COLTBRIDGE. 9 



bridge at the tail-stream of Dairy Mills ; and 

 many a good trout with set lines have I pulled 

 out in the morning, in the garden on the other 

 side. But now the lime which is used at the 

 mills of Gorgie and other places, with the small- 

 ness of its waters from drainage and other causes, 

 make sport at an end here. There is no such 

 thing as a trout to be had, and little done even 

 at Currie and Colinton. Eels have often been, 

 and are still, an object of curiosity ; and in this 

 Water of Leith, I remember, one day in July or 

 August 1812, being at the back of Bonnington 

 distillery fishing for eels, where one time they 

 were plentiful, that, watching under the stump 

 of an old saugh tree, I observed little bunches of 

 hair-like threads come up to the surface of the 

 water, and, as I looked, they separated and be- 

 came little eels. This I have often mentioned ; 

 but my piscatory friends only shake their heads. 

 However, I maintain to this day, that they were 

 young eels just emerging into life. I watched 

 them while they did so, and viviparous I always 

 believed them to be; for I could no more be 

 mistaken, than that horse-tail hairs could turn 

 into flukes. 



