Fish and fishing in the lone glens of Scotland : with a history of the propagation, growth, and metamorphoses of the salmon
UC-NRLF 1 llllll $B 271 7 07 mm mk^ ^^ :-P:t: ■«■«:■■- '•■'■XC. ^i^U^ »^- •;,..<•; ^ :.%;<» /^ // Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fishfishinginlonOOknoxrich WITH A. HISTORY OF THB Propagation, Growth, and Metanaorj^Jioses of the Salmon ®Y ®1^ LONDON: G. ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. NEW Y0RK:*18, BEEKMAN STREET. 18M. "^ I I kiu , CONTENTS. Kl PART I. PAOB Inteodtjction 1 Chap. I. — the steeams flowing eeom the pentland EAKGE. — THE ESK, THE LEITH, AND THE AMMOND WATEES 13 II. — THE TYKE 25 III. — LOCH LEVEN 34 IV. THE TSLA; GLEN ISLA 42 V. LOCH KATEINE; VENACHAE ; GLENFTNLAS . 46 VI. — THE ATE; THE DOONE ; LOCH DOONE ; THE LOCH OE KEN ; ST. MAET's ISLE . . 56 VII. — THE NITH AND ITS TEIBUTAEIES . . .65 VIII. THE ANNAN ; LOCHMABEN ; CASTLE OF EOBEET DE BEUS; THE YENGIS . . . .77 IX. OF THE FISH CALLED PAEE, BEANDLIN, FINGEE- LING, &C. 80 PART II. THE TWEED AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. Inteodtjction 99 Chap. I. — eddlestone watee ; the lyne - . . 100 II, — the tweed FEOM PEEBLES TO INVEELEITHEN AND THENCE TO GALASHIELS . . . 102 .M846874 IV CONTENTS. PAGB Chap.  VII. — THE LOWEE WATEES OF THE WHITADDEE . 121 VIII. THE TWEED; THE TALLA ; LOCH SKENE . 126 IX. THE TAEEOW; THE ETTEICK ; ST. MAEY'S LOCH; LOCH OP THE LOWS . . . 129 X. — THE TEYIOT AND THE KALE . . . 131 XI.— THE TILL AND ITS TEIBTTTAEIES. THE BEAUMONT; THE COLLEGE WATEE; THE GLEN 133 XII — THE TWEED 138 Some eemaeks on the peopagation op the salmon by aetincial means, and on the geowth and metamoephoses of the fey .... 141 FISH AND FISHING IN THE LONE GLENS OF SCOTLAND. PART I. INTEODUCTIOI^. To-DAT is the first of May. It is mid-day. The sun shines brightly on the smooth and gently flowing Thames, as its waters sweep from Kingston to Eichmond. Half way stands the oak imder which he who sang the " Hymn to the Seasons" sat gazing listlessly on the tranquil stream — emblem of his own mind. So- journing long in a strange land he had adopted it for his own; its scenery, sky, river, people. He had exchanged the banks of the crystal Tweed for the still more placid Thames, and the peaceful highly cultivated vale of Roxburgh for a still more fertile land. They differ but little; and thus, whether on Tweed side or by Thames bank, whether at Roxburgh or Kingston, the bard from Scotland but not of Scotland, was an English poet ; not so immortal Burns : your mind and your country were one. You alone pourtrayed in telling words the scenes of which I am about to speak. Ayr and Doone, Yarrow and Tweed, Annan and Nith, Gala and Ettrick; to the banks of these rivers and streams, and waters, let me lead the angler, and show him what true angling means. I sit by Thames bank, but "My heart is not here ;"" 2 ■ FISH AND FISHIKG IN SCOTLAND. neither is it in "the highlands," which is not a true anghng country, but by the margin of lone and desolate Fastna, or l)y St. Bathan's ruined abbey, or by Chirnside Bridge, tempting with fly and minnow the spotted trout and silvery salmon. Here on Thames bank I see some one sitting in a boat, holding in his hand what resembles a fishing-rod. Do you call this angling ? Yes; it is angling in England. Be it so ; but it bears no resemblance to angling anywhere else. Even Izaak's angling is rather prosy, but compared with this thing in the punt, it was at least refreshing. Old Izaak ! Model angler of a model nation ; I should like to see one of your disciples fish the lone and desolate Fastna, with no resting-place between its eldrid bridge and Elms- ford. How little does he know of angling who has merely fished the preserved streams and ponds of fat and prosperous England. A word on angling in England. I sojourned for a year or two in the south of England, a short way from the muddy banks of the Southampton water, in Hampshire ; where the vine, uncherished by artificial heat, yet yielded tolerable fruit. Some friends, fond of angling for trout, invited me to accompany them to a preserved stream of the river which, descending from Stockbridge, unites at last with the Itchen, thus forming the Southampton water. It was a warm autumnal day. My friend drove us in his handsome chariot and pair to the scene of action. From the proprietor of the estate and of the right to fish we had a hearty welcome, and proceeded at once to the banks of the stream. To me the scene was new, although a perusal of " The Complete Angler" had to a certain extent prepared me for it. A gently flowing, quiet muddy stream, deeply fringed with sedge, and full to the brink, somewhat like a ditch about to overflow, meandered, if you will, through fat, artificially irrigated meadows. The pasture was knee deep, rank and marshy. Clumps of willows studded the landscape; here and there little wooden bridges crossing the deep irrigating canals, relieve the listless- ness and monotony of the scene. On one of these there sat a reverend pastor of a class of which Paley was the type. He seemed weighty enough to be an archdeacon. A boy carried his angling apparatus and a seat for him to rest occasionally. He was in accordance with the scenery and the scenery with him. AlfGLING IN ENGLAND. 