LOCH SKEKE. 127 



These streams uniting near the bridge form, as it were, the 

 Tweed. At certain times of the year, and in certain conditions 

 of the river, there must be excellent fishing here. But I never 

 saw the Tweed in good order at Bield, and so had no success. 

 The common trout abounds, and parr are innumerable. They 

 may be taken with an artificial fly during every month of the 

 year. I had this done for me. At no time do they seem to 

 differ ; the roe in the female fish being always uniformly small, 

 minute ; the milt, on the contrary, in the male parr, being occa- 

 sionally very large, occasionally very small, but unconnected, as to 

 its growth, seemingly, with any particular season ; unlike, in this 

 respect, as in many others, all other fishes. 



The Talla will furnish the angler with several days' good sport, 

 and, when swollen with rains, I should think it an excellent stream 

 for minnow-trolling. Large trout must ascend it at those times. 



LOCH SKE1S T E. 



Prepared as I have described, ascend the lone valley of the 

 Talla, and climb the steep mountain which shuts it in at the top. 

 Here the road divides into two ; the left leads to Megget-land 

 and Yarrow, the right to the wild country tying between the 

 valley of the Talla and the Grainshope Loch. A footpath will 

 conduct you to the summit of a high neck of land connecting 

 Baven's Crag, at the foot of which is Loch Skene, with the 

 mountain chain which, bending westwards and to the south, 

 slopes to the banks of Annan and Evan Waters. 



Keep the Haven Crag on your left, and proceed at once for- 

 ward, and soon will Loch Skene unfold itself. Dark, dreary, deso- 

 late, and mournful is that deep pool of water. Black morasses, 

 precipitous and dangerous rocks, surround it on all sides. The 

 grassy slopes are pitfalls, and lead to the valley of death. It is 

 the wildest scene I ever beheld. 



Descending to the Loch, we found in it two kinds or varieties 

 of trout, but none large nor any parr. As the day rapidly de- 

 clined, we ascended in an hour or two the hill, by the same route, 

 and making rapidly for the valley of the Talla, reached the Bield 

 extremely fatigued. 



Some years afterwards I visited Loch Skene by a different route. 



