274 AUTUMN ON THE TWEED 



The Tweed flows with a singularly gentle force 

 among obstacles of which very little displacement 

 would be the cause of formidable cataracts. In all its 

 course from Abbotsford to Wark there is not a barrier 

 which need cause a moment's hesitation to a bold fish 

 ascending the stream. In various places, as at the 

 Gateheugh above mentioned, or at Craigover in the 

 Mertoun water, celebrated by Scrope, the flood is 

 turned at right angles with some roar and chafing, but 

 the general character of the casts is an alternation of 

 sweeping stream and spreading pool. 



But the 'big days' on the Tweed are generally 

 enacted on what are known as the ' dubs/ long stretches 

 of deep, dead water, such as are known on the Thurso 

 as linns, held back by a cauld or weir. A salmon, 

 though reputed to be meticulous in the matter of flies, 

 has no eye for the picturesque ; so long as he can find 

 shelter, he cares not whether it be under a grey crag, 

 feathered with birch, crowned with oak and rich with 

 associations of Border fray, or in a ' dub ' as dull as a 

 canal, with a turnip field on one side and a highroad 

 on the other. Consequently, as the ' dubs ' afford easy 

 lying and good shelter, the fish are wont to congregate 

 in them in great numbers, and afford a fine prospect as 

 they roll to the top from time to time, flashing their 

 silvery sides, or, plunging heavily, plough up the water 

 like round shot. But to fish a ' dub,' you must have a 

 breeze. Why, it is not easy to explain, for trout, far 

 more wary than any salmon, may be taken in Test or 

 Itchen, in dead calm under blazing sunshine. Brt on 



