48 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



and start fishing for podlies, coal-saitiis, eels, and rock- 

 codlings. 



The railway-system which has opened out so much 

 water to the angler has had the effect, however, of 

 making the Tweed, for the first fifteen miles of its 

 course, less accessible than it was ten years ago. The 

 opening of the Caledonian Railway has laid off the 

 Edinburgh and Dumfries Coach, which used to strike 

 the valley of the Tweed at Rachan Mill, and only 

 leave Tweeddale as it turned over the shoulder of the 

 hill into Annandale. Two most convenient angling- 

 inns, Rachan Mill and the Crook, the one about 

 twelve and the other about seven miles from the source 

 of the Tweed, are thus rendered somewhat difficult of 

 access. During some seasons a coach has been run 

 by Mr. Croall to Broughton, but this, we fear, is not 

 likely to last. A line of railway has been projected — 

 the project is indeed an old one — from the North 

 British at Galashiels to the Caledonian at Symington, 

 and if it is carried out it will throw open many miles 

 of water that are now only attainable from Peebles ; 

 but in the meantime, perhaps the easiest way of getting 

 to the head of the Tweed is by the Caledonian to Sy- 

 mington Station, and thence by omnibus to Biggar. 

 The angler who leaves Edinburgh by the first train 

 will get to Biggar shortly after nine o'clock. He is 

 here about twelve miles from the Crook inn, and he 

 may easily accomplish that distance in a day, angling 

 his way down Biggar water to the bridge at Kilbucho 

 Kirk, and thence taking the road across by Rachan 

 Mill to the nearest point of the Tweed, from which he 

 may fish up to the Crook. Stationed here, he has the 