3 Our party in the meantime tried boldly for trout, but were un- successful ; nevertheless, it is certain that occasionally some fine trout are caught here, for the rivers of Hampshire are noted for the excellence, if not abundance, of their trout and salmon. An esteemed friend, Gr , of the Guards, a Saxon and an Englishman, assures me that English anglers must not be despised. They fish "underhand," that is the phrase, and take many hrace of trout, where the overhand northern could take nothing. Very likely they know the temper of their own fish, and"^ the character of their becks and rivers ; the taste and habit of the fish of their own country. And in one respect they have the ad- vantage greatly over most of the northern anglers ; the fish they take, especially in the south of England, are as excellent as those of Scotland are generally worthless. The red-spotted river trout of England, frequenting the fresh water only, is, generally speak- ing, a much finer fish than the species usually met with in the Scottish rivers. The northern is a coarser fish, tasteless, colour- less, or nearly so, in its muscle or flesh ; the trout of the south of England is a handsomer trout, with pink-coloured flesh, and excellent to eat. This does not depend on the food, but mainly on their being specifically distinct. Nevertheless, the pink or pale salmon-coloured trout is also to be met with in many streams of Scotland ; in the Tyne, the water of Leith, the Eden, as I shall afterwards show ; whilst, no doubt, the coarser or Scottish kind is to be also met with in some parts of England, especially in the north. I have always heard that the trout of the Coquet are as worthless as those of the Tweed and its tributaries. But to return. A sumptuous dinner and choice wines awaited our return to the house of our host ; the carriage was ordered about ten, and so we reached home without other fatigue than that of sitting three or four hours over our dinner and wine. As I stood on the banks watching the movements of the Vicar, for such he was at the least, on the other side, and of my more active friends on this, I said to myself, "this no more resembles true angling than does yonder swelling upland with its patches of heath the desolate and lonely glens of the Lam- mermuir ; the muddy stream before me, the silver, crystal Tweed; the air I breathe, stagnating over these fat meadows, the honey- b2 4t FISH A]S'D PISHI^'G IN^ SCOTLAND. wafting, pure, refreshing, exhilarating, life-restoring gale, which blows over Priestlaw on a summer morn." Away, then, I said, to the lonely glens and mountain tops of the true angling country, Scotland, in fancy, at least, if not in reality. I will describe, I said, angling in Scotland, as I have experienced it. I say this without meaning to disparage English rivers and angling in them. I see, in fact, that, under certain circumstances, some excellent trout are to be caught in rivers, such as I have described. But the angler would, I think, require to be differ- ently equipped, and his materiel more artistically finished than is requisite on Scottish rivers and lakes. There is first the per- mission to be obtained ; next, as to equipment, long waterproof boots, to wade and splash through the marshy meadows ; the finest tackle, a small salmon-rod, with several spare tops ; abundance of live minnows of all sizes, and a choice of flies. The small streams and rivulets called becks, in the north of Eng- land, and no doubt in the south, abound with good trout of at least two kinds. Cautious fishing with worm or minnows, dropped very cunningly just over the bank, is sure to succeed. I have practised this often in Scotland. But of all this I shall speak more hereafter. In the meantime, let me dismiss, as briefly as may be : I., what kinds of trout and fish of the salmon kind are to be caught in Scotland by the angler, it being best for bim to know what he is to expect ; II., what materiel and equipment will best suit him, and how he is to proceed; III., -and finall}^, conduct him to the rivers and lakesthemselves, and there discuss with him many nice and difficult questions, which closet naturalists, learned though they be, have failed to solve. 