130 THE SCOTTISH ANGLER. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

 ANGLING DISTRICTS. 



THE following list of fishing districts in Scotland may 

 seem to many not sufficiently specific ; the task, how- 

 ever, would be endless, and the advantages very un- 

 certain, were we to describe with particular accuracy 

 the features and contents of every Scottish water, the 

 varieties of trout it produces, the baits and flies most of 

 service, and all the minutiae connected with it. There 

 is attached to every county, or series of counties, a 

 general character, which amply supplies the necessity 

 of so doing ; and we would only burden our treatise 

 with an unnecessary appendage, did we not deem it 

 sufficient merely to jot out rapidly the principal points 

 of attraction to the angler, and not to enter into any 

 elaborate analysis of their virtues, which his own skill 

 will render him best able to appreciate. 



There are few districts in Scotland where sport is 

 not to be met with in some shape or other, improving, 

 no doubt, as it retires among Grampian recesses, or the 

 less frequented valleys of Ross-shire and Sutherland. 

 Of our Lowland rivers, the leading advantages are their 

 better provision in point of accommodation, the facility 

 with which they can be reached, and, above all, the im- 

 mense superiority they give to the finished and able 

 angler, over the unpractised noodles which frequent 

 their banks ; and this is a great drawback to our northern 

 waters, that the fish they contain have little subtlety, 

 and are too easily captured. One wearies of constant 

 success, obtained without any opportunity of exercis^ 



