274 THE COQUET. 



not take the minnow so freely in the higher parts of 

 our mountain streams, as in the lower and deeper parts 

 of their course ; but here the worm is omnipotent, 

 especially at the commencement of a fresh. This I 

 know from experience, having most perseveringly and 

 carefully fished the higher portions of several of our 

 rivers with minnow, with only indifferent success, just 

 after a fresh, when the water was of that peculiar brown- 

 ish cast somewhat resembling a dilute solution of porter, 

 so favourable to minnow-trolling in all rivers. I believe 

 the chief reason is, that as but few minnows are to be 

 met with in the colder waters of our mountain streams, 

 the trout, in such localities, will be comparatively un- 

 acquainted with them. 



I may also here observe, that the whole of the lower 

 course of the Coquet, from Eothbury to the sea, is an 

 exceedingly fine fishing river, abounding in excellent 

 stretches of water, well stored with large heavy trout, 

 and containing, also, numbers of the salmo eriox, or 

 bull-trout, which vary from 5 to 18 Ibs. in weight, and 

 afford to the salmon-fisher nearly, if not quite, as good 

 sport as the salmo salar, or true salmon, of similar weight. 



The generality of the trout in the upper parts of. 

 the Coquet are very nearly of the same stamp as those 

 of the Breamish viz., from 5 to 10 or 12 inches in 

 length ; while a welter of li or 2 Ibs. in weight is by 

 no means rare to meet with. I recollect, last season, a 

 friend, who was plying his craft near to Lynn-Briggs (a 

 hamlet on the banks of the river), quietly dropped his 

 flies over a ledge of rock into one of these deep dark 