1st. Of the kinds of trout and of salmon which are caught in Scotland, and in the rivers and lakes of the Border country. Although it be easy enough in general to distinguish at a glance a fresh-water trout from a sea trout, and both these from the true salmon, more especially when all three have attained their adult condition, jet this kind of knowledge, though highly practical and useful, being, in fact, what constitutes the skill of the experienced fishmonger, will be found far behind that which the angler requires or desires to know in respect of the beauteous CLASSIFICATION OF THE SALMODflDiE. 5 finny tribe, for which he angles. The naturalist, it is true, is bound, as a naturalist, to take note only of the fully-developed adult individual ;* this he carefully examines and describes, recording its characteristic features in the great Book of Natui'e — the sy sterna naturce, in fact, of his adoption, whether that system be a modified one, dressed up by himself, or a ready-made one, the production of a master-mind ; a Linne, a Buffon, a Cuvier, a De Blainville. But no good observer, not even the angler, will or ought to stop here. He does not always catch the full-grown fish ; fiiany little ones and young ones are taken, differing widely from the full-grown, though of the same kind, not yet individuaHzed, and therefore not readily recognisable ; yet he would like to know what they are — what they would become. Are they trout, or salmon, or salmon-trout ? and if merely trout, to what species or kind do they belong ? It is with the hope of assisting the angler, and the curious observer of Nature's works, that I here offer him the following brief sketch of some of the results of countless angling excur- sions, reserving for other sections of this little book a more minute account of what the angler may meet with in Scotland. In the rivers and lakes of Scotland, in so far as I have fished them, there are three distinct natural families of salmones, form- ing the genera of naturalists ; to each of these belong several species absolutely distinct, whatever my esteemed friend, M. Valenciennes, may say to the contrary. Of the genera, or natural families, there is 1st, the Salmo Salar, or Trout ; some call this the Fario. I recommend the angler to eschew all pedantry. 2nd. The Salmo Trutta, or Sea Trout, universally called ^' Trout" simply, by the salesman. 3rd. The Salmo, or true Salmon. These three natural families have many characteristic differ- ences, which, when present, will enable the observer always to distinguish them from each other, even although the external robe, with its various spots and colouring were either acci- dentally destroyed, or altered by disease, or deeply affected. * Valenciennes. 6 FISH ASB FISHIXG IN SCOTLAND. as it sometimes is, by an approach on the part of the fish to its spawning or foul condition. Of these three characteristic marks- I shall here mention only the teeth, placing before the reader 1st. The dentition of the trout. 2nd. The dentition of the sea trout. 3rd. The dentition of the salmo when adult, that is perfect^ inasmuch as any animal condition can Be esteemed perfect. Look into the mouth of the first river or lake trout you meet with of a good size, and you will see in the upper jaw or roof of the mouth — 1st, An uninterrupted row of teeth, extending^ around nearly the whole margin of the mouth. These teeth, being all of one kind, are characterized, not as in mammals or Fiy.6. V "Figs. 6 and 7.— Arrangement of those teeth in the middle of the palate which anatomists call vomerine. In the fresh-water trout they are arranged in a double alternating row:» The large fresh-water-lake trout lose the teeth placed transversely in front {aa, figs. 6,7)^ but they retain for life the double alternating row behind.. Fig. 8. — The same teeth {vomerine) in the sea trout when young. Fig. 9. — The same teeth in the sea trout somewhat older. Fig. 10. — The same teeth in the sea trout still older. By this time they are reduced to a short single row, and this we never find in the fresh-water trout. In the true salmon the transverse teeth (a) alone remain. in man, by different names expressive of their functions (inci- sors, canine, molars) ; but by the bones supporting them, namely, maxillary and intermaxillary, palatine, etc. 2nd. Now within these, or nearer to the mesial or middle- place or line of the mouth, is a second semicircular row of teeth, interrupted, however, at two points. These are called vomerine teeth, being carried on two bones, which anatomists generally agree to call palatal bones. In the middle line of the palatal and between these last described, you may now observe vomerine teeth, a double alternating undulating row of teeth, extending from before backwards, separated from the palatal by clear tooth- less spaces, the points of the teeth being turned outwards, and. DENTITION OF THE SALMONIDiE. 