158 THE SCOTTISH ANGLER. 



ascend the Devon to some length during close time, 

 but seldom sooner. Except Gartmorin Dam (an ar- 

 tificial sheet of water two or three miles from Alloa, 

 from which we have taken numbers of pike and fine 

 perch), there are no lochs in this shire. A small burn, 

 called the Black Devon, passes the town of Clackman- 

 nan, and is inhabited by a few trout. 



LANARKSHIRE. 



Clyde flows from a mountainous range, at no great 

 distance from the sources of its rival, Tweed. The 

 angling some miles above Biggar is good ; the trout, 

 however, are capricious, and attached to small flies. 

 Those preferred are winged with the blue feather of 

 the fieldfare, and have red hackles, or dark fox hair 

 for the body : a second kind used is the woodcock wing, 

 and hare's ear fly ; and a third, the common black 

 hackle. Below the falls at Stonebyres, a midge with 

 wings of the blue jay feather, and dark body, is very 

 deadly. Gaudy salmon flies for this part of Clyde are 

 sometimes used yellow and scarlet feathers, mixed 

 with tinsel. Of tributaries, Clyde has many, and they 

 are generally good angling waters. Among them we 

 find the Duneaton, Elvan, Daer, Blackwater, Mid- 

 lock, Gonnar, Culter, and Douglas Waters the Mouse, 

 Nethan, Avon, and four Calders. Duneaton water 

 is reckoned the best for trouting in. There are good 

 inns at Abbington, Crawfurd, and Elvan Foot, in the 

 southern parts of the shire, and no want of them far- 

 ther north, as you proceed down the Clyde. Very 

 large trout are sometimes taken above the falls. One 

 weighing fifteen pounds was captured some years ago 

 atRoberton Ford. Salmon, also, which is singular, 

 have been killed at the head of Clyde, proceeding, as 

 some have asserted, during high winter floods, from the 



