COQUET A "PETTED" EIVEE. 277 



course, where the soil is rich, the climate warm, and all 

 kinds of food in abundance, are in general large fine fish, 

 and of much better quality as an article of diet than 

 those in the upper part, where the bed of the river is 

 stony, the soil poor, and the climate cold and backward. 

 But upon the whole, the generality of the trout in the 

 Couqet are not of such fine quality for the table, as 

 those of either the Till, the Glen, or the Aln, in which 

 rivers the majority are pink-fleshed. 



On most occasions, in favourable weather, splendid 

 sport may be had in the Coquet, yet it bears the cha- 

 racter of being what anglers term a rather "petted" 

 river. That is, it may sometimes happen on a certain 

 day, when both the water and weather seem in the best 

 possible state for sport, that not a single fish will stir, 

 either at fly, minnow, or worm, let the angler do as he 

 may ; from what cause it is difficult to say. I recol- 

 lect fishing this identical stretch of water a few years 

 ago, in the month of May, when, one fine afternoon, with 

 a brisk westerly breeze, I took no less than three dozen 

 fine trout from a single stream a short distance below 

 the wooden bridge at Holystone, with the blue dun and 

 gravel flies, and returned in the evening with nearly 

 nine dozen fish in my creel ; although, on the next day, 

 when both the water and weather were in equally good 

 order to all appearance, I found my good luck had fled. 

 I tried over the same streams, with not only the same, 

 but every other species of fly at all appropriate for the 

 season, without even hooking a fish until three o'clock 

 in the afternoon, when I reached what is called Sharper- 