7 SO arranged as if they occupied a ridge not sufficiently broad to hold them symmetrically or side by side in pairs, hence alter- nating. These characteristic teeth are called vomerine or vomerian. I have occasionally called them middle palatal, for they occupy the middle line of the palate : the bone supporting them IS presumed to be the vomer, and they form the key adopted by many naturalists to the generic distinctions of the salmonia of every description. The figures given here represent the palate in the three natural families of the salmonidae, namely — The common trout adult. The salmon trout „ The true salmon „ But I caution the reader to remember, that this classification of the salmonidae based on the teeth, is not sufficiently comprehen- sive to include all ; for we shall find, that there are river trout which have transverse teeth on the fore part of the vomer, even in the adult state, and in this resembling the young sea trout and salmon; for they, when young, have a double row of vomerine teeth which they lose as they grow older. To render all this more distinct, I have caused to be repre- sented here, the said vomer, with the vomerine teeth, as they occur in the presumed adult, in the three natural famihes of Salmonia. The question as to what is the dentition of the young of these three natural families, opens up an inquiry which need not be. entered on here. It will find a fitting place in some future chapter of this book, which the angler may perhaps peruse when, wearied with angling, he reposes on some sunny bank, before him the cr^^stal stream full of trout, the stepping stones over which have tripped many light hearts now cold and pulseless ; the ruined abbey telling of a race and a worship now dead and gone; the wooded bank, a vestige of that forest through which roamed the ancient inhabitants of Caledonia; shall we ascend further into the records of time ? Yes. Look at that tiny fish in your hand, just escaped from below the gravel into a world of waters ; observe it carefully ; study it deeply ; mark its forms ; for they are vestiges of a former world. That little fish, some two or three inches long, so strongly resembling § riSH AiN'D FISHING IN SCOTLAND. a common trout iir its shape, its colouring, its dentition, is pro- bably a salmon ; yet it has the teeth and robe of the trout ! Mysterious fact, explicable only by the great minds of the earth, by Newton, Goethe, GecJffroy ! It was you who first proclaimed imity of the organization of all that lives. The salmon kind form no exception to this great law ; when tiny and young they all resemble each other, assuming with time the specific charac- ters which mark their adult condition. Thus does the young salmon gradually lay aside that elongated fin which connects his formation with worlds past and gone ; next, the red spots and cross-bars allying him with the river trout of both kinds ; by and by a robe of silvery scales conceals all vestiges of his early years ; and last, not least, the double row of teeth which carried on the body of the vomer all but disappear, leaving merely one or two, together with those on the fore part of the vomer (the chevron), which few full-grown fresh-water trout when grown, admitting their presence when young, retain.* But whether or not you may choose thus to wander back in time, endeavouring to discover the uuknown in the Past, and to find its demonstration in the Present, you will not, I trust, imi- tate old Izaak, who, living in London, and fishing all the rivers about that centre, could coolly record in his " Complete Angler," that " the Fordich trout," a good trout too, " was never known to rise at an angle," and yet make not one jom'ney to discover what might be the reason of this ! Happy, contented Izaak ! you were never troubled with the desire to discover the unknown in the past nor in the present ; sufficient for you was the fact that it is so. You were a linendraper, it is true ; but Franklin was a printer, a working man. Nevertheless, it is pleasant to see what a refreshing book may be written by one devoid of genius to observe anything, but simply blessed with a love of nature suffi- ciently strong to narrate what he felt and saw. Izaak wrote two hundred years ago. * M. Valenciennes seems to think (for he is not very clear on this point) that no adult trout ever has transverse vomerine teeth, or teeth on the chevron. But in another part of his work he speaks of them as being "peu distinctes." I think I have seen them distinct in the full-groT\Ti trout, in one species, at least. PEACTICAL APPLICATIO!^ OF SCIENCE. 