branch which it was created to im- 
 prove. The school has two main objects. Firstly, 
 the education of the young by literary and theoret- 
 ical teaching in the elements on which the art of 
 clockmaking is composed that is, in the general 
 principles common to any scientific manufacture, 
 and in the more intricate details belonging spe-
 
 Appendix. 1 5 1 
 
 cially to this one branch. Secondly, the improve- 
 ment of the trade by a practical school or work- 
 shop, where the theories already taught can be 
 carried out, where new improvements and methods 
 can be tried, and where practical instruction can 
 be given. Two important principles are acted 
 upon in carrying out these aims, the instruction 
 is free ; and it is not in the place of, but subsidiary 
 to, and based on, that which is given in the " Folk- 
 schule," or public elementary schools. Briefly 
 put, these are some of the details connected with 
 the school. The age of admittance is fourteen, 
 and the pupil must have passed through the "Folk- 
 schule." There is a yearly examination, yearly 
 distribution of prizes, a library containing techni- 
 cal and scientific books and models, and a period 
 of study not confined to any particular time or 
 length. The subjects taught are : (a) Freehand 
 and ornamental drawing ; (b) arithmetic, geome- 
 try, and lineal drawing ; (c) constructive drawing ; 
 (c) mechanics and natural science ; (e) heads of 
 German industry and mercantile business ; (/) 
 French, when possible. 
 
 There are a few details to notice as to the work- 
 shop. The most important are, that the workers 
 must bring their own tools, unless they can show 
 satisfactorily that they are too poor to afford them, 
 when they will obtain them freely at the shop ; and 
 that the Government defrays the expense of liv- 
 ing at Furtwangen of those who would be unable 
 to attend out of their own means. There are saw- 
 mills and other appliances for doing the rougher 
 work, preparatory to the more delicate details of 
 the instructive workshop. Lastly, the whole is
 
 152 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 
 
 under the supervision of the Government. The 
 school and shop have both succeeded well, the 
 trade increases every year, and the prosperity 
 of the people in an equal degree. As railways 
 are extended, and the means of communication, 
 not only with the immediate parts of Germany, 
 but with the more distant countries of Europe 
 and the world, become more easy, so undoubt- 
 edly will be seen a further extension of the 
 business of the Schwarzwald. 
 
 It will be seen from this brief sketch that 
 the wanderer in the Black Forest can not only re- 
 ceive pleasure from the charms of a peculiar and 
 beautiful scenery, but has also opportunities of 
 studying some social features hardly to be found 
 in more populous places. He finds a long way 
 from the great centres of commerce and manufac- 
 tures a simple and kind-hearted people, carrying 
 on an ingenious trade quietly, yet actively, and 
 keeping pace with modern improvements ; for the 
 peacefulness of the pine-woods, and the patriarchal 
 simplicity of the villagers' lives, seem to enable 
 them to labour without the disturbing influences 
 at work among so many industrial communities. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AXD SONS. 
 
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