16 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



2nd, the amount of dissolved oxygen capable of being taken up by 

 the fluid after the removal of the suspended solids. At the same 

 time it is provided that a certain amount of elasticity is possible to 

 suit local conditions. 



I find that Stoddart, in The Angler's Companion, says : " It is not 

 until it reaches Ashiestiel that Tweed is looked on by salmon-fishers 

 with much regard. Higher up the fish killed by the rod are com- 

 paratively few, and these, most of them, in execrable condition." It 

 is in this neighbourhood that the Edinburgh Angling Club have for 

 over sixty years had their headquarters. " The Nest," a cottage on 

 the Fernielee property, close to Yair Bridge, was the time-honoured 

 base, as it is lovingly referred to in many a song of the club. Ulti- 

 mately a change had to be made, and a new home was found two or 

 three miles away, 



" Where Ashiestiel looks on the Tweed, 

 And Tweed rolls broad by Caddonlee." 



The water rented is fished from the north or left bank both above 

 and below Ashiestiel Bridge, but salmon are not expected before 

 October, unless the summer has been an unusually wet one. 



The river Tweed and the various tributaries above this point, with 

 the exception of the Leithen, must therefore be regarded at the 

 present time as spawning ground. Fortunately it is spawning 

 ground of exceptionally high quality. It is unnecessary, and indeed 

 it would be well-nigh confusing, to describe in detail the positions of 

 the various fisheries from this point downwards. These will be 

 found marked in the maps of the river. 



The Tweed now passes into Roxburghshire, where in the Boldside 

 Water good results are obtained " at the back end," if conditions 

 have been favourable. The 1908 season was poor with only 47 fish. 

 From Abbotsford the distance is not far to Melrose, with its famous 

 twelfth century abbey. The entrance of the Gala from the north 

 between those two points has already been touched upon. We must 

 be thankful that Melrose does not stand on a tributary, else no doubt 

 the woollen industry would have taken root here also, and the 

 beautiful old pile would have been frowned upon by such monsters 

 of utility as we see at Galashiels, and blackened by the smoke of 

 belching chimneys. It is sadly jostled already by crowding houses, 

 but the old town remains unchanging. At Melrose there is a cauld 

 which is none too easy for ascending fish, in spite of its pass near 

 the left bank. It checked many fish in 1908. 



