52 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



trutta race all bead and teeth who voraciously dash 

 at everything that falls into the water, and instantly 

 dart back with it to their secure holds under the bank 

 amongst the roots of the heather, from which they 

 often can only be drawn out by taking hold of the line, 

 and giving a straight steady pull. When a burn 

 becomes broad enough for casting with the fly, the 

 trout will be found improved in condition; and in 

 many such small streams which flow through meadows 

 and rich soil, they are finer in flesh and colour than 

 in large rivers. These, however, are seldom placed 

 high up amongst the hills, and the trout of the young 

 Tweed and its first feeders are more distinguished for 

 their extent and strength of jaw than for their edible 

 qualities. Of course, they gradually get better as the 

 river widens. The first burn which joins the Tweed 

 is the Core, which might dispute with the Tweed the 

 paternity of the river. Fruid -water, or burn, is the 

 next. It is larger, and is worth fishing in the au- 

 tumnal season when trout are difficult to be procured 

 in waters of greater volume. The Minzion-burn comes 

 next, and then the Tala, a water well worth the ac- 

 quaintance of the angler. It has two sources one 

 the Tala proper, and the other Gameshope Loch, a 

 small sheet of water that will be best attained by fish- 

 ing up the Tala and then striking up the Gameshope- 

 burn, which joins the Tala about four miles from the 

 Tweed and within sight of Tala linns. There are 

 plenty of trout in Gameshope Loch, and the visitor at 

 the Crook should certainly devote one day to the Tala 

 and it. (We would fain quote Professor Wilson's cha- 

 racteristic sketch of a bathing-scene in the Tala, but 



