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THE SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY
EDITED i:\
THE Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL
Bart., M.P.
*- * * *
* * *
MUS. COM?. ZOOL
LIBiii
MAY 18 1961
THE SPORTSMAN'S LIBRARY
The following volumes have already appeared :
The Life of a Fox, and The Diary of a Huntsman.
By T. Smith.
A Sporting Tour. By Col. T. Thornton.
The Sportsman in Ireland. By A Cosmopolite.
Rk.mimsi 'enc.es of a Huntsman. By the Honourable
Grantley Berkeley.
The Art of Deer-Stalking. By William Scrope.
The (hash, The Road, ami The Turf. By Nimrod.
DAYS AND NIGHTS
01
SALMON FISHING
IN THE TWEED
,\ SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE NATURAL HISTORY
AND HABITS OF THE SALMON, INSTRUCTIONS
TO SPORTSMEN, ANECDOTES, Etc.
BY
WILLIAM SCROPE, Esq., F.L.S.
AUTHOR OF "THE ART OF DEFR-STAI.KING "
" Run mihi et rigui placennt in v.illibus amncs."
Virgil, Georg. lib. ii.
ILLUSTRATED BY LITHOGRAPHS AND WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY L. HAGUE,
T. LANDSBBR, AXD S. WILLIAMS, FROM PAINTINGS BY SIR DAVID
W7LKIB, EDWIN LANDSBBR, R.A., CHARLES LANDSEER,
WILLIAM SIMSON, AXD EDWARD COOKE
LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
Uubltsljrr (o tljr ffnfcia Office
37 BEDFORD STREET
1898
" Let them that list, these pastimes still pursue.
And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill, —
So I the fields and meadows green may view,
And daily by fresh rivers walk at will
Among the daisies, and the violets hlue,
Red hyacinth, and yellow daffodil,
Purple Narcissus like the morning rays,
Pale gander-grass, and azure culver-keyes."
J. Davors.
TO
THE LOUD POLWARTH
1 Hi: FOLLOWING PAGES AIM. INSCRIBED
IN' REMEMBRANCE OF
nil MAI'l'V DAYS SPENT IN His COMPANIONSHIP ON THE
BANKS OF THE TWE1 D
AH rill SO* l \l. INTERCOURSE ENJOYED FOB m> MAW YEARS
AT MERTOUN
HV Ids SINCERE AND FAITHFUL FRIEND
THE AUTHOR
INTRODUCTION
William Scrope's fresh, spirited way of describing
scenes and characters in which lie found his delight,
is not the only temptation for including a second
work from his hand in the limited list of the
" Sportsman's Library." There are other writers
of the past — Lloyd, W. H. Maxwell, Tom Stoddart,
Wildrake, the Druid, etc. — not yet represented
in the series, which can scarcely be considered
thoroughly representative without them. It was
hard to put them aside, yet Scrope has qualities
which distinguish him from almost all other writers
on sport. He never degenerated into a hack. If
Dr. Johnson was right in affirming that none but
a blockhead ever wrote except for gain, Scrope
furnished a singular exception to the rule. He had
no occasion to supplement his sufficient income by
the labour of his pen. Born in 1772, of an ancient
and once famous house, he succeeded his father,
the Rev. Richard Scrope, D.D., in 1787, as owner
of Castle Combe in Wiltshire, part of the old
Scrope estates, and in his person, in 1852, ended
the male line of the Lord Scropes of Bolton. 1
Having acquired a fastidious taste in literature,
1 The name is pronounced as if written Scroop,
b
viii SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Scrope never wrote except out of devotion to his
subject and for the amusement of his friends ; in
fact, in placing Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing
beside the Art of Deer -Stalking, a new edition
of the whole published works of this author is
rendered complete.
Scrope divided his ample leisure and the activity
of a cultivated mind between field sports, literature,
painting, and travel. His love of salmon fishing,
a pastime not nearly so general or popular
sixty years ago as at the present time, naturally
guided him to Tweedside ; his literary tastes as
naturally brought him into intimate friendship with
Sir Walter Scott, who makes frequent mention of
him in his journals, declaring him, in one passage,
to be "one of the best amateur painters I ever
saw — Sir George Beaumont scarcely excepted."
Not the least part of the charm which Tweed had
for Scrope, as it has had for many who have
followed his footsteps along that fair river, came
from the glamour of lay and legend thrown over it
by the author of Waverley, and there is a tender
pathos in Scrope's regretful references to his lost
friend — a reverent Moschus mourning for departed
Bion : —
" Ye flowers, sigh forth your odours with red buds ;
Flush deep, ye roses and anemones ;
And more than ever now, O hyacinth, show
Your written sorrow — the sweet singer's dead. 11
Tom Purdie, too, is brought before us, and we
listen to his quaint sayings in the self-same accents
which Scrope heard on those far-off summer days.
[NTRODUCTTON a
Man and Time have wrought many changes on
Tweedside since Scrope stood among its sounding
woods. Trains nimble along the " Waverley Route,"
and thousands throng among scenes once peopled
by few except fishermen and shepherds ; yet if he
were to return, rod in hand, on some early autumn
day. he wonld stand in need of no guide to show
him where to seek his sport. Still, season after
season, the great fish rest in the Willowbush,
Craigover, the Webbs, the Bloody Breeks, the
darksome Haly Weil, and the roaring Gateheugh,
and, resting, show the same caprice in refusing,
the same incaution in seizing, the angler's lures.
Different, indeed, are the lures which find favour
with the modern Tweed fisher to the sober-tinted
simulacra prescribed by Scrope ; but human nature
has changed no whit ; there is as confident dogma
in prescribing, as tremulous anxiety in selecting, the
shade and hue of a salmon fly as there was of yore.
Long may it remain so ! In this fond image-
worship may the truth never prevail. Salmon
fishing wonld be reft of half its poetry and charm
if we lost our faith in the peculiar attractions of
Jock Scott, of "Wilkinson, or the Dandy, which
have usurped the ancient prestige of Meg-in-her-
braws, of Toppy, and Kinmont Willie.
Changes other than these may be noted also,
some for the better, more for the worse. The
growth of manufacturing towns — Hawick, Gala-
shiels, St. Boswells — have grievously stained the
fair streams of Tweed and Teviot with manifold
pollution. The remnant of spring and summer
fish which succeeds in eluding the incessant netting
&2
x SALMON FISHING IX THE TWEED
in and near the tide, and steals up to the im-
memorial salmon easts of Makerstonn, Mertoun,
and Melrose, soon sickens in the noisome discharge
of dye-works and sewers, so that a summer flood,
which brought so much exultation to the heart
and work for the arms of Scrope, seldom rewards
the angler, unless it be the first of a continuous
high water. Strangely improvident, the Tweed
proprietors have hitherto attempted no effective
plan of artificial propagation to replenish a stock
seriously reduced by improved netting machinery.
by poaching in close time, and, worst of all, by
the destructive effects of pollution on the sinolts.
