152 SEASONAL MOVEMENTs OF FISHES. 
went down in late autumn, and never returned, but the young eels 
ascended our rivers in vast multitudes in May and June, where 
they remained till the migrating impulse came upon them in later 
years. 
THe Kerr oF Morrat: A CAER OR Carr? By Joun T. 
JouHNSTONE, Moffat. 
The name Kerr is the local appellation of the land immedi- 
ately bordering the River Annan from its march with the glebe, or 
more properly now, with the Moffat Railway, and down the Annan 
to where it is joined by Ellerbeck. 
When or who first applied the name may never be known, but 
it has borne that name for 150 years certain, as on a map which 
purports to be the “ first protraction of the town of Moffat as it 
stood in 1758, by James Tait,’’ the name Kerr is given. The map 
itself is more concerned with the plan of the town proper, and, 
therefore, the course of the River Annan and the plan of the fields 
around the town are not shown, but the ground bounded by the 
road to Dumfries and the old road to Carlisle is there marked 
Glebe, Kerr, and Hammerlands, the Kerr being the open ground 
on each side of the river, and the Hammerlands the fenced 
meadows adjoining, now part of the Nursery farm. Personally, I 
have not seen or heard of any mention of the name earlier than 
the map, but it is evident it must have been applied long anterior 
to 1758. 
The name Kerr itself, more often than otherwise, may be 
described as a synonym of the Welsh Caer, a fort, and as such the 
authoress of a book, published a few years ago, “ Upper Annan- 
dale—Its History and Traditions,’’ draws a very fanciful and 
imaginative picture of the Moffat “Caer,’’ and suggests that the 
Ladyknowe was its site. It is hardly possible to utterly obliterate 
all traces of an old-time fort and its earthworks with ordinary 
causes. The Ladyknowe and the grounds around show no trace 
of any of the features presented even at this day by the numerous 
forts in Upper Annandale. Dr David Christison, Edinburgh, in 
his paper given before the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, on 
“Forts, Camps, and Motes of Dumfriesshire,’’ states that 28 
forts are contained within a radius of 34 miles, and 20 within a 
radius of a little more than two miles round Moffat. The list 
