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finest streams of the main river are to be met with, 

 in this locality. Most of the streams are of that 

 precise conformation which gives pleasure to the 

 angler's eye, and assures him of sport. 



The Ken is an interesting and pastoral stream, of 

 no great length, and fed by several small rills from 

 the neighbouring mountains, whose bold and majes- 

 tic head-lands tower to a stupendous height. The 

 angler, when on the Nith, should make a point 

 of ascending the Ken. Few localities in Scotland 

 are more full of interest than those on its banks. 

 There are, indeed, some spots which present such 

 harsh and melancholy aspects as to produce an abso- 

 lute depression of spirits; but this circumstance 

 rather adds to than detracts from the interest we 

 feel in such rugged wildernesses. 



The stream abounds in small fish. We have 

 known six dozen taken out of it, with worm, in 

 three or four hours, after a freshet in July, 



The Scar joins the Nith a considerable distance 

 below the Ken, on the opposite side of the main 

 river. The Scar has a range of full twenty-five 

 miles, and is a good stream for rod-fishing. The 

 trout run small, though we once saw a fish of four 

 pounds and-a-half taken out of the stream near its 

 entrance to the Kith. But this was considered a 

 great novelty. There is an immense rock in the 

 valley of the Scar of nearly a thousand feet perpen- 

 dicular. This is one of those bold features of nature 

 which inspire the beholder with the mingled feelings 

 of delight and awe. A multitude of legends are 