Hence it has come to pass that angling in the
middle waters of Tweed, that is, between Makers-
toun and Melrose, is almost entirely restricted to
the autumn, after the removal of the nets on
15th September. Scrope, it will be observed, had
some of his best sport in summer in the readies
of Mertoun, Dryburgh, and Melrose, and that
despite the deadly practice of "sunning." or
leistering fish in daylight, which was universally
put in effect as often as the water was low
enough. 1
Nor is this all. The experience of several
successive seasons lias shown that even the autumn
running fish are not nearly so numerous as formerly :
and when they disappear, the angler must sorrow-
fully betake himself (and his guineas, which are
still of some moment to Scottish lairds) to streams
more kindly and more providently treated. Indeed,
1 " Vast numbers are captured in this manner, particularly in the
upper pari of the Tweed " (see p. 220).
ENTRODUCTION si
it comes to this, tliat it' the tidal waters continue
to be ransacked during the open season in such
manner that whole runs of lish are destroyed,
it' poachers are allowed with impunity to spread
their nets all round the river mouth during the
close season, it' leistering and " snatching " are eon-
doned on the spawning beds <>t" the upper waters,
it", in short, men are permitted to treat salmon as
if they were a dangerous vermin instead of the
most valuable of British tishes, whether for sport
or market, the wonder will not be that salmon
become scarce in the Tweed, but that they should
have escaped extermination so Long as they have
dime.
In two respects the changes since Scrope's day
have been for the better. First, the use of the
leister, which he describes with irresistible gusto,
and the use of the rake hook, of which he speaks
with toleration, have both been rendered illegal.
Next, kelts can no longer be legally killed, which
seems to have had the effect of rendering heavy
fish more numerous in proportion to others of less
weight. Thus, although Scrope tells us that of
the many hundreds of fish which fell to his share
not one pulled the scale to thirty pounds, salmon
of that weight are nothing unusual in the Tweed
at this day. In his recent work on salmon fishing.
the Hon. A. E. Gathorne-Hardy notes the follow-
ing instances of extraordinary weights taken in the
Tweed of late years : —
l!',7-'i. A BalmoD of 53£ lbs.
L886. (>no of 67$ I'--." killed by .Mr. Pryor on the Floors
water.
xii SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
1889. One of 55 lbs., killed by Mr. Brereton on the
Willow bush, Mertoun (where Scrope frequently
fished).
1892. One of 51 h lbs., killed at Birgham by Col. the Hon.
W, Home.
Few seasons pass without salmon of upwards of
forty pounds being killed in the Tweed on the fly.
Scrope writes of kelt angling as inferior, indeed, to
fishing for clean salmon, but perfectly legitimate.
There can be little doubt that the preservation of
unclean, but mature fish, which may return from
the sea greatly increased in weight, has been the
cause of a notable increase in the size of individual
salmon. Murmurs are occasionally heard against
the favour shown to kelts, which are reputed to be
as ravenous as pike, and to eat numbers of the
young of their own species. Let those who incline
to take an unfavourable view of the morals of kelts
study the blue book published by the Scottish
Fishery Hoard, Report on Investigations into the
Life History of Salmon (1898)— one of the most
valuable and remarkable contributions hitherto
made to our knowledge of a difficult subject — and
they will receive scientific demonstration that, on
a salmon entering a river, its stomach undergoes
circulatory and other organic changes which render
it incapable of digestion ; and that as soon as it
resumes its functions after spawning — in short,
when appetite returns — the fish hastens back
to the sea, where alone instinct tells it that
appetite can be satisfied It follows, then, that
injury to smolts can only be done by those
kelts which are detained in the river by physical
obstacles to their descent, such as do not exist
[NTRODUCTION xiii
in most salmon ri\n\ and OUghl not to remain
in any,
Our border stream has won the homage of maw
a heart; none ever beal mure truij towards her
than that i>\' William Scrope; none would have
thrilled more quickly to the lay of one of her
latest minstrels : —
" Brief are man's days a1 besl ; perchance
I waste my own, who have not Been
The castled palaces of Prance
Shine on the Loire in summer green.
" And clear and fleel Eurotas still,
Vou tell me, laves his reedy shore,
And tlo\v> beneath the tabled hill
Where Dian (have the chase of vore.
" I in. i \ not Bee them, but I doubt
If seen I'd find them half so fair
As ripples of the rising front
That i'ved beneath the elms of Vair.
"Unseen, Eurotas, southward steal.
Unknown, Alpheus, westward glide,
You never heard the ringing reel,
The music of the water side I" 1
HERBERT MAXWELL.
MONBEITH, 1898.
1 Andrew Larur's Tin- Last Cast.
PREFACE
" I wii.i. write a sort of a Book on Fishing," said
I to my friend Mr. Lobworm, when a fresh breeze
from the gentle south swept over the meadows,
"stealing and giving odours.*' and reminded me of
the many calm and pleasant hours I had spent by
the margin of some crystal stream.
" You really had better do no such thing,"
replied Lob. — He was a man of few words.
" Your very polite reason, if you please?"
" Why, the subject is utterly exhausted ; ninety-
nine books have been written upon it already, and
no man was ever the wiser for any one of them,
although many are clever and entertaining, and
moreover abound in excellent instructions."
•'Hold! you forget dear old I/aac," said I,
"whose dainty and primitive work, the emanation
of a beautiful mind, has made many a man both
wiser and better ; for it is dictated throughout by
that wisdom of -which it is written, ' Her ways are
ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.' '
" Therefore it is," replied Lobworm, " that I
would have you by all means to refrain : that book
will always stand unrivalled and unapproachable.
Excuse me. but *cx quovis ligno non fit Mercurius.' '
xvi SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
"Nay, nay. you cannot for a moment imagine
that I shall attempt such a flight as that. 1 have
read of Icarus, and also of the Ulm tailor, who
on the first trial of his patent wings fell into the
Danube, instead of pitching upon the opposite bank;
so, as I cannot touch the summits, 1 must per-
force be content to creep on level lands, — 'timidus
procellae' : — mine shall be a work quite of another
character."
•• There is not the least doubt of that, I think.'*
said Mr. Lobworm. " Know likewise," continued
he (I never knew him so loquacious or so disagree-
able before), — "know likewise, to thy discomfort.
nay, to thy utter confusion, that a book has lately
appeared yclept The Rod and the Chin, 1 so amus-
ingly written, and so complete in all its parts, that
there is not the least occasion for you to burthen
Mr. Murray's shelves with stale precepts that no
one will attend to."
