52 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



and pool, the angler may command every inch of it 

 without wading. As the Tweed is accessible to the 

 salmon to its veiy source, the shoals of parr that exist 

 in all these streams indicate that the salar and eriox 

 pay their winter visits to the hills, and do their part 

 in the great economy of nature in multiplication and 

 the replenishing of the waters. Few of the sea-fish, 

 however, ever get back, for the shepherds of Tweeds- 

 muir are sad poachers, and the sight of a salmon 

 within reach of the leister is what no Scotchman can 

 well resist. 



So having spent the half of his holiday-week at the 

 Crook, let the angler next fish quietly down to Kachan 

 Mill, looking up Kingledoor's-burn on his left hand 

 for a mile, just to see it, on his way, and passing by 

 Stanhope-burn on the other side, which is preserved 

 (! !) by Sir Graham Montgomery, and is therefore so 

 much fished as not to be worth attention. The angler 

 will see other rivulets on his way down — Glenriska, 

 Harestane, and Polmood ; but they are only for ex- 

 ceptional occasions, such as heavy floods, when larger 

 streams are unfishable, or for the month of August, 

 when trout, in all but small burns, where theii- hun- 

 ger is chronic, seem palled, and trying like overfed 

 aldermen to recover the tone of their stomachs by 

 fasting. Stationed at Eachan Mill, he has command 

 of Biggar- water and Holms- water (a tributary of the 

 former), and of a burn which comes in from Drumelzier. 

 Biggar- water is one of those to which we have alluded 

 as flowing through a rich alluvial soil, and productive 

 of trout of superior size and quality. It is the only 

 stream in Peebles-shire the trout of which are red- 



