CHEVIOT BECKS. 305 



primitive method of fishing with his hands. Here they 

 will also take the fly with equal avidity in pools where 

 there is sufficient breadth of water to use it ; while those 

 ravenous gentry are in no way fastidious regarding the 

 orthodox shade of colour of the fly used, or the precise 

 species proper for the season, but will gobble down 

 almost anything having a remote resemblance to an 

 insect, however faint may be the imitation. The red 

 and black hackles, the former with gold, and the latter 

 with silver twist, show well upon moss-coloured water, 

 and will be found to do good execution ; while the fern- 

 fly, the tawny fly, and the sooty dun, with the smoky 

 dun hackle and the black gnat, are universal favourites 

 in such localities. 



The trout are in general small, white-fleshed, 

 insipid, and comparatively worthless as articles of 

 cuisine, and very similar in complexion to the sterile 

 wastes by which they are surrounded ; nevertheless, on 

 suitable occasions, they afford to the angler a variety in 

 his avocations, and a day spent among the wild glens of 

 the Cheviots must be a very agreeable one indeed to 

 any one fond of mountain scenery, where nature alone 

 remains as she first came forth in her simple grandeur. 



In fishing these becks, the worm is in all cases prefer- 

 able to the fly, as they are so narrow and confined that 

 the latter cannot be cast with any satisfaction, while the 

 former can be dropped into every hole and corner, and 

 with the most deadly effect. So simple and unsuspi- 

 cious are these moorish fry, that during a fresh when 

 they are greedily on the feed, they will actually shoulder 



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