160 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



At Millknow the Whitadder is joined by the Fasney, 

 a rocky and heathery-edged stream, than which there 

 is no water that we know of that yields a greater 

 quantity of trout to the fisher. Its bleak recesses are 

 indeed but seldom explored, save by the shepherd 

 looking after his flocks. The farm-house of Priestlaw 

 stands near its mouth, but there is not another house 

 or hut on its banks throughout its whole course. It 

 is five miles, at its nearest point, from any inn or vil- 

 lage, and that village is eight miles from any railway, 

 or place reached by any public conveyance. Probably, 

 since time began, no net has ever been drawn through 

 it, unless a pout-net for sport in a flood ; for there is 

 no temptation in the way of a market for the trout, 

 even if there were poachers ready with their imple- 

 ments. But indeed its rugged bottom would not allow 

 of the effective use of any of the more deadly engines 

 for destroying river-trout. We have never seen any 

 drains — save from Priestlaw farm — running the rain 

 too hastily from the hills into the stream — (a cause, by 

 the way, which we have not yet mentioned, of the de- 

 crease of trouts and the falling off in angling.) While, 

 therefore, there are of almost all the rivers which we 

 have visited, complaints of evils that have reduced 

 their trouting capabilities — over-fishing, netting, fac- 

 tory filth, hill-drainage — here is one free from them 

 all, that is as good now as it was a hundred years ago, 

 and that will probably continue so for ever. The de- 

 solate Fasney will, we trust, be an exception to the 

 " progress of the age," for to our mind it is " so aptly 

 formed by Nature" as to be susceptible of no improve- 

 ment. There is one drawback, indeed — the trout of 