9 To return to the dentition of trout and sahnon. Vv^hilst the three families of salmones have in the upper jaw maxillary, intermaxillary, palatine and vomerine teeth, and in the lower, jaw mandibular (those in the tongue being called lingual, and these also are present in all the families), yet the vomerine are differently arranged in each. For the common trout the vome- rine teeth are arranged in a double alternating row, and they hold their ground even in the largest, but are generally confined to what anatomists call the body of the vomer, that is, the elon- gated back part of the bone. To this, however, as I have already remarked, some species offer an exception. For the grown sea trout, however (the salmo trutta), the vomerine teeth are arranged in a single row on the body of the bone, whilst a trans- verse row occupies the forepart of the vomer, which French naturalists call chevron. For the true salmon, on the other hand, when fully grown, the double alternating row of teeth formed on the body of the vomer when it was a smolt, and the single row which remained for a time after the double row had dis- appeared, are now themselves reduced to one or two on the fore- part of the body of the bone, the transverse teeth on those of the chevron remaining to the last. Thus you may, by putting your finger into the mouth of the fish, tell, without looking at it, whatever be its size, to which of these natural families it belongs ; but this does not apply to the young of these families, for the same dentition prevails in all. Now, if every individual of the great family of the salmonidse, including all trout and salmon, could be brought within this law, then, for the first time, I believe, since science began to be cultivated, the natural history system invented by man would be in accordance with Nature's system or plan; and the great formalist, the puffed up "systematic" would swell and strut and point to his achievement, how he had discovered Nature's plan, arranged her works and omitted nothing. But unfor- tunately for him, and his schemes and methods and formulae, Nature never does her work in this way, but fills up all intervals, leaving no void space in her grand scheme. In the course of the present work I shall mention a fish which externally resembles a salmon, but in its vomerine teeth combines the dentition of 10 riSH AND FISHING IN SCOTLAND. the trout and sea trout ; and, no doubt, there exist species of the great class Salmonidse, which not only fill up the voids in the natural families, and in all the species, but even connect these with other fishes, on which the name Salmonidse would be improperly bestowed. Now, in regard to the species of the three great natural families 1 have aheady named, I may observe, that in Scotland th^re are at the least, four distinct species of trout, namely : — I. 1st. The dark-spotted lake trout. 2nd. The red-spotted estuaiy trout. These are the best of their kind, they have pink-coloured flesh, and are excellent to eat. 3rd. The red-spotted common river trout, with pale flesh, and tasteless. 4th. The pink-coloured red-spotted common river trout, chiefly found in England. 5th. The parr trout, rather better, when fed in certain rivers, than the common red-spotted trout, but never equal to the pink- coloured fish. 6th. The dark-spotted river trout, of whose natural history I know but little, although I believe such a trout exists ; and 7th. The Salmo Ferox, or great lake trout of the North. II. Of the Salmo Salar, or sea trout, the angler will meet with several species, hitherto not well determined. One ascends the rivers earlier than the other ; it is the common Sea Trout. The other takes to the fresh water streams at a later period of the year ; it is the so-called Bull Trout. III. Of true salmon there are no doubt several species ; but I have not been able to discover their characteristic differences. Lastly, of doubtful fish there is, 1st. The Parr. 2nd. A fish with the external appearance of a salmon, but with a dentition combining that of the common river trout and sea trout or salmon. 3rd. A fish strongly resembhng a salmon, and almost as good to eat, which appears in the London markets early in October ; it is marked all over with darkish spots, like some trout. The fish, I have been told, comes from Scotland, but I have not met with it there. EQUIPMENT OF THE AN GLEE. 11 Enougli has been said systematically about trout and salmon. I shall therefore reserve the proofs of the correctness of these opinions for the chapters in which I examine each river, brook, and lak€, placing the angler by the banks, opposite some favourite and killing stream; his basket full of fish, he may, if he so choose, compare this book with Nature. II. The material and equipment of an angler are not matters of indifference. Should he reside near the banks of trouting streams, the angler gradually degenerates into a mere pot- angler ; he is fishing unconsciously for the kettle ; neither is he very particular as to the time when, with salmon roe, or otter, or with worm, he chances to kill some stone weight of trout, emptying the stream for a period, rendering it worthless for the season, and interfering sadly with the one to come. In '51 he draws, a la Napoleon, the conscripts of '53, forestalling Nature's supplies. Such a person is no true angler ; he does not rush from the smoky town, where, long pent up, debarred from fresh air, exercise, and the contemplation of Nature's work, he has become an idler and a triller. I write not for him, neither should he have a cottage of mine near a trouting stream at any price. I write for him who, dwelling in towns, amidst what, in courtesy, I presume, to man's taste, is called a civilized humanity, becomes at last weary of the commonplace of every -day life : for him whom the carpeted room, the morning paper, the ample library, the well-supplied table, the pleasant social converse of educated friends have ceased to please : for him who instinctively feels that, ceasing to be a man as Nature made him, he is be- coming a citizen — a cit ! Abhorred word ! I would rather dwell, as I once did, amidst the wild and now desolate dells of the Anatolo, leading at the base of the beauteous Boschberg the life of the wandering Caffre, than listlessly pace London's idly busy streets, with nothing to look at but miles of hideous brick walls, with holes in them called doors and windows. Odious commonplace ! you mask humanity, and mar the better part of human nature. I shall suppose the angler about to proceed to some angling station, there to commence his operations of at least a few days 12 FISH AXD riSHIKG IN SCOTLAND. duration. To be altogether independent in this world is difficvJt. In angling expeditions, however, as in warlike, where men not trout are caught and knocked on the head, I strongly recom- mend the Napier system of materiel and equipment. A short salmon rod, reel and line, from fifty to sixty feet, is the best. It must have some spare tops enclosed in the butt. A basket somewhat longer than those in general use. A book containing tackle of every description used in fly, worm, and minnow fish- ing ; choice of flies. Lastly, wrapped up in a waterproof bag, hose, and wading shoes. The suit of clothes he wears, made of Scottish plaiding, is quite enough. In his pockets he will place a few extras, not forgetting a knife and pair of scissors. Of waterproof clothing, I know but little ; for, in the first place, none I have ever tried proved to be waterproof. And yet I could fancy a small cape useful, if hght and not cumbersome. A friend told me that once, by a river side, he saw something stalking about strongly resembling the Ghost in " Hamlet." On approaching the phantom, it was Charles Bell, cased to the eyes in waterproof! Well might my friend say, " Which of you has done this ?" Was it Soho-square with its carpeted rooms ? Or was it the everlasting thunder which rolls over flinty Oxford- street ? Or the soul-destroying den of Windmill-street ? I know not, but so it was. Here was poor Sir Charles transformed from a man into a cit. He once said to me, " People say that you are the only person I never quarrelled with." I told him that the world had said precisely the same of me. Peace be with him. His remains repose, I think, in England. We met in Castle-street of Scotland's capital for the last time. He was leav- ing for England, he said, resolved not to return. He never did. I have always fished in this independent manner, so that on leaving the inn in the morning I could proceed onwards down the stream without being obliged to retm-n for any luggage. Nevertheless, I have at times felt the inconvenience of this when, after a long day's fishing, my basket full of trout, and many weary miles from the inn I had slept at, the shades of night fast obscuring the blessed day, it became urgent to march boldly on some distant town or village. THE PENTLATfD HILLS. 13 I recommend the angler to avoid this, if possible, and to return towards evening to the inn at which he rested the previous night. Should he adopt this method, which I strongly recommend, he will be enabled to take with him to the fishing- stations, without inconvenience, a small knapsack containing many useful articles, and even a spare fishing-rod. Beware of attempting an unknown glen without some food in your basket. These lone glens are exceedingly deceptive, and night may over- take you, long before you reach the desired resting place. I speak not of Highland glens, those of the Lammermuir and Cheviot are lonely and wild enough. Poach not over the same streams, but go boldly forward to new scenery and deeper pools. Leave nothing to be done at the water side, but have joxir tackle ready and in the best order. He is a poor soldier whose flint is in his pocket on first getting sight of the enemy. It answers, I have been told, well enough in Ireland and in the Highlands of Scot- land, where nothing is in ita plkee, and nothing is done in the right time. But it mdufeher suits Scotlknxi mor Englaoidi, as the reader, if an Englishman, must oft have discovered to his cost. A good angler is ever ready and prompt, never late, never careless, and if