"Pretty discouraging that, most certainly." I
responded. "And then we have Salmonia* which
is, o]- ought to be, a settler too ; and also a scientific
work by Mr. Colquhoun, who touches deftly on
the subject. But I tell you this. Sir Oracle, that
although I see a hundred good reasons why I
should abandon my design, yet I am resolved to
persist : it is my destiny — that is a classical reason.
You know that, to the great edification of our
youth, the pious Jaieas gives no better reason for
the hundred rascally and much admired tilings he
1 By James Wilson, F.R.S.E., and by the author of the Oakleigh
Shooting Code, Edinburgh, L841.
■ By sir Humphry Davy. London, L828.
PREF \< ! svii
was in the habil of executing in his expedition t<>
I ,atiuin.
" I oiil\ hope the public will be so good as not
to be discerning ; because if they arc 1 shall have
you, niv most tender and amiable friend, eternall)
dinging in my cars, * There, did not I tell you so \
But you would not be ruled by me, so you must
take the consequences. 1
At the cud of this colloquy, and when left alone.
I began to reflect a little; and although at first i
could not help thinking my gentleman somewhat
hasty, vet I came to the conclusion that he was
partly, if not entirely, in the right. So I began
to listen a little to reason, and contracted my plan,
resolving to treat on Salmon Fishing alone, as it
is practised in the Tweed; for although various
authors have written some pages on the sport, yet
I am not aware that any one has as yet gone far
into the subject, or given any precepts, or treated
of the various methods available to the sportsman
of killing these valuable animals in the rod-fishers
part of ;i river throughout the whole of the lawful
season. This I have attempted to do in the follow-
ing pages, having had more than twenty years'
practice in that border river alone, above twelve
miles of which I rented at different periods.
To the Tweed I have confined myself; and I
beg my readers to observe that my remarks and
instructions are meant to apply to that river alone ;
and consequently that I am not accountable for
what salmon choose to do in other waters, and for
the different means that people may employ for
catching them there.
xviii SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Deer-stalking and salmon fishing are at the head
of field and river sports : having written what
has been very generously received upon the first
and best of these subjects, I have been encouraged
to take up the other. This I have done the
more readily, as I have been fortunate enough
to bring to my aid the talents of artists, who
are amongst the most eminent in their various
departments that this country can boast of. I
must not, however, impute the landscape part
to them : this it was unfortunately necessary that
some one should undertake who was acquainted
with the scenery, and I must hold myself in a
great measure responsible for such portion of the
plates.
It will be seen that in the letterpress I have
attempted little more than to give a correct and
faithful account of the manner and spirit in which
the sport of salmon fishing is carried on in various
ways where the scene is laid, and to bring before
the sportsman the characters of such people as he
is likely to fall in with in his excursions.
Among those whom I have taken this liberty
with, as the type of his class, will be found the late
Tom Purdie, Sir Walter Scott's faithful right-hand
man, well known to the readers of Mr. Lockhart's
delightful Biography, and the genuine parent of
the stories here attributed to him. 1
Since the following pages have been printed,
Mr. YarreU has put into my hands The Annuls
and Magazine of Natural History for Feb. 1843,
1 Tom'e nephew, Alexander Purdie, is still Lord Polwarth's fisher-
man <>ii tlic upper Mertoun water.— En.
PREFACE xix
containing an account <>t" Mr. Young's experiments
on the growth of salmon. I have inserted an
extract in the Appendix, for the benefit of those
who are interested in the subject
I hope 1 am correct in saying that, judging
from the outline, my statements will agree with
Mr. Young's experiments. This, however, will he
more accurately seen when the Proceedings of the
Royal Society o\' Edinburgh are published.
1'iKi.i.UAVi: S v i .\i:i .
April, 1843.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Citizen Anglers — Mr. Pooley — Mr. John Poplin — Scientific Angler —
Self-complacent Angler — Harry Otter . . . Page 1
CHAPTER II
Salmonida? — The Common Salmon — His Powers of Swimming and
Leaping — Method of Spawning — Habits — Passage to the Sea —
Letter from the Author to Mr. Kennedy respecting the Parr —
The Peculiar Formation of its Eyes, similar to that of a Salmon —
Mr. Shaw's Experiments — Passage of the Smolts to the Sea —
Gilses — Destruction of Salmon Fry — Injurious Effects of Heavy
Spates — Tame Salmon — Change of Colour in Fish — Dr. Stark's
Experiments — Proceedings at the Literary and Philosophical
Society of St. Andrews — Seasons of Various Rivers — Cairn Net —
The Salmon Trout — The Grey, or Bull Trout — Severe Contest
with him — St. Kentigern .... Page 8
CHAPTER III
Harry Otter — Childish Incident — Martha's Eloquence — The Coy
Phyllis — Self-devotion of a Fish — Feats of Master Harry — The
Pet Basket — Encounter with a Duck — An Idle Scamp — " I saw
young Harry with his beaver off" . . . Page 7-
CHAPTER IV
Murderous Fish — Hypocritical Fish — Curious Predicament — A Cat
Fish — Facetious Whale — Harry Otter Pastoral — Purchase of
Horses of Dissenting Opinions — The Illustrious Higginbotham —
A Five Pounder — Trout not a Fish — Dumbfoundered — Melrose —
Waxing of the Water— Walter the Bold— The Eildon Hills Page 80
xxii SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
CHAPTER V
Course of the Tweed — Abbotsford — A Challenge — Higginbotham broke
— An Ill-natured Twist — A Ponderous Salmon — A Proper Mess —
Cut and drowned — Agreeable Wading by a Corpulent Gentleman
— A Damp Gentleman, and Fatal Eftects of Wading . Page 106
CHAPTER VI
Salmon Lines — A Lucky Cast — Disordered Tackle — Triumphant not-
withstanding — New Construction of a Salmon Reel— Salmon Flies
— The Metropolitan Fly — Powdered Lawyers — Description and
Coloured Engraving of Flies — A worthy Person embarrassed —
Vanishing of a Line sea-ward — Mathematical Angling — Raison
Demonstrative — Salmon taken by Surprise — Tom Purdie — Salmon
