Xll PREFACE. 



in keeping and of advantage, with some new thought or 

 more approved form of expression. 



So much for the poetical portion of the present volume. 

 In regard to the Prose sketches, several of them appeared 

 a few years ago in the pages of a weekly sporting paper 

 published in London. My intention, when they were 

 commenced, was simply to relate in a consecutive form 

 some of my angling experiences. In doing this, I trusted 

 for assistance to a diary or register kept by me since the 

 spring of 1827, in which have been jotted down, punctu- 

 ally as they occurred, my successes with the rod and line, 

 etc. The connexion, however, formed by me with the 

 journal I have just referred to gave a different turn to the 

 design, and will account to some extent for the rambling 

 and diffusive character of this part of the work. 



During a residence of nearly thirty years on Tweed- 

 side, I have had ample opportunities for making myself 

 acquainted with the habits of the migratory Salmonidce 

 belonging to our Border rivers. I feel therefore in a 

 position to pronounce unhesitatingly upon several points 

 relating to the natural history of the salar, eriox, and albus, 

 during their sojourn in the fresh water, which are not 

 generally subscribed to. Throughout the volume will be 

 found scattered the views entertained by me upon some 

 of these questions. I have introduced the expression of 

 them, however, not in order to provoke discussion, but 

 simply, and in a casual form, as matter of conviction 

 resting with myself. 