anxious, he must take care to conceal his anxiety from trout and men. CHAPTEE I. THE STREAMS FLOWING FROM THE PENTLAND RANGE. THE ESK, THE LEITH, AT^D THE AMMOIfD WATEES. At the distance of a short walk from the capital of the ancient kingdom of Scotland, there reposes in solemn and lonely gran- deur a beautiful range of hills, which elsewhere would perhaps be called mountains ; the Pentland Hills. They are said to resemble the Andes, in miniature. But be this as it may, they present some lovely cones and massive hills, covered with purple heath, purple at least to the angler, who should never travel over Scot- 14 FISH AND J?ISIIII«'G IX SCOTLA^'D. land's wild and lonely mountains, but when the heath is in bloom, when the leaves are on the trees, when fleecy clouds float over head and soft west winds carry with them the fragrance of the balmy south. From the western slope of the Pentland, and of the hills in which it terminates, flow the water of Leith and the Ammond ; on the eastern, the North and South Esks. The Pentlands, in fact, separate the rich fertile valleys of West Lothian and Esk- dale, forming a spur or abutment of that vast hilly country, which, traversing Scotland from St. Abb's Head to the shores of the Western Sea, divides Nithsdale and Berwickshire from Clydesdale and the Lothians. Of the Ammond water I cannot advise the angler, but an " honest angler" and most worthy man, Trout taken with fly at Colt-bridge, near Edinburgh, in the water of Leith, 21st March, 1835; length 8 in., weight 6 oz. told me that sea trout may be taken with fly, or minnow, or her- ring-fry, or sand eels (a favourite food of the sea trout, but which he deserts for better when he can get it), as bait, within the range of the tide, nay, at the mouth of the river near Ammond. The angler who may be disposed to try the stream of which I speak, will find the banks tangled with wood, the ground at once slimy, rocky, insecure, the angling difficult and confined to a very short space. He will require, in fact, mud-boots, a strong rod, and a strong arm, and, I fear, much patience. In August and September, especially during easterly winds, salmon, sea trout, and hirling, begin to enter the mouths of the smaller streams which join the Frith of Forth ; the little salmon, called hirling, I have seen taken in the sea with the coble net, used as in rivers, not far from the mouth of the Esk, at Mussel- THE WATEB OF LEITH. 15 burgh, a stream of which I shall speak presently. It is probable, therefore, that in the mouth of the Ammond, and within the range of those waters "into which the tide ebbs and flows," these hirling and sea trout as well, may readily enough be taken, espe- cially with sand eels, a bait of which the sea trout and hirling greedily partake, although they prefer more delicate food when they can get it. Favoured by a strong wind, whether easterly or westerly, and an ebbing, or perhaps still better, a flowing tide, a determined angler might have a day or two's good sport at the mouth of the Ammond water. He ought to have acquired the art of fishing " under hand," for trees abound. The surrounding grounds belong in part, if I recollect aright, to the noble and liberal family of Torpichen ; kind and hospitable to strangers, and claiming their descent from "the Reformer," who truly deserved that name : the man to whom Scotland owes her liberty, freedom of conscience, exemption from tithes and bishops, popery and prelacy, alike abhorred by Scot. See how Burns writes on this great question — the greatest of all questions — national independence — " Scots, wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has often led, On to glorious victory !" Scotland, by her own act, has been blotted out of the list of nations. The loss of national independence is a melancholy sub- ject for reflection, and so I turn from it and from the Ammond water to other scenes and other streams. THE WATER OF LEITH. High on the north-western slope of the Pentland, the angler will find at the distance of a morning's walk from the capital, a small stream making its way through heath and dark knolls, onwards towards the ocean. It is one of the sources of a charming stream, whose banks present the most varied and beauteous scenery ; it is a tiny stream where I speak of it, that is, high on the shoulders of the Pentland range. This source of the water of Leith (for it is not the only one), crosses an uneven plain on which there are no bushes nor trees to interrupt the sport of the 16 FISn AKD PISHIKa IK SCOTLAND. angler. On reaching the table-land he must not lose time. Let him select, if he can, a hot and close day, following a rainy night, summer showery-looking clouds, and having plenty of good small worms well cleaned and prepared, he may take in a short time an excellent dish of trout. When I first fished this stream in the company of the