casting his Cantrips — Robin Hope — Novel Method of Fishing —
Discoloured State of the Water — A very confident Friend and his
Mishap— A Gudgeon Hunter — Fertile Imagination of an Angler —
Enormous Pike with splendid Eyes — A Discomfiture — Linn of
Campsie, and Voyage down the Tay in a High Flood . Page 122
CHAPTER VII
An Angler entranced — Absence of Mind — Cow versus Fish — Mew-
taking and Landscape Painting — Claude Lorraine and Salvator
Rosa — Poussin — The Grey Scull — Roslin — Pure Genius — Twos and
Threes — A Voracious Salmon — Melrose Bridge and the Can Id
Pool — The Coup de Grace — Monstrum Horrendum — Duncan Grant
— Rob of the Troughs clean dune out— Rob at bay — Rob breaks
the Bay ....... Page 169
CHAPTER VIII
Glamour — Michael Scott — Michael's Imp — Thomas of Ercildoune —
Imperfect Incantation — The Imp victorious . . Page 193
CHAPTER IX
Conscientious Water Bailift' — Black Fishers — River Sneak — A Chase —
Granting a Favour -The Souter*s Retreat — The Clodding Leister
— Tom Purdie's Devil of a Fish— Heather Lights — An Unsonsie
Callant— Tom get- a Fleg — "Bleezing up," and Peremptory
Kipper ....... Page 199
CONTENTS xxiii
( HAPTER \
Sunlighl Mr. Tintern's Partiality to one Leg lli^ Pony ahinl
Occurrence at Abbotafbrd Sunning Nel and Harpoon Voracity
nt' Bela Tom Purdie's Sarcasm Mr. Tin tern suspected of Howking
Tricks Trolling A ( iirious Occurrence rlarling Bail Fishing
— Minnow and Parr's Tail Black Meg of Darnwick— Firing of
Meg's Tower j and her Heath The Leister Canting the Boat
A Striking Incident— Rake Hooks— Liberal Advice . Page 216
CHAPTER XI
Tlie Burning — A Nigbl Scene, and Blazing Up Tom Purdie diverts
Himself— Striking from an Eminence —Tom Purdie gets a Kepreef
from sir Walter, and bis consequent Embarrassment - Benign
Explanation — Sandy Trummel's Mishap —Brig-end Pool— Boa1
sunk — Michael Scut — A Hint to Proprietors of Rivers — The Otter
— Twae can play ;it that — The Keeper of the Regalia — 'Die Author
tracks (int. ami Kids Farewell .... Page -4<;
A 1' I' E NDIX
Royal Society of Edinburgh ..... Page 261
ILUSTKA TIOXS
l'i a n: (ik two Yoi Nfl Salmon "j From a picture by /•.'. Cooke, \
in mi Smolt and Pars "Nil fiiit unquam do >Frontispit
Statk impar silii " J
" BuBMTNG THE Water"
( >l DEN 1 >AJ - ON Tfl BEDSIDE .
Facing payr
From a picture by William Simeon l
From a drawing by F. <'ooke . 8
Bbingiv. mi Nkt Ashohk. From a drawing by Sir David Witkie -"
l'l A II.
48
n of a Yin m. Salmon "j
in hie intebvening >
Statk
page »>4
(!8
page 73
Cairn Nkt . . . From a drawing by E. Cooke
Weighing in. . . By L. Hughe
.,. of Front a tlrtnriiiq bu Edwin \
Ottek DEVOURING a Salmon -J , , ,; • \
\ Landseer, it. A. )
" There's a fine Fish now !" From a picture by Charles Landseer ( J8
Melrose Abbey and Land-1 „ , , ,, - i, mkmamA irv -
\trom a drawing by h. Cooke page Ivt
"DbOWNED AND ABOl'T TO^
be cut." — The Eildon \ From a picture by Charles Landseer 116
Hills
Salmon Reel, 1843 .
Salmon Reel, 18D8 .
I.i nicii.HAi'ii op Flies
"What EybB he has!"
A pretty Kettle of Pbh !
"Clodding" Leihteu
" Si nnim; " AT CbAIGOVEB
> From a drawing by E. Cooke page 127
Drawn by /-. ffaghe . ■ 135
From a </ rawing by F. Cooke . 101
From a picture by < Tuirles Landseer 11KJ
From a drawing by F. Cooke page -"<;
From a picture by I'. Cooke . --()
Common Lkistkh and Cleie From a drawing by E. Cooke />age 239
Not bo baby as it looks . From a picture by William Simeon 262
3
DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON
FISHING IN THE TWEED
CHAPTER I
CITIZEN ANGLERS
"John Gilpin w;us a citizen
( )t* credit and renown." — CowPEB.
Salmon fishers do not fall from the clouds all per-
fection at once, but generally acquire some skill in
river angling for trout, and such -like pigmies, before
they aspire to the nobler spoil ; — pretty work,
indeed, would they make of it, if they began at the
wrong end : nemo repente frntfishismrms. We will
venture to say, that many beginners have been
frightened out of their wits by the sprightliness of
a decent- sized trout: would they then have the
presumption to encounter a salmon without fortify-
ing their nerves with previous practice of some sort
or another ? I would advise each, one and all, to
try their hands at something less powerful, before
they throw their gauntlet at Entellus. In short,
we ourselves, experienced as we are, stand in
perfect awe of a salmon to this day ; and think it
B
2 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
meet to approach him by degrees, by mentioning,
in the first instance, the pursuits of less aspiring
anglers, and their various grades of ambition. Thus,
we shall show the strength of the passion for fishing,
even of the most humble description, and by com-
parison set off the followers of Salmo salar to the
highest possible advantage.
We omit giving any particulars of such holiday
folk as disturb the puddles in the commons about
London, and beg to introduce our worthy friend
Mr. Pooley, who, being counter -bound nearly all
the year, takes his pastime occasionally on the river
Lea. A pedestrian he, and a man of pretty
considerable pretensions. Behold ! he casts aside
his domestic garb disdainful, and packs himself up
in a shooting jacket, which distinguishes him from
the common herd of travellers, and becomes him
admirably. Indeed he shows much address in the
skilful use of its buttons ; and it is really surprising
to see what an effect he produces by fastening the
two last in the waist, thereby making the rereward
of his person stick out in bold relief; for Mr.
Pooley is a man of a commendable rotundity.
The short rod which he trails merrily in his hand,
and the basket that irritates the vertebrae of his
back, proclaim his high resolve. At early morn he
quits the dusky city, with a temporary distaste for
the sound of Bow bells, and with pity for such as
are doomed to business whilst it is his pleasure to
angle.
At length, behold him arrived at thy lazy
waters, O Lea ! With joyous voice he evokes the
miller ; orders a dinner, as he is pleased to suppose,
MR. POOLEVS DAY OUT
of three dishes, the principal one consisting of the
lish he is aboill to Catch, with I/aak Walton's
instructions for cooking them. The miller gener-
ally puts on a somewhat distressing smile on this
occasion, as the said dish of fish is rather addressed
to the imagination than otherwise food for the
mind alone. Behold him now, seated on a spot
which has long home his name (Mr. Poolcy's Seal).
