RIVERS. 5 



speaking, unless we include as a fourth the moor burn, 

 of which hereafter. Two of the three we have just 

 now discussed, showing in what and wherefore they 

 fail. It remains only to show those grounds upon 

 which we give precedence to the third class of streams, 

 and our best method of illustration is to be drawn from 

 example. The Tweed, comparing it with the other 

 Scottish rivers, is by no means rapid. The Dee, the 

 Spey, the Lochie, and many parts of the Tay and 

 Clyde, proceed with greater swiftness, and on the 

 whole are infinitely more broken and interrupted. Of 

 all rivers, this quality belongs solely to it, namely, that 

 it is from head to foot beautifully proportioned and 

 justly meted out. There is an evenness and impar- 

 tiality about it, which distinguish no other stream ; its 

 pools and shallows are harmoniously arranged 



" It murmurs and pauses, and murmurs again." 



Here we perceive no rocky shelves, no impertinent 

 cataracts, saying to ascending fish, " Hitherto shalt 

 thou come, and no farther ; and here shall thy proud 

 fins be stayed." Nothing of the kind. Nor is there, 

 on the other hand, any inert tendency ; no long, dead, 

 sleeping levels, in which pike may secure themselves. 

 The whole is planned according to an angler's taste ; 

 every inch of water accessible to the wader, without 

 danger or interruption. Its banks, also, are in keeping 

 with its other advantages not naked and barren, nei- 

 ther spongy and overgrown with rushes, nor yet crowded 

 with close and impervious wood, but mostly dry and 

 inviting, fringed in many parts with oak, ash, elm, and 

 beech, and in others hung over with the pleasant alder, 

 among the roots of which is often harboured a goodly 

 and well-grown trout, impatient for some dropping fly 

 or incautious worm. Most to our favour, however, is 



