1 86 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



of Scotland have no scenes of greater beauty, and hardly 

 any wilder hills than those among which both branches 

 of the river take their rise. The basin of the Fleet for a 

 good many miles above Gatehouse is exquisitely fine. 

 Rough heath-clad hills, indeed, overlook the stream on 

 both sides; but declivities and plains, opulent in soil, 

 ornate in tillage, and plentiful in groves, form its 

 "immediate banks." 



The river Ken, which rises on the Blackcraig 

 mountain, to which we have already adverted, flows 

 alternately in a south-east and south-westward direction 

 over a distance of 20 miles, and then falls into its larger 

 neighbour, the Deugh. The streamlets which the Ken 

 receives in its course are very numerous, but individually 

 inconsiderable. About three-quarters of a mile before its 

 junction with the Deugh, there is a very pretty romantic, 

 bold, and dashing waterfall, known by the name of the 

 " College Loup." Tradition says that in olden days an 

 English nobleman, not far removed from royal blood, 

 became enamoured with the charming daughter of a 

 Scotch farmer in the north-eastern district of the parish 

 of Carsphairn — telling her on more than one occasion of 

 his love, wealth, and rank. She gracefully, but firmly 

 resisted his alluring protestations of affection each time 

 they were renewed. Determined upon making her his 

 own, either by foul or fair means, he visited her parental 

 home one April eve ; and having again met with a stern 

 denial of the fair one's heart and hand both from her 

 parents and herself, he first mastered the father, and next 

 two sturdy hinds in succession by a few well-aimed 



