JUNE 173 



except ' harling/ out of the question. Rusticus expectat ! 

 Horace was no salmon-fisher, but how his verse keeps 

 running in one's head while waiting and watching, day 

 after day, for the waters to abate to fair fishing size. 

 In a river on the scale of the Tay it is little use 

 putting up marks to see if ' she ' is waxing or falling. 

 In smaller streams a few hours will make all the 

 difference, but the Tay rolls on day after day with 

 scarcely perceptible change. It is surprising to note 

 how little apparent increase in volume is caused even 

 by the influx of what would be considered by many 

 fishermen a large river. The Isla, an important tribu- 

 tary, deep withal, and so wide that it is spanned 

 by a bridge of five large arches, flows in, and is 

 swallowed by the mother stream, which lumbers along, 

 as if nothing had happened. A couple of miles lower, 

 at the Linn of Campsie, rocks divide the Tay into three 

 or four channels, each of tham not inferior in scale 

 to many a famous salmon-stream. 



Well, 'she's ower big the day, and she's a bad 

 colour, forbye.' There is not much chance of a fish, 

 but there are many less delightful ways of spending 

 a day in Montgomerie's festival of ' the cherrie and the 

 slae ' than being paddled about on the broad expanse of 

 this grand river : 



' " Behold the Tiber ! " the vain Roman cried, 

 Viewing the ample Tay from Baiglie's side. 

 But where 's the Scot who could the vaunt repay, 

 And hail the puny Tiber for the Tay?' 



The month of May can be much the reverse of 



