50 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



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

 command of the Tweed and its highest feeders, all of 

 which swarm with trout. Every dimple in the green 

 pastoral hills which form so beautiful a feature in the 

 scenery of these districts is traversed by rill, burn, or 

 " water." For the first few miles the Tweed itself is 

 of course but a brook ; the accession of the Fruid and 

 the Tala elevate it to the dignity of a " water "* but 

 it is perhaps not until it receives Biggar- water that it 

 can fairly be called a river. We should not recommend 

 the angler to betake himself to the Crook or indeed 

 to any hilly region in the early spring. Trout are 

 there late in getting into condition, the low temperature 

 retarding the development of the insect-world which 

 is to feed them up and restore the flesh they have lost 

 during the season of spawning and hunger. They 

 may be taken readily enough soon after the snows 

 have disappeared from the White Coomb and Culter 

 Fell or even though the hills are capped with white, 

 if they are " green below the knee" ; but they are still 

 poor and spiritless, and we would let the smiles and 

 the (often cold) tears of April be nearly over, before 

 visiting the head of Tweeddale. By that time the 

 resident in Edinburgh will be daily snuffing up the 

 east wind in the most dissatisfied way, and he will all 



* In a previous note we have explained that a " water" on 

 the lower part of the Tweed means a portion of the river that 

 is a separate property. The word, however, has another accep- 

 tation, being the designation of a stream that in size is between 

 a burn and a river. Its application is not very well defined, 

 many streams being indifferently called burns and waters, while 

 others are termed waters which might fairly enough aspire to 

 be considered rivers. 



