68 THE SCOTTISH ANGLER. 



We consider this to be a strong and remarkable 

 proof of revolutions among fish ; yet we cannot refrain 

 from alluding to what has happened under our own 

 eye with regard to this very point, and assigning some 

 sort of cause for such extraordinary changes. 



About six years ago, when we first angled in Yar- 

 row and the lochs above mentioned, we were accus- 

 tomed to kill very large and strong trout ; they are now 

 greatly diminished, both in size and in quantity. In 

 Tweed, since 1827 and 1828, the fish have become 

 more numerous. Near Edinburgh, on the Water of 

 Leith, they have also increased greatly in every respect. 

 On the Almond, again, in some parts, they have fallen 

 off, as also on the Esk near Roslin. 



We need not introduce further instances of this kind, 

 but state our belief that they are universal, and can 

 be traced partly to the cultivation of the country and 

 the draining of mosses, partly to variations in the cli- 

 mate, which of late years have been somewhat extra- 

 ordinary ; and in the case of a deterioration in the 

 numbers and size of trout, it may be accounted for by 

 the more prevalent systems of poaching, and the wider 

 introduction of water machinery and chemical poisons 

 employed in various manufactories. 



And here we shall allude briefly, as connected with 

 the changes which some waters undergo, to several 

 curious illustrations of the breeding of trout, which 

 took place in an artificial reservoir belonging to the 

 Edinburgh Water Company, and built to compensate 

 the leading off of the Crawley springs on the Pentland 

 Hills, a short way above Glencorse. A small burn 

 running from Habbie's Howe, the supposed scene of 

 the Gentle Shepherd, supplies this pond. Two or three 

 years after its formation, some enormously lengthy trout 

 were captured with minnow and worm in different parts 



