THE ANNAN 415 



THE ANNAN. 



ANGLING SEASON : 25th February to 15th November. 

 NETTING SEASON : 25th February to 9th September. 



District Fishery Board meets at Lockerbie. John F. Cormack, Esq., Solicitor, 

 Lockerbie, is Clerk. 



In dealing with the Annan, one comes to the Scottish salmon 

 fishery border, for although, geographically, much of the Esk is in 

 Scotland, it has been decreed that for purposes of salmon fishery 

 supervision and regulation, the whole catchment basin of the Esk 

 shall be regarded as English. Further, in dealing with the Annan 

 we touch more nearly than elsewhere the Solway Question. I 

 do not propose to go into this Solway Question ; it affects England 

 as well as Scotland, it is highly contentious, very complicated, and 

 still sub judice. 



The river Annan drains some 350 square miles of country, and 

 may be said to have its source in the Devil's Beef Tub about 1J 

 miles from Tweed Well. A sharp rise, which attains the elevation 

 of 1566 feet, separates the sources of Tweed and Annan. There is 

 an old rhyme which runs : 



" Annan, Tweed, and Clyde, 

 Rise a' out o' ae hill-side." 



As a matter of fact, however, the Clyde proper rises at a considerable 

 distance, for the Daer Water is the head stream of Clyde and rises 

 between the Earncraig Hill and Cairn Hill, nearly ten miles as the 

 crow flies from the Devil's Beef Tub. As if to verify the rhyme, 

 however, there is a side burn called Clyde's Burn which rises on the 

 Hazelbush Hill, an eminence close to Tweed's Well. 



The Annan is but a burn as it passes through Moffat, but 2 miles 

 further on it is joined by two streams as big as itself, viz. Moffat 

 Water and Eyan Water. The latter follows the line taken by both 

 the main road south from Lanark and the main Caledonian Railway 

 south. The junction of the 3 streams is practically abreast of 

 Beattock. Thereafter the Annan flows south through the fishings of 

 Poldean, Steurieshill, Wamphray, Hillside of Moffat, Jardine Hall, 

 to the junction with the Water of Ae and Kinnel at Broomhill, 

 within a mile and a half of Lochmaben. The river now commences 

 to wind very much upon itself as it passes through a wide and 

 rather flat agricultural district, and in this stretch of several miles 



