Wild Life of Scotland
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II EARLY BURN FISHING TT ALF a mile of pleasant lane, beneath the bud- " ding trees, and between the budding hedges, leads to my favourite burn. It is just such a path as one is tempted to linger in; especially when the birds are in full song, and every other one seems to have a feather in its mouth. The beat of the water-wheel is audible half the way. There is an advantage in having the burn thus near. It is so irritating, after a walk of eight or ten miles, with the prospect of a similar distance back, to find that the meal miller shuts down the sluice, with the view of nursing the water in the dam, just as the rise is coming on; and keeps you sitting on the bank, among the buttercups and daisies, for a good two hours, until he sees fit to lift it again. I watch my opportunity after a little rain has fre
...shened, without unduly raising or dirtying thewater, or when sunshine and shadow alternate without either gaining the advantage, or should the breeze blow fresh enough to put a ripple on the pools. And, notwithstanding those favourable appearances, and the expectations they excite, should the miller prove awkward, ? although friendly millers are more obliging than strangers,? I am still within easy reach of home. I can walk down the lane in the evening, when the blackbird is at his vesper, and, fishing or no fishing, spend a pleasant hour on the cool banks, not only without exertion, but with considerable benefit to my night's rest; returning in the twilight when the blackbird is uttering his chirpy scream. For years, all connection with the sea has been cut off by several miles of impure water; and that, perhaps, makes the fishing so much the more restful. All its suggestions are of green fields, and drinking cattle, and yellow iris, and the drowsy hum of innoc...
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