i8o AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



terminus of the salmon way. I have observed, in relation to 

 them, the same hold good on every river I am acquainted with, 

 similarly circumstanced. But the question as to the parrs being 

 the young of the salmon is quite sufficiently determined by the 

 Stormontfield and other experiments, without the necessity of 

 accumulating evidence as to their fresh-water habitats, in reply 

 to the bare assertions of a few prejudiced observers. 



The character of the Devon for a mile and upwards above the 

 Cauldron Linn renders it more inviting to the lover of the pictur- 

 esque than to the angler. The river is so hemmed in with rocks, 

 some of which exceed eighty feet in height, and so shrouded in 

 copsewood, as to preclude all possibility of commanding it with 

 the rod. Above the Rumbling Bridge and Devil's Mill it is 

 more accessible ; and at the turn called the Crook presents the 

 qualifications, which are retained up to its sources, and shared in 

 by its different feeders, of a good troutiug water. To this, the 

 uppermost section, I could always resort with complete confi- 

 dence, as containing numbers of trout which, although by no 

 means large, are, when in season, lively and well formed. Once 

 only in the course of a short excursion from Perth, had I the 

 good fortune to come upon it when in first-rate trim for fly- 

 fishing, and to do execution among a class of trout superior, in 

 point of weight, to those usually met with by the surface skimmer 

 in July and August. Instances of a more modern date than 

 that of the period I look back to are on local record, of very 

 large trout being taken by the rod on this stretch of the Devon. 

 Among these, one of seven pounds, and measuring in length 

 twenty-two inches, holds place. It has been affirmed that trout 

 of the Loch Leven species or variety are occasionally caught in 

 this river ; and their appearance has been accounted for in the 

 connexion which in very wet weather is said to be formed at the 

 sources of the Queichs or the East Gairney feeders of the Loch, 

 with rivulets or drains discharging themselves into the Devon. 



