xvi INTRODUCTION. 



sufficient elbow-room for the daily plying of at least 

 twice that number of rods, and when I include 

 along with it the Ettrick and its twin sister Yar- 

 row, the Gala, Leader, Teviot, Till, and Whitadder, 

 not to mention the streams of the upper valleys, 

 and the countless rivulets, swarming with trout, from 

 which one and all are supplied, I have expressed in 

 the above statement no 'over-drawn estimate of the 

 resources, in point of amusement, which this river 

 comprehends. 



Of all our Scottish waters, from its fountain head4;o 

 the sea, Tweed is unquestionably the most amply stocked 

 with river trout ; it is frequented also throughout the 

 greater part of the year, by different species of the migra- 

 tory salmonidte the solar, the eriox, and salmo albus ; 

 these distribute themselves, on their ascent from the 

 ocean, over a large proportion of the main river ; they 

 occupy, for a long course of miles, its pools and shelter- 

 places ; at certain seasons, they push up in great num- 

 bers into the smaller feeders, and although, to the 

 wandering brother of the angle, not always affording 

 the same measure of successful sport that he meets 

 with on some of our Highland streams, yet their 

 presence and taking humour are more to be relied 

 on, they continue haunting the fresh-water through- 

 out a much longer period of the year, and are more 

 independent of rains and temperature, while, by their 

 distribution over a large extent of current, they yield, 

 what is the case on few of our northern rivers, abun- 



