14 FISH AND PISHING IK SCOTLAND. 



land's wild and lonely mountains, but when the heath is in 

 bloom, when the leaves are on the trees, when fleecy clouds float 

 over head and soft west winds carry with them the fragrance 

 of the balmy south. 



From the western slope of the Pentland, and of the hills in 

 which it terminates, flow the water of Leith and the Ammond ; 

 on the eastern, the North and South Esks. The Pentlands, in 

 fact, separate the rich fertile valleys of West Lothian and Esk- 

 dale, forming a spur or abutment of that vast hilly country, 

 which, traversing Scotland from St. Abb's Head to the shores of 

 the Western Sea, divides Nithsdale and Berwickshire from 

 Clydesdale and the Lothians. Of the Ammond water I cannot 

 advise the angler, but an " honest angler" and most worthy man, 



Trout taken with fly at Colt-bridge, near Edinburgh, in the water of Leith, 21st March, 

 1835; length 8 in., weight 6 oz. 



told me that sea trout may be taken with fly, or minnow, or her- 

 ring-fry, or sand eels (a favourite food of the sea trout, but which 

 he deserts for better when he can get it), as bait, within the range 

 of the tide, nay, at the mouth of the river near Ammond. The 

 angler who may be disposed to try the stream of which I speak, 

 will find the banks tangled with wood, the ground at once slimy, 

 rocky, insecure, the angling difficult and confined to a very short 

 space. He will require, in fact, mud-boots, a strong rod, and a 

 strong arm, and, I fear, much patience. 



In August and September, especially during easterly winds, 

 salmon, sea trout, and hirling, begin to enter the mouths of the 

 smaller streams which join the Frith of Forth ; the little salmon, 

 called hirling, I have seen taken in the sea with the coble net, 

 used as in rivers, not far from the mouth of the Esk, at Mussel- 