The story runs, that he once caught a pike thereof
five pounds; but the truth is, that the said pike
was actually only two pounds, but lie added a
pound to its weight every passing year, because he
said that the fish would have gained as much had
lie lived up to the present day of reckoning. This
was a mode of calculation that some even of his
most intimate friends could not assent to, but he
was always peremptory on the subject. His person
now being fairly disposed on the bank, with his
short and comely legs dangling over the weir, he
becomes deeply intent upon his neatly painted float.
On this his longing eyes are bent. He sees but
askance the swallows that flit by him, and the
willow that droops over the pool — he sees only his
float. By Jupiter, it bobs ! — now is the decisive
moment. Prompt and energetic, he gives a scientific
jerk, and up comes the light line obedient. Is there
the semblance of a fish at the end of it ? O no,
certainly not. What then made the float move ?
Who can say ? Perhaps it was only a delusion of
the optics brought on by a sanguine temperament,
or a slight ruffle occasioned by the zephyrs that
kissed thy Cockney waters, O gently slumbering
Lea! You were excited, Mr. Pooley, you must
4 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
own, dreadfully excited — and it well became you
to be so, for the moment was awful ; but we will
leave you to resume your tranquillity. We grant
you our sympathy, but deny you our company.
Pass we on to the more ambitious angler, even
to our adventurous acquaintance, Mr. John Poplin.
He cannot submit to the worm, paste, or float — not
he. His skilful arm is practised to wave his rod
gracefully, with nothing less at the end of the line
than the green granam fly. Reclining on his sofa,
and tinted with a slight suffusion of bile, he has
seen on one auspicious morn a seductive advertise-
ment, headed " Trout Fishing." AVith eager pen
he responds to A.B. ; pays a guinea for a ticket to
enable him to angle for trout during a whole season,
in a part of the river Wandle that is strictly
preserved. How very cheap ! After pulling about
monstrous fish in his dreams all night he pays his
guinea, and drives off to the Elysian fields : there
he beholds the whole extent of the fishery lying
before him — a mill-pond full seventy yards long, one
side only belonging to the advertiser in right of a
small water meadow. The spot seems a favourite
one ; for a goodly company of citizens are extended
along the bank in hue at three feet asunder — a
similar number on the opposite bank. Now three
feet is a liberal allowance, for only two are granted
for a soldier standing in close order. With graceful
obeisance and skilful tact he apologises, and wedges
himself into line; hooks his neighbours tackle on
the right the very first throw, whilst he on his left
hooks his. They remonstrate, and extricate with
proper courtesy. Not particularly admiring his
A CRUSTY MILLER
position, which lie deems crowded, he backs out,
quits the ranks, and in evil hour trespasses <>u the
water below. Then was thj wrath awakened, ()
jolly Duller] White in apparel, bul rubicund in
complexion, von sally forth, portly and irascent;
lot't \ is your language.
"Who gave you toleration to iish in my mill
tail ?" In return, Mr. Miller, you art- called an un-
civil brute, and you well deserve it ; for, in civility,
you should first of all have remonstrated, and, in
prudence, should afterwards have endeavoured to
exact a handsome fine for the trespass. Hut you
did neither of these; on the contrary, I am sorry
to say. vmi were personal and unpleasant, and
forcibly deprived our amiable friend Mr. John
Poplin of his rod ; so that he returned to London
with an accumulation of bile, and scolded his wife,
maid, and footboy. Hard was the fate of the caster
of the green granam !
Mount we now one step higher, nay, a goodly
stride or two ; and let us celebrate the real scientific
fly-fisher, to whom fortune has been more propi-
tious. Possessed of ample means, he roves from
river to lake, rich in rods of various dimensions, and
the joyful possessor of all the flies that have been
named or engraved in all the ninety -nine books that
have been published on the art of angling, not for-
getting that distinguished fly called the Professor.
We have a boundless respect for this young gentle-
man. We like his custom of roving about. He
does not scruple to mount his tilbury, and to flourish
his rod over the rivers and lakes of Wales, and to
lash also with zeal all the waters of Westmoreland
6 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
and Cumberland. He is not a mere angler, but
somewhat of an artist also ; at least he thinks so
himself. So when the sun rides high, and the lake
lies hot and motionless, " and the flies make strange
streaks, albeit skilfully thrown, on the mirror-
like surface of the water," as that most capital
penman, " the organist," has described it, he plants
his sketching stool in some shady nook, and, armed
at all points with the necessary implements,
imagines that he transmits to his canvass a vivid
impression of what he sees before him.
Well skilled to select his subjects, he does not
take a general view of the broad expanse, but gets
a glimpse of the lake between the bolls of the trees
opposed to it in shadow. Proud of his ultra marine,
he touches in the distant mountain, and the rugged
brae nearer the foreground he paints rich and sunny;
nor does he forget those accessories that give inter-
est and character to the scene — the smoke issuing
from the cottage lying in some shady nook, the
boat hauled up on the gravelly beach, or the cattle
that stand listless on some point of land that juts
into the lake. Perhaps, too, some shepherd lies
sleeping with his flock around him in a sequestered
glade. Thus he paints the images of rural life ; and
who happier than himself, when he retires to the
clean little inn, and selects the trout for his dinner,
giving a cut behind the dorsal fin to descry those of
the reddest tint ? Self-complacent are his regards
when he eyes his ample capture, beaming are his
looks when he contemplates his coloured canvass.
It is with pain we take leave of the happy man :
we would willingly write his memoirs, but we have
To Till: TWEED '
.1 higher duty to perform. We are aboul to sing
of Harry Otter, even of ourseh es, doing battle with
the lllSt\ salmon as uc ride on the waxes of the
Tweed in our little bark, or wade amongsl its rapid
cataracts. It becomes us first, however, to preface
our pages with a short description of the salmon
itself, as well as of Harry Otter: and we will begin
with the fish, as being the most interesting animal
>^\' the two.
CHAPTER II
"So dainty salmons, chevins thunder-scared,
Feast-famous sturgeons, lampreys speckle-starr'd,
In the spring season the rough seas forsake,
And in the rivers thousand pleasures take. 11 — Du Baiitas.
The three species of the genus Salmo which are to
be found in the Tweed, and which afford most
sport to the angler, are the common salmon, or
Salmo salar ; the grey, or bull trout, Salmo eriox ;
and the salmon trout, Salmo trutta. The Salmo
J'ano also, or common trout, is, or rather used to
be, in great abundance there ; but of this latter
species I do not mean to treat. 1
Although the salmon fisheries are of considerable
national importance, affording a great supply of food
and employment to thousands ; yet, surprising as it
may appear, the natural history and habits of the
fish itself have almost up to this time been very
imperfectly known. Indeed naturalists have been
altogether mistaken as to the appearance of the
fry, which at a certain growth they have supposed
to be a distinct species of fish ; and had it not been
for the skill and diligence of Mr. Shaw, who has
1 Since Scrope's day the i^raylin^- {Thymalhu vulgaris) has been
introduced^ anil is tolerably abundant in the lower reaches. — En.
