THE WKEIGH AND ALN. 283 



it not wonderful that many hundreds of eriox annually 

 contrive to force their way through it, on their way to 

 the spawning-grounds above ? What a vast amount of 

 muscular power this fish must possess ! 



THE WREIGH, 



a small river running from the north-west, joins 

 the Coquet at the village of Thropton, a couple of 

 miles above Eothbury. This little river abounds with 

 trout, and affords excellent sport after rain, and furnishes 

 favourite spawning-ground for the eriox, up which 

 they swarm in hosts in the autumn. Hundreds of 

 them, in time past, annually fell victims to the cu- 

 pidity of the poacher, from the ease with which they 

 were taken out of its tiny pools, and hundreds more, I 

 am afraid, will share the same -fate, in spite of every 

 vigilance. The eriox is a much more difficult fish to pre- 

 serve than the salmon. The former persistently seeks out 

 the most tiny rivulets it can find, in which to deposit its 

 spawn, while the nobler fish sticks by the head waters 

 of the main stream. 



THE ALN. 



Proceeding in our northward course, we next come 

 to the Aln. This small river takes its rise on the east 

 side of the Cheviots, about midway between the sources 

 of the Breamish and the Coquet, and a little to the south- 

 west of the village of Alnham, whence it pursues a course 

 nearly direct east for about twenty miles, and, passing 



