AND ANGLING SONGS. 243 



time, than any of the others ; its waters generally being clear 

 and shallow, devoid, in a large measure, of refuge-places for the 

 breeding fish in dry weather, and subject, in the event of floods, 

 to changes in the position of its gravel-beds. All the way from 

 Eskdale Moor, past Castle- O'er, Westerkirk, Burnmouth, Lang- 

 holm Lodge, and Canobie, down to Longtown, it promises well to 

 the eye, but very rarely fulfils the expectations of the smitten 

 angler. The scenery, in fact, is the best part of it, and atones 

 largely for its shortcomings in other respects, yet why it should 

 not combine good sport with an attractiveness of character per- 

 taining to its banks and braes, rarely surpassed, there is no satis- 

 factory reason. It is certainly not what may be called a fertile 

 stream, so far as yellow trout are concerned, but its capacities 

 for holding the migratory species of the genus Salmo are pretty 

 fair, and taking into account that there are few disturbing or 

 vitiating elements in connexion with its course, I can see no 

 reason why, under proper management, it should not recover a 

 large portion of its lost repute as an angling river. My successes 

 on it, and I have fished it pretty regularly for nearly twenty years, 

 have never been very great. In the matter of river-trout, eight 

 or ten pounds in the course of a forenoon may be quoted as an 

 average. Such sea-trout as I have taken from its casts have 

 rarely exceeded one-and-a-half pounds, the generality of them, in 

 the shape of bills or whitens, seldom weighing more than half a 

 pound. That the Esk will improve, however, under the new 

 arrangements entered into by the proprietors on its banks (the 

 principal of whom are Sir Frederick Graham of Netherby, and 

 his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch) with the Commissioners of 

 Salmon Fishings, I make no question. 



Compared with the Esk, the Annan is a river of far greater 

 resources, and infinitely better holding capacities. It also, as a 

 breeding stream, has been greatly abused ; and the exercise of a 

 very strict surveillance on its upper channels will be required in 



