134 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



but rather unfits it for the early fly-fishing. Trout 

 flock into it in the summer months, and in June and 

 July it is well worth a visit. Huge basketsful have 

 been taken from it, however, with fly, as well as May- 

 fly and creeper, for the latter of which it is capitally 

 suited. Creepers and May -fly are usually plentiful 

 throughout the whole course of the Gala and its tri- 

 butaries, although in some years they are more abun- 

 dant than in others. Stow is a considerable village, 

 with an inn, and is resorted to sometimes by anglers 

 who want lodgings in summer-time within easy dis- 

 tance of Edinburgh. Cockuin-water enters the Gala 

 above Stow. 



Between Stow and Bowland Bridge (the station 

 below Stow) the water runs more into pools, and 

 contains larger trout than any other part of the Gala. 

 " We once took with the minnow, between Bowland 

 and Stow,' 7 says Mr. Stewart, " twenty trout, the whole 

 we got that day, which weighed fifteen pounds, and 

 we never got such a large average size of trout in any 

 of the tributaries of the Tweed, or even in Tweed it- 

 self." A basketful of twenty trout averaging three- 

 quarters of a pound, is certainly remarkable for the 

 Gala, but it has been frequently surpassed in the 

 Tweed, in the Till, the Leet, and the Blackadder. 

 Mr. Stoddart mentions having caught in the Leet 

 twenty- six trout weighing upwards of twenty-nine 

 pounds ; and we have seen an average of a pound at- 

 tained in the Whitadder with the "lying minnow" 

 that is, a minnow thrown into an eddy, the line 

 well loaded in a flood, while the water was yet too 

 thick for spinning it successfully. But the truth is, the 



