THE E1VER ESK. 143 



with its wide shingly bed, denoting how at 

 times it is a wide raging torrent, I was rather 

 surprised at taking even these. Lower down, 

 where the two streams meet to form the Esk, there 

 I captured a half dozen better fed and larger 

 fish, the largest of herring size, and as many 

 more in those deep and beautiful pools between 

 that junction and the house. Never have I 

 seen water of greater purity or of finer colouring, 

 or a more picturesque succession of the rapid 

 and still. 



PISCATOK. I confined my fishing, and with 

 success little exceeding yours, to the lower part 

 which you so much admire, and justly. The 

 light-coloured rock forming the channel of the 

 river, the green skirting banks, the pure white 

 of the falls, the equally pure and almost azure 

 hue of the deep pools, are indeed charming 

 in their variety and contrasts with the accom- 

 paniments of wood and meadow and marks of 

 culture, separating this from the wilder naked 

 mountain region which you ascended. 



AMICUS. I can now more readily believe 

 that the colour of water in mass is blue, for 

 were it not for the faint yellowish hue reflected 

 from the worn rock-basins, these pools would 

 be entirely azure, little differing from that of 



