22 ANGLING SKETCHES 



but to lower the top almost to the water's edge, 

 and hold on in hope. Presently the boat drifted 

 ashore, and I landed him — better luck than I 

 deserved. People who only know the trout of the 

 Test and other chalk streams, cannot imagine how 

 much stronger are the fish of the swift Scottish 

 streams and dark Scottish lochs. They are worse 

 fed, but they are infinitely more powerful and 

 active ; it is all the difference between an alderman 

 and a clansman. 



Tweed, at this time, was full of trout, but even 

 then they were not easy to catch. One difficulty 

 lay in the nature of the wading. There is a pool 

 near Ashiesteil and Gleddis Weil which illus- 

 trated this. Here Scott and Hogg were once 

 upset from a boat while ' burning the water ' — 

 spearing salmon by torchlight. Herein, too, as 

 Scott mentions in his Diary, he once caught two 

 trout at one cast. The pool is long, is paved with 

 small grave], and allures you to wade on and on. 

 But the water gradually deepens as you go for- 

 ward, and the pool ends in a deep pot under each 

 bank. Then to recover }'our ground becomes by 



