71 



in former days of religious and political contention 

 and faction. 



Speaking generally, we may say with justice, that 

 there are few rural scenes, upon a narrow scale, which 

 present a more lovely and agreeable spectacle than 

 those which are to be found in the several localities of 

 these. upper waters of the Nith. In many places the 

 uncultivated moorlands are flanked by hills whose 

 summits rise like lofty colonnades to the clouds, and 

 remind us of the sublime Scriptural expression, 

 "the pillars of heaven." Here and there we see a 

 beautiful mountain, clad in velvet green, and tipped 

 with its warder cairn ; while at its base we recognise 

 some little and solitary hamlet, sending up its smoke, 

 and skirted with a few acres of well cultivated land. 

 In the stillness of a summer's evening, when the 

 mind is in a contemplative mood, one surveys such 

 scenes as these with a feeling of enchantment one is 

 loath to dissipate. 



The Euchan stream enters the Nith from an 

 opposite side to that of the feeders just mentioned, 

 but still in the locality of Sanquhar. This is a 

 beautiful stream. Its banks are ornamented with 

 wood to their very edges. The bed of the river, for 

 the most part, is composed of blue whinstone, and 

 is worn by the action of the water as smooth as a 

 polished pebble. The stream has a run of only 

 about ten miles. 



The angling in the JSTith from Sanquhar to where 

 the Enterkin, or Ken Water, enters it, about seven 

 miles below the town, is excellent. Some of the 