OLDEN DAYS ON TWtEDSIOC
THE SALMON 9
demonstrated this their mistake l>\ a scries of
scientific and interesting experiments, they would
still have continued in error. But not naturalists
alone, who are apt to Copy their predecessors with
somewhat too liberal a faith, hut even practical
men, who have made their observations from
nature, have arrived also at false conclusions.
Mr. Yarrell, in the second edition of his beautiful
work on British Fishes, has given so ample and so
scientific an account of the salmon, deduced from
the late recent and important discoveries, that little
remains to he said on its natural history.
I shall therefore be as brief on this subject as
possible ; adding, however, such remarks on the
habits of the three most valuable species of the
Salmonidce as my practical acquaintance with the
subject may enable me to supply.
And. first, for the
COMMON SALMON
Salmo Salab
Generic Characters. — " Head smooth, body
covered with scales; two dorsal fins, the first
supported by rays, the second fleshy and without
rays ; teeth on the vomer, both palatine bones, and
all the maxillary bones; branchiostegous rays,
varying in number, generally from ten to twelve,
but sometimes unequal on two sides of the head of
the same fish." — Yarrell.
This splendid fish leaves the sea, and comes up
the Tweed at every period of the year in greater or
10 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
lesser quantities, becoming more abundant in the
river as the summer advances ; that is, provided
sufficient rain falls to swell the water to such an
extent as will discolour it, and enable the fish to
pass the shallows with ease and security. It travels
rapidly ; so that those salmon which leave the sea,
and go up the Tweed on the Saturday night at
twelve o'clock, after which time no nets are
worked till the Sabbath is past, are found and
taken on the following Monday near St. Boswells
— a distance, as the river winds, of about forty
miles.
This I have frequently ascertained by experience.
When the strength of the current in a spate is
considered, and also the sinuous course a salmon
must take in order to avoid the strong rapids, this
power of swimming must be considered as extra-
ordinary.
As salmon are supposed to enter a river merely
for the purposes of spawning, and as that process
does not take place till September, one cannot well
account for their appearing in the Tweed and else-
where so early as February and March, seeing that
they lose in weight and condition during their
continuance in fresh water. Some think it is to
get rid of the sea-louse ; but this supposition must
be set aside, when it is known that this insect
adheres only to a portion of the newly -run fish,
which are the best in condition. I think it more
probable that they are driven from the coasts near
the river by the numerous enemies they encounter
there, such as porpoises and seals, which devour
them in great quantities. However this may be,
THE SALMON 11
they remain in the fresh uak-r till the spawning
months commence. 1
On the first arrival of the spring salmon from
the sea, they are apt to take up their scats in the
rear of a scull of kelts; at this early period they
arc brown in the back in the Tweed, fat, and in
high condition. In the cold months they lie in the
dec]) and easy water; and as the season advances
they draw into the principal rough streams, always
Lying in places where they can be least easily dis-
covered. They are very fond of a stream above a
deep pool, into which they can fall back in case of
disturbance. They prefer lying upon even rock, or
behind Large blocks of stone, particularly such as
are of a colour similar to themselves. They are
not to be found all over the river like trout, but
only in such rough or deep places as I have
mentioned ; it is therefore very necessary for a
stranger to take out some one with him who is
acquainted with the water he means to fish, for
there are large continuous portions of almost all
salmon rivers where no fish ever take up their seats.
It is true that a very practised eye, which is well
acquainted with water, needs little assistance ; but
there are not many such nice observers.
At every swell of the river, unless a very trifling
one, the fish move upwards nearer the spawning
places : so that no one can reckon upon preserving
his particular part of the river, which is the chief
1 A great advance since these pages were written lias been made in
scientific knowledge of the habits of salmon. A blue book, entitled
Report mi Investigations into the Life History of Salmon, has lately (1H!)8)
been published under direction of the Scottish Fishery Board, and may
be commended to the attention of those interested in the subject. — Ed.
12 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
reason of the universal destruction of these valuable
animals. Previous to a flood, the fish frequently
leap out of the water, either for the purpose of
filling their air-bladder to make them more buoyant
for travelling, or from excitement, or, perhaps, to
exercise their powers of ascending heights and catar-
acts in the course of their journey upwards. Of
the nature of these spates, or floods, I will speak
hereafter.
That salmon will leap a great height I have read,
and heard asserted continually ; but even the sub-
dued account which Mr. Yarrell has mentioned,
placing their powers of leaping ten or twelve feet
perpendicularly, 1 hold to be beyond the mark. I
have frequently watched their endeavours to sur-
mount falls, and I do not think I ever saw a salmon
spring out of the water above five feet perpendicu-
larly. There is a cauld at the mouth of the Leader-
water, where it falls into the Tweed, which salmon
never could spring over ; this cauld I have lately
had measured most carefully by a mason, and its
height varies from five feet and a half to six feet
from the level above to the level below it, according
as the Tweed, into which the Leader falls, is more
or less affected by the rains. Hundreds of salmon
formerly attempted to spring over this low cauld,
but none could ever achieve the leap ; so that a
salmon in the Leader-water was formerly a thing
unheard of. The proprietors of the upper water
have made an opening in this cauld of late years,
giving the owner of the mill some recompense, so
that salmon now ascend freely. Large fish can
spring much higher than small ones ; but their
THE SALMON [3
powers are limited or augmented according to the
depth of water they spring from : in shallow water,
they have little power of ascension ; in deep, they
have the most considerable. They rise rapidly
from the very bottom to the surface of the water
by means of rowing and sculling, as it were, with
their tins and tail : and this powerful impetus bears
them upwards in the air, on the same* principle
that a tew tugs of the oar make a boat shoot on-
wards after one lias eeased to row. It is probably
owing to a want of sufficient depth in the pool
below the Leader-water eauld, that prevented the
tish from clearing it; because I know an instance
where salmon have cleared a cauld of six feet be-
longing to Lord Sudely, who lately caused it to be
measured for my satisfaction, though they were but
few out of the numerous tish that attempted it that
were able to do so. I conceive, however, that very
large tish could leap much higher.
