423 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE RIVERS OF THE SOLWAY FIRTH. 



THE NITH rises in the parish of New Cumnock, in 

 Ayrshire, where it receives the Afton water, and shortly 

 after enters Dumfriesshire. During its course, it is 

 successively swelled by the Euchan, Minnick, Carron, 

 Skarr, Duncow, and Cluden, the last-mentioned being 

 the largest of its tributaries. Including its windings, 

 the Nith is nearly one hundred miles in length. As an 

 angling river, it is very inferior to any other of its size 

 in Scotland. Neither the common trout nor salmon 

 are at all plentiful. Compared with those in Tweed, 

 they bear the proportion of about one to twenty. In 

 the upper parts of the river and its several feeders, the 

 fresh-water trout are rather more abundant, and 

 throughout its course, at the proper season, there is a 

 fair sprinkling of herlings. 



The CLUDEN, its largest tributary, is of a very different 

 character from the Nith and in good esteem among rod- 

 fishers. It is ascended by salmon, grilses, sea-trout, 

 and herlings, and contains, along with large-sized yellow 

 trout, an occasional pike. The salmon of Cluden are of 

 quite a distinct variety from those of the main river, 

 being thicker and shorter in the body, and much shorter 

 in the head. Its waters being of a mossy nature, the 

 fish entering it quickly grow dark in the external colour. 

 The rents of the salmon fisheries, near Dumfries amount 

 to about five hundred pounds a-year. 



