AND ANGLING SONGS. /I 



in their descent form into bands, out of the river Till ; Teviot 

 was also suggested ; but Till, a pike-infested and more con- 

 veniently situated water, was the more probable stronghold from 

 which they had sallied. 



Keverting to the Tay, I repeat my conviction that enor- 

 mous injury to the salmon and trout nurseries results from this 

 source. On the occasion of any visit I have paid to it and its 

 tributaries, the Earn and Turamel, I have always expressed my 

 surprise that no measures should have been taken, on an extended 

 scale, to thin and keep down these marauders, by thoroughly 

 ransacking and destroying their notorious lurking-places, and by 

 giving encouragement, as is done on some rivers, to rod-fishers 

 to make war upon them in every direction. The reduction and 

 shielding off of the bye-water, and the conversion, by embank- 

 ments, of the sluggish reaches which prevail here and there along 

 the course of the Tay and Earn, into swiftly gliding streams, 

 would go a great way to effect this object. 



SONNET. 



' ANGLERS ! ye are a heartless, bloody race ;' 

 'Tis thus the half-soul'd sentimentalist 

 Presumes to apostrophize us to the face. 

 Weak, paltry, miserable antagonist ! 

 To deem by this compassionate grimace 

 He doth sweet service to humanity ; 

 And yet, when of his fellow's misery 

 Of wars and pestilence, and the woes that chase 

 Mankind to the interminable shore, 

 He hears, to treat them with a hasty sneer, 

 Nor let their shrill appeal disturb a tear, 

 Or one emotion waken in his core ! 

 It is too much ! Anglers, your cruelty 

 Is tenderer than this man's philanthropy ! 



