SMOLTS IN THE TEVIOT. 163 



as a grilse or salmon at some friendly board or Tweed- 

 side " kettle." 



The lower part of the Teviot, from the mouth of the 

 Jed downwards to near Roxburgh, is decidedly the 

 best part of the river for trouting. The trout are larger 

 than in the upper streams, and although capricious, 

 yet by the use of the finest gut and lightly-made flies 

 of the more sober hues, or of well scoured worms in 

 summer, bountiful returns for skill and labour may 

 often be obtained. The Roxburgh station receives the 

 angler exactly at the part x)f the river where it is most 

 desirable to begin and, according to the arrangement 

 of the trains, about seven hours fishing may be ob- 

 tained in the Teviot by any one leaving Edinburgh in 

 the morning and returning to it' at night. 



In all the still pools below Mounteviot from ponds 

 near which they are said originally to have come 

 there are considerable numbers of pike ; which, unlike 

 these fish in most lochs or other rivers, take readily in 

 early spring, and probably throughout almost the whole 

 year. They are of good quality as compared with most 

 river-pike, and were at one time increasing so rapidly 

 that their depredations caused considerable fears for 

 the future of the lower part of the Teviot as a trou ting- 

 stream. A lucky flood, however, carried numbers of 

 them off, and cleared out some of their holds and 

 haunts ; and it seems certain that the floods from the 

 Roxburghshire hills are far too frequent and heavy to 

 allow them ever to become so abundant, or their weedy 

 refuges to become so secure, as to give the esox the 

 ascendancy over the salmo in this famous river. Pike 

 are frequently carried, even by ordinary floods, down 



