THE ANNAN 431 



THE ANNAN 



ANGLING SEASON: 25th February to 15th November. 

 NETTING SEASON : 25th February to 9th September. 



District Fishery Board meets at Lockerbie. 



In dealing with the Annan, one comes to the Scottish salmon 

 fishery border, for although, geographically, much of the Esk 

 is in Scotland, it has been decreed that for purposes of salmon 

 fishery supervision and regulation, the whole catchment basin 

 of the Esk shall be regarded as English. Further, in dealing 

 with the Annan we touch more nearly than elsewhere the 

 Solway Question. I do not propose to go into this Solway 

 Question ; it affects England as well as Scotland, it is highly 

 contentious, very complicated, and never settled. 



The river Annan drains some 350 square miles of country, 

 and may be said to have its source in the Devil's Beef Tub, 

 about 1 J miles from Tweed's Well. A sharp rise, which attains 

 the elevation of 1,566 feet, separates the sources of Tweed and 

 Annan. There is an old rhyme which runs : 



" Annan, Tweed, and Clyde, 

 Rise a' out o' ae hill-side." 



As a matter of fact, however, the Clyde proper rises at a con- 

 siderable distance, for the Daer Water is the head stream of 

 Clyde and rises between the Earncraig Hill and Cairn Hill, 

 nearly 10 miles as the crow flies from the Devil's Beef Tub. 

 As if to verify the rhyme, however, there is a side burn called 

 Clyde's Burn which rises on the Hazelbush Hill, an eminence 

 close to Tweed's WeU. 



The Annan is but a burn as it passes through Moffat, but 2 

 miles further on it is joined by two streams as big as itself, 

 viz., Moffat Water and Eyan Water. The latter follows the 

 line taken by both the main road south from Lanark and the 

 main Caledonian Railway south. The junction of the three 

 streams is practically abreast of Beattock. Thereafter the 

 Annan flows south through the fishings of Poldean, Steurieshill, 

 Wamphray, Hillside of Moffat, Jardine Hall, to the junction 

 with the Water of Ae and Kinnel at Broomhill, within a mile 

 and a half of Lochmaben. The river now commences to wind 

 very much upon itself as it passes through a wide and rather 



