284 THE ALN. 



the county town of Alnwick, falls into the sea at 

 Alnmouth. The quantity of water in this river is 

 rather scanty at ordinary times, until it reaches the 

 village of Bolton, about eight miles west of Alnwick, 

 when it at once becomes a deep and sluggish stream, 

 from the artificial obstruction to its waters of a couple 

 of mills, which dam them back for a considerable dis- 

 tance. The greater part of it, however, below the village 

 of "Whittingham, contains good streams (well stocked 

 with fine trout of first-class quality and flavour, most of 

 them being pink-fleshed), and affords excellent worm or 

 minnow fishing ; but its waters, running for the most 

 part through a clay soil, are too opaque and muddy for 

 the fly. Above those mills, there is capital deep still 

 water, containing large fish, well adapted for the drop or 

 trolling minnow, described in a former chapter. 



The trout in the Aln are superior to most in the 

 north of England for size and quality ; especially in the 

 lower portions of the river, where their flesh is rose- 

 coloured, rich in flavour, and quite equal to the best speci- 

 mens of the Till. 



Nearly the whole of this river, from a little below 

 its source to below the town of Alnwick, is strictly pre- 

 served ; while that portion of it which runs between 

 that town and the sea, though free to everybody, is 

 scarcely worthy of notice at present, as the whole of the 

 trout there were poisoned a few years ago, by an erup- 

 tion of the pent-up mineral waters of an old colliery, 

 which broke their way into it, through the medium of 

 Q, burn which discharges itself into it in Huln Park, and 



