Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 edition. Excerpt: ...of moss and moor, preserves its volume of water much longer than those rivers that have their sources in a more pastoral and agricultural country, and of course is much longer in good order for fly fishing. But when the black clouds burst over the vast wilderness of mountains, a hundred torrents gleam on all sides, rush down the rocky ravines, and change the burns into turbulent rivers, which pour their floods into the mighty channel of the Tay: thus this river probably carries more water to the ocean than any other in Great Britain. I have read much of the rapids of the great rivers in 154 THE TAY IN A HIGH FLOOD. America, and the difficulty of steering and shooting down them in safety; and the accompaniments of the scenery, and the descriptions of these cataracts, have always appeared to me singularly wild and picturesque. They made so great an impression upon my mind that, to form a more correct idea of the sort of thing, I meditated a voyage down the Tay when, filled with her countless tributaries, she goes raging to the ocean. Besides this inducement, I had some small boats which I wished to take to Perth by water, instead of land carriage; for I was changing my quarters from Meikleour on the banks of the Tay to the Pavilion on those of the Tweed. These boats were built on Tweedside for fly fishing in small waters, and in warm weather were held for the fisherman by a man who waded in the water, lest the salmon should be scared away by the motion or appearance of the oars, or canting pole, as it might be. Being, therefore, of a very light and diminutive construction, they were not exactly calculated to endure the buffets of large and tempestuous waters: one is not apt, however, to be over nice about such things, and accordingly I...
