22 PISH AND rismisra IN SCOTLAND. 



I look towards Woodhouselee notwithstanding, strangely enough 

 connecting its wooded ravine with Marie Stuart. Craig Millar 

 is in the distance, and Abercorn. The scenery will repay the 

 angler his walk, even should his day's angling have proved 

 unsuccessful. 



Of the Esk itself, as an angling stream, I can say but little. 

 It is too wooded. But this I believe, from what I saw at the 

 junction of the Grlencorse stream with the Esk, that in close 

 autumnal weather, and during rains, a bold angler, with a strong 

 rod, short line, good tackle, flies and minnows, might in the 

 Esk, at various points, find excellent sport. But he must not 

 regard the getting thoroughly wet, crossing the streams up to 

 the waist. Let him beware of the deep gullies, longitudinal and 

 precipitous, worn in the sandstone bed of the river, brim full of 

 water, and most treacherous. A false step here might lead to 

 destruction. Thus cautioned, I recommend the angler to tra- 

 verse, as he can at various times, the beauteous banks of the 

 Esk, from Woodhouselee to Roslin, from Roslin to the sea, if 

 he can obtain permission. In my younger days large sea trout 

 ascended as high as Dalkeith, "pleasant Dalkeith;" honoured 

 in some of Delta's sweet verse and charming prose. He will 

 meet with scenery not to be surpassed, if equalled, of its kind, as- 

 Hoslin and Hawthorndean. But the Esk is not a river to be 

 fished by young and inexperienced anglers ; no more is the Tyne, 

 angling in which will form the subject of my next chapter. 



At the mouth of the Esk is, or used to be, a stake-net, in 

 which are taken, during the autumn especially, salmon, sea trout, 

 and hirling. The fishermen also occasionally haul the seine from 

 the shore, around the mouth of the old harbour, taking small 

 sea trout and hirling. Of these I remarked this curious circum- 

 stance : some had been feeding on the food preferred by the true 

 salmon, and which he can only get in the sea, namely, the eggs 

 of the Echiriodermata, marine animals, called star-fish, sea-urchins, 

 &c.* ; but others had been feeding plentifully on sand-eels. In 

 the former the flesh was highly coloured, like salmon ; the 

 stomach and intestines clean, semi-transparent, and all but 



* Dr. Knox " On the Food of the Salmon, Herring/ ' &c. Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



