RIVERS TEVIOT, NITH, AND CLYDE. 457 



The letters which he has written me on this subject, prove him to be a zealous 

 and most intelligent observer. Mr Shaw is already known to this Society and 

 the public, by his experiments and speculations on the parr and on the fry of 

 salmon, of which an account was read here last session by Mr Stark. The re- 

 searches which for many years Mr Shaw has carried on to ascertain the nature 

 and habits of these fish, have caused him to pay particular attention to the state 

 of the rivers in his neighbourhood, on which account, he was peculiarly qualified 

 to afford information as to any peculiarities in the state of the Nith and its tri- 

 butaries. 



From these letters of Mr Shaw, it appears, — 



1. That, previous to 27th November, no rain had fallen in the district drained 

 by the Nith and its tributaries for three weeks, and that the waters in these rivers 

 were in consequence extremely low. 



2. That, though the Nith was almost entirely dried up between Sanquhar 

 and Enterkinefoot, this was owing to a stoppage of the waters, which took place 

 in the higher parts of the river, and especially in its tributaries. 



3. That, though the caulds and damheads on the Nith and its tributaries 

 were encrusted with ice, the disappearance of the waters took place in parts of 

 the rivers situated above the caulds. 



4. That the phenomenon was most striking in those tributary streams, which 

 flowed from the highest level, and the waters of which were the most expanded 

 and exposed, by flowing over shallow channels unsheltered by trees or brush- 

 wood ; and that, on the other hand, it was least developed in the Minnick, a river 

 which has generally a temperature above that of the Nith, the Crawick, and the 

 Euchan, which were arrested. 



5. That the waters disappeared from the higher parts of the rivers, before 

 they disappeared from the lower parts. 



6. That the wind blew strongly on the 26th, and morning of the 27th, from 

 the east, and was very keen and parching. 



7. That the course of the Nith above Enterkinefoot is from the east, as well 

 as that of its tributaries, in which the stoppage or desiccation was most observed. 



(4.) I have now given the substance of the information procured by me, regard- 

 ing the desiccation or disappearance of the waters from the channels of the rivers 

 Teviot, Clyde, and Nith. Before submitting any views of an explanatory nature, 

 perhaps I may be permitted to conclude the above narrative of facts, by mention- 

 ing some other Scotch rivers, in which the same phenomenon was observed on 

 the 27th November, and also in former years. 



I have a letter fi-om the schoolmaster of Ettrick, stating, that, on the 27th 

 November, the Ettrick, at about eight miles from its source, was dried up. It is 

 there usually from ten to twelve inches deep. The desiccation was observed about 



VOL. XIV. PART II. 4 B 



