THE OTTER. 251 



answer perfectly; for in very low water fish do not 

 travel, and in a very high one, when they do, the miller 

 would suffer no loss." 



" Well, I wad na say but ye are perfectly right, and 

 I am thinking that a river, like a road, should be open 

 for all passengers." 



Most of the dead salmon having been at length forked 

 out of the river, we all got afloat again, and passed 

 down those rapids above Melrose Bridge, called " the 

 Quarry Stream" U Back Brae" and " Kingswell Lees" 

 snatching out a fish occasionally in our course; then 

 the flame soon gleamed upon the bridge, struck upwards 

 on the roof of the vast arch as we shot through it, and 

 revealed the dark pines below, which shelved down to 

 the margin of the river. 



We were now in a salmon cast called " the Whirls" 

 which runs deep and solemn, and we had scarcely set 

 our leisters in the rest, ere we found that a fisherman 

 had been to work before us, and an excellent hand he 

 was at the sport ; he had neither light nor boat, and, 

 being tolerably hungry, I suppose, was devouring a 

 twelve-pounder, all raw as it was, in the dry channel of 

 the river. 



" See ! the otter, the otter ! he has got into the water. 

 Bring round the boat, — quick, quick. Now keep her 

 on the edge of the deep current, and we shall leister 

 him to a certainty." No such thing. He had not yet 

 made tip his mind to be leistered; and, being of a 

 solitary disposition, rather shunned our society than 

 otherwise ; so, instead of attempting to gain the main 

 stream, he went insidiously down the shallows, where 



