CHAPTER LXIII 



THE ANNAN 



With a drainage area of three hundred and fifty square miles, 

 unlike its near neighbour, the Esk, is entirely in Scotland, Rising 

 in a range of high hills lying to the north of Moffat, on the borders 

 of the counties of Lanark, Dumfries, and Peebles, with its source 

 but a mile and a half from that of the Tweed, and only three and a 

 half from that of the Clyde, it eventually falls into the Solway 

 Firth about a mile below the town of Annan. 



Its approximate total length is thirty-five miles, the upper 

 waters flowing through a highland country, with the lower ones 

 passing entirely through an agricultural district. On the way 

 to the sea it receives — in addition to many smaller ones — half a 

 dozen big tributaries : the Evan, Moffat, Kinnel, Ae, Dryfe, and 

 Milk, up which salmon and sea trout make their way late in the 

 angling season. 



The Annan is said to derive its name from an old Gaelic word 

 meaning "slow flowing"; but that certainly does not accurately 

 describe the upper waters, as for the first fifteen miles of its course 

 it is a swift, strong stream, which only begins to flow more quietly 

 after passing Johnstone Bridge, at the end of the Raehills property. 



According to the Fishery Board Reports, in 1862 the yearly 

 value of the netting was £673, and that of the angling £111. In 

 1882 the former had increased to £1720, and the latter to ^^177. 

 Thus, while the nets had augmented their value by £1047, the 

 anglingjhad only gained £66, which clearly^demonstrated that the 

 nets were getting an unfair share of the fish. 



Some twenty miles from the mouth the Annan passes close by, 

 but has no connection with, the Castle Loch of Loch Maben, which 

 is noted for being, with one exception, the only Scotch loch holding 

 the vendace, a fish of the salmon family, but which never rises to a 

 ily and is only caught by nets. It grows to about ten inches in 

 length, has darkish fins, with greenish blue along the back and upper 

 half of the body, with the sides and beneath silver white, dashed 

 here and there with gold markings. These fish of this Castle Loch 

 are netted for once a year, on the third Tuesday in July, by the 

 Vendace Club of Dumfriesshire, the members dining together 

 afterwards to consume their take, which is considered a great treat. 



Although the Annan is free from pollutions,! it suffers con- 

 5iderably from the various mill dams — or " caulds " — both on the 



