278 FISHING GOSSIP. 



principally employed by me ; but I also gave the 

 stream a run over with the par-tail, and captured 

 several of my largest fish with that bait, using the 

 ordinary three-hooked tackle described by me in 

 chapter 7th of the Anglers Companion. It is my 

 impression that had I persevered for two or three 

 hours longer, I should have added very largely to, if 

 not doubled, the amount specified. A recent attack 

 of lumbago, however, had inculcated the propriety of 

 taking wading-exercise in moderation ; and not 

 having an assistant with me, I came to the conclu- 

 sion that it was high time to leave off ; a burden on 

 the temporal shoulders of twenty pounds and more, 

 gradually made up, being equivalent at least to that 

 which Christian in Bunyan's famous parable carried 

 about with him on his spiritual shoulders at the out- 

 set of his pilgrimage. 



Passing under Mertoun Bridge towards the back 

 of the mill-cauld, I come to a stream of rapid char- 

 acter, which is celebrated among trout-fishers as the 

 scene of several extraordinary captures made with 

 minnow and par-tail during the dusky hours the late 

 John Younger of St. Boswells, well known in that 

 quarter as a writer upon fishing, etc., taking pride in 

 exhibiting the sketch of a " swallow-smolt" of five 

 pounds weight which was secured, along with others 

 of proximate ponderosity, by his son, one summer's 

 night, some ten or twelve years ago. Higher up lies 



