AND ANGLING SONGS. 34! 



derived from its pursuit as a sport, is, as I have already said, 

 greatly dependent upon the character of the scenery in view. I 

 know of few places on the east coast of Scotland that can vie 

 with St. Abb's Head, in adding to the attractions of this amuse- 

 ment none where, personally, I have entered into its spirit with 

 so much enthusiasm, or felt so inclined to give it preference even 

 to salmon-fishing. The elevation of the animal spirits conse- 

 quent on being wafted or impelled over the glassy waves at the 

 base of stupendous cliffs perforated with caverns and fronted with 

 fantastically-shaped rocks, rising, some of them, in a detached 

 state, in form of cathedral spires, cannot well be expressed. The 

 great variety of aquatic birds gulls, cormorants, terns, guille- 

 mots, oyster-catchers, and solan geese which arrest the eye, all 

 assist to produce this elevation ; so also, on a favourable day, 

 does the character of the sport met with. 



In the months of July and August 1862, while sojourning at 

 Eyeniouth (confessedly during the herring-fishing season not the 

 cleanliest of sea-bathing quarters), I took several opportunities, 

 accompanied by my youngest son, a sailor by profession, of 

 crossing Coldingham Bay in a punt, for I could not procure any- 

 thing better on permanent hire at the fishing village above men- 

 tioned, to the foot of this noble promontory. Of course, as a 

 means of propulsion, the oar alone could be made use of; the 

 punt, as every one knows, being a flat-bottomed boat, unprovided 

 with a keel, and only adapted for river or harbour use. Its want 

 of grasp upon the water, should a breeze spring up, or when the 

 tides run strong, renders it a dangerous kind of craft to venture 

 in off an exposed coast. However, I could procure nothing else 

 that was at all manageable, without the necessity of engaging at 

 least a couple of hands, which I occasionally did, along with a 

 more suitable boat, when the state of the weather required it. 



From this punt, sometimes with the hand-line, and at anchor, 

 but more frequently by trolling with the white-fly under oars, we 