Although I think the powers of salmon to leap
perpendicularly have been much overrated, yet I
know that they will ascend steep cataracts in a
wonderful manner. Mr. Smith of Deanston, in the
('arse of Stirling, has invented a sort of stair, by
means of which salmon are enabled to ascend
streams in full waters in spite of natural or artificial
obstructions. One side of the river under a weir
or cauld is separated from the main stream, and
intersected by tranverse pieces of wood or stone,
each of which reaches about two-thirds of the width
of the gap. There are two ranges of these steps,
one on each side, and the steps on one side face the
centre of the interval between the steps on the
14 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
other ; so that the fish ascend from side to side in a
zigzag direction, and can rest in their ascent, should
they find it necessary. This is a very ingenious
contrivance, and it has been constructed on the
Teith, near Doune, with complete success. But I
conclude it can only come into operation in such
floods as raise the water to a higher level than is
required for the mill-dam ; and therefore if rude
steps of rolling stones were constructed at a portion
of the back of the cauld, the end would be answered
in a better manner, since the ascent might be made
more gradual. 1
The fish pass every practicable obstruction till
they arrive at their spawning ground, some early,
and some late in the season. The spawning in the
river Tweed continues throughout the autumn,
winter, and beginning of spring. It commences
about September, and I have caught full roeners as
late as May ; but the principal months are December,
January, and February. Mr. John Crerar, who was
fisherman to the Duke of Atholl for sixty years,
and who left behind him some pages in manuscript
on the habits of the salmon, has recorded in them
that fish full of mature roe may be caught in the
Tay in every month in the year.
The fish become weak and wasted before the
spawning time, and change in colour. The male
loses its silvery hue, and is deeply tinged in the
cheeks and body with orange, and is also dappled
with red spots, when, in the upper parts of the
1 A complete description of modern improvements in salmon ladders
will he found in Fisheries Exhibition l.itcnitu n\ published by Mr^>rs. W.
Clowes and Son. — En.
THE SALMON 15
Tweed, it is sometimes called a "soldier." The
under jaw also becomes longer, and a cartilaginous
substance grows from the poinl of it. and extends
upwards till it buries itself in the nose above. In
this state the fish is \ cry thin in the back, and
altogether much wasted ; bu1 its flesh is sometimes
eatable, and at any rate Infinitely superior to thai of
a fish which has newly spawned. The female, when
ready to spawn, is dark in colour, and her flesh is
soft and worthless.
Salmon are led by instinct to select such places
for depositing their spawn as are the least likely to
be affected by the- floods. These are the broad
parts of the river, where the water runs swift and
shallow, and has a free passage over an even bed.
Here they either seleet an old spawning place, a
sort <>f trough left in the channel, or form a
fresh one. They are not fond of working in new
loose channels, which would be liable to be
removed by a slight flood, to the destruction of
their spawn. The spawning bed is made by the
female. Some have fancied that the elongation
of the lower jaw in the male, which is somewhat
in the form of a crook, is designed by nature to
enable him to excavate the spawning trough.
Certainly it is difficult to divine what may be the
use of this very ugly excrescence ; but observation
has proved that this idea is a fallacy, and that the
male never assists in making the spawning place ;
and indeed, if he did so, he could not possibly
make use of the elongation in question for that
purpose, which springs from the lower jaw, and
bends inwards towards the throat.
16 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
When the female first commences making her
spawning bed, she generally comes after sunset, and
goes off in the morning : she works up the gravel
with her snout, her head pointing against the
stream, as my fisherman has clearly and unequivo-
cally witnessed, and she arranges the position of
the loose gravel with her tail. When this is done,
the male makes his appearance in the evenings,
according to the usage of the female ; he then
remains close by her, on the side on which the
water is deepest. When the female is in the act
of emitting her ova, she turns upon her side, with
her face to the male, who never moves. The
female runs her snout into the gravel, and forces
herself under it as much as she possibly can, when
an attentive observer may see the red spawn coming
from her. The male in his turn lets his milt go
over the spawn ; and this process goes on for some
days, more or less, according to the size of the fish
and consequent quantity of the eggs.
During this time, trout will collect below to
devour the spawn that floats down the river ; and
numerous parrs, so called, are always seen about
and in the spawning beds, an explanation of which
will be found in the sequel. If a strange male
interferes, the original one makes at him, and
chases him with great fury, and in these combats
they often inflict great injury on each other. John
Crerar once had his attention attracted by a gnat
noise of dashing and plunging, at Kings Ford in
the Tay, and upon looking round he found it was
occasioned by the fighting of two salmon. After a
short contest one of them set off; and the water
THE SALMON 17
being shallow. Crerar fired at and killed him : he
was a male of course, and weighed thirty-two
pounds. This occurred in June, l?'.*'.*.
When the female has done spawning, she sets
off, and Leaves the place. The male remains
waiting for another female; and if none comes in
twenty -tour hours, he goes away in search of
another spawning place. In the spawning beds on
the Tweed, great injury is done with the Leister,
and rake hooks ; and the fishermen, who know how
to profit by their cruel slaughter, are in the habit
^1t' spearing the male which first comes to the female,
Leaving the latter as a decoy fish, and killing the
other males in succession as they arrive to consort
with her. By this barbarous and poaching practice
all the largest spawning fish are destroyed, to the
great destruction of the river. These foul salmon
are bad and unwholesome food, and used to be sold
by the fishermen for about half a crown the stone,
Dutch weight : they were afterwards salted.
Trifling as this price is, the fishermen in the upper
parts of the Tweed formerly made up the chief part
of their rent in this manner ; for there is no law
against killing foul fish, except in close time.
I have now given a brief account of the salmon,
from his first entry into fresh water till he has
spawned. It remains only to trace him back to
the sea.
When the spawning is finished, the fish become
very lank and weak, and fall into deep easy water,
where they have not to contend with the current:
here, after a time, their strength is recruited, when,
as the spring advances, the strongest fish leave
c
18 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
the depths and draw into the streams. At this
time they become clear in colour, and are com-
paratively well made ; but their flesh is soft, and
without flavour. They now move down the river
by degrees, in their passage to the sea. When
they arrive in the deep pools where the water
runs evenly, they he in sculls, and take a rest for
some days : here they are caught in great quantities
by anglers, as they take the fly and other baits
freely. March is usually the best month for this
sport, if, indeed, it can be called sport to kill an
animal that is worth a mere trifle, and resists but
little. 1 If there are freshes, the kelts (for so the
females that have spawned are called) quit the
Tweed before the month of May, and the kippers,
or male fish, at the same time. 2 Aery many do
so in March and April, according to the time
that they have spawned and regained their powers.
In going downwards they are taken about Kelso,
or at least they used to be so in my time, with
the long net, in pools where they rest, such as
that below Kelso bridge ; but they cannot be
caught by the cairn nets, which are so destructive
to them in ascending.
