ST. MARY'S LOCH. 323 



to. As an angling stream, it is in good repute, and 

 contains nice trout weighing from one and a half 

 pound, downwards. Near the loch, the average is 

 about half a pound, and I have frequently taken two 

 or three dozen of that weight. The woodcock wing 

 and mouse-fur body form a favourite fly. Minnow, 

 also, during summer, is highly attractive in some of 

 the streams. The lower parts of the Yarrow are 

 strictly preserved, but it is open above Broadmeadows. 

 In Douglas-burn, one of its feeders, are numbers of 

 small trout. 



ST. MARY'S LOCH from which this river makes its 

 escape, is well stocked with trout, averaging in weight 

 half a pound. I have often, however, killed them a 

 great deal heavier, and recollect on the Bourhope side 

 encreeling a yellow trout, that measured nearly twenty 

 inches in length. Such an occurrence, however, is 

 extremely rare. Besides trout, St. Mary's loch con- 

 tains pike and perch ; the former of late years are 

 much on the increase, whereas in the loch of the 

 Lowes, which is connected with it by a stream not 

 fifty yards in length, they are manifestly falling off in 

 number. About sixteen years ago, when I first angled 

 in these lochs, the upper one contained no trout what- 

 soever, and the under one, if any, few pike. Now, the 

 upper one, on the south side, has abundance of trout, 

 and these better in quality than what are met with in 

 the lower lake. In an edible point of view, the pike of 

 the above lochs are very superior to the fish of this 

 description generally met with, and attain to a great 

 size. I recollect killing one that weighed nineteen 

 pounds. My implement was a small trouting-rod, and 

 when I brought the fish to bank, there was only a 

 strand composed of three horse-hairs left near the hook 



