244 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



order to restore it to its ancient condition. From Watnphray 

 downwards it presents a succession of fine salmon-casts, which, 

 if tenanted, and made more accessible to the angler by judicious 

 thinnings here and there along the densely wooded banks, would 

 rival those of Tweed itself. 



On the 9th of August 1862, while trouting in that quarter, I 

 was so attracted by their appearance as to become induced, on 

 ascertaining that on the Annandale property free permission to 

 angle for salmon was accorded to the public, to attach a small 

 grilse-fly to my line. I had not taken a dozen throws before I 

 raised a fish, and shortly afterwards hooked, ran, and landed a 

 fine salmon of twelve pounds ; to it succeeded a grilse of seven 

 pounds ; and I had also the satisfaction of playing, though not 

 of securing, another fish, apparently of the same weight. The 

 Annan has the advantage over both the Esk and the Nith, in 

 being supplied, during its course, from numerous feeders, which 

 help to enlarge and vary the extent of its breeding-grounds. 



Of the Nith, and its chances of being restored under the new 

 Solway Act, I cannot augur quite so favourably. It labours 

 under a number of disadvantages not endured by its sister 

 stream. Its tideway, for instance, is more confined, and made 

 use of by vessels trading in lime, coal, etc. ; it receives the 

 sewage of a large town pregnant with manufacturing schemes ; 

 the course of those fish which incline to ascend it is impeded 

 at Dumfries by a cauld-dyke of considerable height ; it is not 

 sustained, to any amount, by important tributaries possessing 

 eligible spawning-grounds ; and the main river itself, before 

 passing through the policy-grounds at Drumlanrig, waters a tract 

 of country in which lead-mines are worked, and which is known 

 to be inimical to the existence even of the fario itself. 



The Dee, in Galloway, so far as I could judge of it in the 

 course of a fortnight's trial in July 1862, is one of those rivers 

 of which it may be pronounced that it moves per se among our 



