MILLKNOW. Ill 



of Spartleton, it is all down hill. He passes Mayshiel, gets a 

 sight of the stream that I have always looked on as the main 

 source of the Whitadder, passes the gipsy's grave, the ruined 

 keep, the junction of the source from the White well of the 

 Whitadder and the Mayshiel stream ; and here, a little above the 

 Mill, with beauteous Priestlaw directly opposite, he sits down to 

 rest, and to prepare for the coming sport. 



His further proceedings will be regulated by the aspect of the 

 waters. He had better view the stream a little, and look at the 

 Fastna, which joins the Whitadder a little higher up, consti- 

 tuting the third source of this fine stream unquestionably the 

 best angling stream in Scotland. Should the Fastna be full, 

 running dark and rapidly, swollen by rains which have fallen 

 extensively on its sources, leaving the others untouched an 

 occurrence I have witnessed more than once then make at once 

 for the stream, or for any branch that has been flooded. Trout 

 run up such streams in hundreds and thousands, leaving for a 

 time the other unflooded ones, and seemingly the main stream 

 itself. 



One lovely autumn day, an hour or so before noon, I chanced 

 to be at Millknow with two other anglers. We agreed to fish 

 different streams : they selected the Fastna. As I had never fished 

 the source arising in the Whitewell, nor angled in the Bothwell 

 another great source of the Whitadder which joins the stream 

 below St. Agnes I determined on this course, namely, to ascend 

 the stream of the Whitewell, until I could cross the north- 

 eastern shoulder of Spartleton, and strike the Bothwell, fishing 

 this latter until it joined the Whitadder. Both streams were 

 very low and clear. I saw few trout, and those were large, but 

 out of condition. The walk was too much, for the Bothwell ran 

 winding through lonely glens, making me sad and melancholy, 

 reminding me of some of the streams of Kaffraria " Het 

 land de Caffren." I do not think I saw a human being through- 

 out a day's ramble of more than twenty miles. My friends who 

 repaired to the Fastna caught six dozen large trout in no time ; 

 they were poor anglers, but Fastna, being flooded, the trout ran 

 like mad things up that stream from the Whitadder, leaping at 

 anything and everything. 



