INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3 



sports unharmed on its surface ; the otter refuses to 

 frequent it ; the heron over its own shadow languishes 

 and dies. 



Visionary ! there is no such stream in broad Scot- 

 land. The chemist's art, the bleach-field, the paper-mill, 

 the railway, acids and vitriol, gases, lime, sheep-washing, 

 manures, and machinery combined, have not yet pro- 

 duced this result as respects a single rivulet. Our 

 very mill-runs still contain trout our lakes and rivers 

 abound in the scaly tribe. Ramble with me from shire 

 to shire, and I warrant thou wilt cull from each a 

 measure of sport, ample enough to satisfy a man of 

 moderate wishes. Art thou otherwise, I have no key to 

 thy humour ; in these times, alas ! of exclusion and 

 selfishness, I have no power to assist thee. But there 

 are trout enough for all, for the sport of the peasant as 

 well as that of the peer; and a malison seize the churl 

 who would grudge to the labouring man his snatch of 

 pleasure, or deny him, although obtained through his 

 own skill and industry, the morsel that economises 

 or adds life-prolonging zest to his homely and every- 

 day fare. 



Unquestionably, there exists no species of fish, 

 which, judging of it by the external marks, holds 

 claim to so many varieties as the common fresh-water 

 trout. In Scotland, almost every lake, river, and stream- 

 let possesses a breed peculiar, in outward appearance, to 

 itself. To prove and illustrate this, I do not require 

 to go farther than the district in which I reside. 

 Within a circle of about twenty miles from Kelso, I 

 find embraced the following streams and rivulets : 

 Tweed, Teviot, Ettrick, Leader, Ale, Kale, Eden, 

 Blackadder, Whitadder, Leet, Coquet, Till, Colledge, 

 Bowmont, Gala, Rule, all trouting waters ; yet, strange 



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