ATTRACTIVE NATURE OF CERTAIN STONES. 253 



accommodation or shelter, the feeding, the facility of 

 removal in case of a sudden flood, the sensation of the 

 fish, its state of pregnancy, or all or several of these 

 matters combined ; but be this as it may, to trace out 

 the exact motives which direct salmon to particular 

 spots in preference to others, apparently as advantageous, 

 is a task not to be ventured upon with 'materials purely 

 speculative. As I have said, I could point out many 

 such spots, even in large, broad waters, like the Tweed, 

 near Kelso ; as the Red Stane below Makerston ; the 

 Prison Rock, at Sprouston Dub, &c. &c., each of which 

 is, as it were, a magnet for the attraction of salmon ; so 

 much so, that it has been proved in regard to them, 

 that should one of the occupant fish happen to be ab- 

 stracted by the angler, its place will, even when the river 

 is at its average height, become, in the course of two or 

 three hours, supplied by another. 



I recollect some years ago being along with a party 

 who were sun-leistering or spearing from a boat, in the 

 month of August or September, during a season of great 

 drought, and when the fish in Tweed had become scarce. 

 We had ransacked nearly a mile of water to little pur- 

 pose, having, in the course of our descent, slaughtered 

 only a single grilse. Nor, although the clearness of the 

 day and low state of the river afforded every facility for 

 detecting the presence of other fish, were any such ob- 

 served none, most certainly, lurking within a hundred 

 yards of the stone or rock, along- side of which the indi- 

 vidual above mentioned was taken; and yet, on our 

 return thither with the boat, not an hour afterwards, a 

 dun salmon, of ten or twelve pounds in weight, presented 

 itself to view, in occupancy of the identical spot where 

 the grilse had been discovered. This fish, also, it may 

 be mentioned, we secured ; I shall not say legitimately, 