best of anglers, I was a very young angler. My friend pointed out to me the ground, recommending me to keep well back and to lose no time. In a few minutes three admirable trout lay on the bank, when suddenly all sport ceased. I could not comprehend what had happened. My friend now returned from the upper part of the stream which he had selected for his ground, and told me I might put up my rod and prepare for the road ; pointing, at the same time, to a dark and lowering cloud of an inky hue collecting over Pentland's summit. It was a thundercloud — over it came, wind, rain, lightning, thunder. Then I remembered Scott's " Lady of the Lake," which was just published. Pity it ever was. " The springing trout lies still : So darkly lowers yon thunder cloud, "Which swathes as with a purple sliroud Benledi's distant hilL" Often, subsequently, have I observed this singular phenomenon, the explanation of which is as obscure as all other physiological laws. Why should fish — trout, at least — dread thunder ? The more strange that it is in certain fishes we find that wonderful electrical apparatus connecting in so remarkable a way the laws of the electric fluid with those which regulate the nerves and brain of man. 'Now why should fishes, and more especially trout, be such na- tural electrometers ? They are called cold-blooded animals, and some have thought them insensible to pain. All this is, I fear, sheer nonsense and twaddle. But be it so, it does not explain why trout should be extremely sensible natural electrometers. It is amongst the same class, fishes, that we find natural electro- machines, voltaic piles, galvanic troughs! The gymnotus of Surinam, and the torpedo of the Cape, and one or two more, strike their prey dead by an electric discharge. To accomplish this. Nature has furnished them with a pecuhar apparatus she ELECTEIC EISHES, 17 has denied to other animals, hut the materials called organic are still the same, — it is merely hy the arrangement of a few- materials that Nature accomplishes so much. The existence of electric fishes was known to the ancients, as we call the Romans and the Greeks. Pliny, who collected so much curious nonsense, so many false facts, so many hypotheses which he mistook .^for facts, knew this fact : viz. that electric fishes exist, and he records it. He knew, also, that people em- ployed the torpedo in the treatment of rheumatism and paralysis ; but whilst men are always apt enough to find out some utili- tarian application of natural phenomena, no one thought of inquiring into the cause of the phenomenon. Verily, I have but a poor opinion of applicative genius — the only kind of genius possessed, it is said, by the Saxon race. It invents nothing, it merely applies. If such had been the character of the genius of Galileo, Torricelli, Volta, Newton, and Hunter, we should have been now mere recorders of facts and falsehoods, and of their " ingenious applications." That some fishes have electric powers was not enough for Hunter: he desired to know the cause thereof, and he left us his " Inquiry into the Electric Organs of the Surinam Eel," a model for all inquirers, though unfortu- nately it led to no physiological results. Industry, ever on the look-out to turn the penny, is no doubt a good thing. It lays the foundation for national, and occasionally for individual, wealth. By it, nations rise in the scale of civilization — indirectly, it is true, but still they rise, slowly, surely. But industry requires no stimulus, no incentive, no such prizes and laudation, as the "model nation" seems to think, at present. All men are quick enough to turn the inventions of others to account : all Saxon men, I mean — for the Celt is hopeless. Yet he also is industrious, in his own way, in the acquisition of wealth : he aims at acquiring it by the sword. England and Holland boast of their wealth acquired by patient industry ; I partly doubt it. India and the Indies were not acquired by patient industry. But to return to the Esk. Industry is a great thing, a material fact, but genius is greater. In what time Greece, by her " patient industry," would have sculptured the Venus and Apollo, composed " Euclid," the c 18 FISH AND FISHING IN SCOTLAND. "Iliad," the "History of Animals," and conquered the then- known civilized world, Avithout the advent of Praxiteles, of Homer, of Euclid, Aristotle, and Alexander, I know not. But sure I am that the advent of these men must have assisted somewhat the " patient industry" of Greece. Ye model people, who " cannot make a statue," let Industry alone ; she requires no encouragement. Your sham patrons, of nohle and ignoble blood, know this well, but it suits their purpose to mislead you, praising your foible as if it were j^our forte. Industry ! labour ! order ! Excellent claptraps, which admit of a translation into taxation, slavery, discipline. 