146 IMPETUOUS FLOODS. 



the weather, but upon the state of the river as it is 

 affected by the rains ; so that one may be weeks, and 

 even months, on the spot, without the possibility of 

 taking a fish with the rod. The water may be too low 

 to admit of fish coming up, or it may be too full in flood, 

 with diurnal waxings ; so that sportsmen who come from 

 a distance, and have not much time to spare, may be 

 grievously disappointed. In the upper part of the 

 Tweed, real good rod fishing lasts but a few days after 

 a spate : indeed, the water there is not properly supplied 

 with fish till there are two or three spates in succession. 



The hills are now so well drained, that the flood runs 

 off rapidly ; and thus the river soon falls in, and becomes 

 too low for the fly, except in the strong streams. 



Before these complete drainages took place, the Tweed 

 kept full a much longer time than it does at present; for 

 the rains which fell remained in the mosses, which gave 

 out the water gradually, like a sponge. 



Now the hill sides are scored with innumerable little 

 drains, which empty themselves into the burns, which 

 burns soon become impetuous torrents ; thus suddenly 

 supplied, the Ettrick, the Yarrow, the Leader-water, 

 the Ale, the Tiviot, and the many other streams that 

 empty themselves into the Tweed, come raving down 

 from the mountains and from the lakes, and, with their 

 united volume, raise that river to an alarming height in 

 the space of a few hours, which then spreads over th 

 haughs, and sometimes sweeps off corn and cattle, and 

 levels the bridges in its irresistible course. In these 

 awful spates, the water is too strong and turbid for 

 fish to travel : the soil is washed away partially from 



