LOCH DOONE. 57 



was a long drive. I recommend all anglers to avoid the Ayr ; 

 its banks are beset with weavers' villages, who, no doubt, clear 

 its waters of every living trout, salmon, or sea trout, as fast as 

 they appear. On seeing these villages, we drove on; it was 

 quite enough ; and, as the sun descended on the western ocean, 

 we found a resting-place not far from " the Wallace Tower." 



The next day we examined the mouth of the Doone, looking 

 out for angling ground. We had an opportunity of exam- 

 ining the fishing baskets of two young anglers who had been 

 fishing in the lowest pools of " bonnie Doone." They contained 

 nothing but parr. A walk to Alloa kirk and the bridge of 

 Doone, that bridge which Tarn O'Shanter has made immortal, 

 showed me that there was no angling of moment in the lower 

 stream of the Doone ; so, after gazing for a while on a some- 

 what fantastic, misplaced monument, erected here in memory of 

 him who requires no monument, and looked at that stream in 

 which Tarn's wife foretold that he would some day be found, 

 "deep drowned in Doone," and at the bridge and haunted kirk, 

 which will live in the memory of man for countless ages, we 

 turned our horse's head towards Dalmellington. 



The road to Dalmellington runs along the banks of the Doone. 

 An angler might, I think, walk this road with advantage. The 

 Doone is at hand ; he walks along those banks and braes so 

 celebrated in song ; they are pretty, but in no way remarkable. 

 1 should not think the Doone much of an angling river in any 

 part of its course ; but it is frequented by salmon which reach 

 by its means Loch Doone itself. 



SHORES OF LOCH DOONE. 



On clearing the wooded banks of the Doone, you stand at 

 once at the source of the river, and on the margin of as desolate 

 and wild a lake as fancy can well picture. The Eagles' Crag, 

 bold, precipitous, dark, and frowning, rises to a great height 

 beyond the lake, whilst all around huge heather-clad mountains 

 shut in the waste of waters. Towards the eastern extremity of 

 the lake is a small island, on which stand the ruins of an ancient 

 castle of great strength. 