Having now despatched the salmon to the sea,
it remains to me to explain what becomes of the
spawn, and how and when the young fry arrive
at maturity ; and as there have been various doubts
and contradictions on this subject, I think it more
prudent to lead the reader to a consideration of
1 The killing' of kelts is now prohibited by law. — Ed.
2 Both sexes alike are known as kelts. Kippers are fish which have
not yet shed their milt. — Ed.
THE SALMON L9
the following pages, than to make a positive asser-
tion on my own unsupported authority.
Mr. Shaw's ingenious experiments have Lately
had a very wide circulation; but still I have
thought it propel- to make a very short abstract
of them, as they arc of too great importance to
be omitted in any publication relating to salmon.
Up to a late period it was universally thought
that the spawn deposited as above mentioned was
matured in a brief time, and that the young fry
of the winter grew to six or seven inches Long,
were silver in colour, and went down to the sea
in this state with the first floods early in the May
of the coming spring. They w r ere then called
sin oils. In the summer months there are always
multitudes of little fry in every salmon river,
which in the Tweed are called parrs, and have
been thought to be a different species from the
salmon. I have formerly held several tiresome
arguments, both with practical men and also with
naturalists, with an intent to convince them that
they were one and the same species.
The late Mr. James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd,
was particularly stiff and bristly in opinion against
me. But he recanted afterwards, and caused to
be published in the famed " Maga " an account of
experiments made by himself, all tending to confirm
my theory. I suppose it would have been better
for my credit had I abstained from any colloquy
with the said James, which appears not to have
been particularly entertaining ; for lately, upon
asking my friend Sir Adam Fergusson if he re-
collected the circumstance, " Perfectly well," said
20 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
he, " and it was at your own table ; but I cannot
say who had the best of the argument, as I fell
asleep soon after it began."
But indeed I had not resided long on the banks
of the Tweed, before I came to the conclusion that
the parr was not a distinct species, but, as I have
said, was actually the young of the salmon ; and
very many years ago, long before Mr. Shaw's ex-
periments, Mr. Kennedy having brought in a Bill
for the better preservation of the salmon fisheries,
I wrote to him the following letter, which I tran-
scribe from the first draught, which I preserved : —
" Pavilion, Melrose.
" Sir,
" Your Salmon Bill being in progress, permit me
to have the honour of addressing you on a point
that is at present overlooked, and that you will at
once perceive is of vital importance to its successful
operation.
" It is a fact, that whilst the legislature has
imposed penalties for the destruction of smolts or
salmon fry, not only those whose duty it is to put
the law in force, but the public, and even fishermen
themselves, cannot ascertain what these are at all
seasons of the year. On the contrary, for most
part of the year they go by the name of parrs, and
are destroyed daily with impunity, and in incredible
quantities. Hitherto the parr and the smolt have
been considered as different species ; but that
they are precisely the same, I think may be
demonstrated.
" The received opinion, and that which the
PARRS AM) SMOLTS 21
present law of Scotland acts upon, is, that the
salmon fry of the winter and spring congregate
and go down to the sea in the May of the same
season, and that they are of a pure silver colour, as
indeed more or less they are. Now in all salmon
rivers parrs are to be found in abundance through-
out the summer, and early in the spring ; and in
the summer they are not of a silver colour, but
marked with red spots, and are shaded with vertical
bars on their sides at intervals. From the appear-
ance of these bars, they are very generally supposed
to be of a distinct species from the smolt. Permit
me to give my reasons for entertaining a contrary
opinion.
"After May the large parrs totally disappear,
and such few as may be found afterwards are very
small ; but as the summer advances they become
larger, and in the spring following the bars and red
spots above mentioned gradually die away, and a
stronger armour or scale supervenes ; and as that
is more or less advanced in growth, the bars and
spots are more or less visible.
" When they are in this silvery state, that is,
when the new scales are perfected, they become
what are called smolts or salmon fry ; but by
removing such new scales, you will find the bars
and spots of the parr underneath as clear and vivid
as ever. I have therefore a positive conviction
that the salmon fry, instead of falling down to the
sea the same year they are produced, remain in the
river, under the name of parrs, till the year follow-
ing. That they increase little in size we cannot be
surprised at, as it is universally known that the
22 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
salmon himself wastes from the moment he comes
into fresh water.
"If the Committee make themselves perfectly
acquainted with the natural history of the salmon,
they will be aware of the peculiar construction of
the eye of that fish. Dr. Brewster 1 has been so
obliging as to examine for me the eyes of some
parrs, which I sent him for that purpose ; and
replies, ' I have examined very carefully the
crystalline lenses of the parr, which I find to be
the same with those of the salmon, which is a strong
confirmation of your opinion.'
" I must add, that these parrs, as they are called,
are never found but in salmon rivers, or in such as
have an uninterrupted communication with them ;
and that they cannot be the young of the bull trout,
as the formation of the tail in that fish is wholly
different.
"When it is considered that trout fishing is
enjoyed by every class of people in Scotland, and
that, speaking with reference to the river Tweed
only and its different tributary streams, hundreds
and hundreds of people are trouting daily, and
that each person catches several dozen parrs in
a morning, except in that interval between the
disappearance of the old fry and the appearance of
the new in a forward state, it will be found that
the young salmon (for such I contest they are) so
destroyed will amount to considerably more than
the whole marketable produce of the river. 2
1 Afterwards Sir David Brewster.
- It is scarcely necessary to observe that Mr. Scrope's opinion as to
the identity of parr with salmon sniolts has been established beyond all
question, and that it is now illegal to kill either. — En.
PARRS AND SMOLTS
" By your present Bill I know not 1 1* >w far the
local Scotch Acts may be repealed; but I take the
liberty of suggesting that it would be for the public
benefit if the usage of a pout net in close time were
made punishable by a fine. The inhabitants of
almost every cottage have these nets, which are
taken out under pretence of catching trout, which
no one but a proprietor has a right t<> do in such a
way. I have heard that above a thousand salmon
have been taken in a small space of the Tweed by
these nets during close time. They are most
destructive below the backs of caulds, where the
fish collect in order to ascend.
" I should have mentioned before, that what we
call the parr in the Tweed goes by various other
names in the different rivers of Great Britain, which
is a material circumstance to note.
" If you are desirous of any further information
on this subject, I shall most readily give you such
as may be in my power. What I have already
said is of a nature that cannot make me be sus-
pected of having any private or party view to
answer.
" I have the honour to be," &c. &c
The above being the first draught, I omitted to
put a date to it ; but it was written many years
before Mr. Shaw's experiments. For Mr. Kennedy's
Bill, to which my letter alludes, was brought in on
the 15th of April, 1825, and thrown out on the
second reading.
I received a very obliging answer from that
gentleman, the purport of which was to say, that
24 SALMON FISHING LN THE TWEED
as his Bill had failed, it was not necessary to trouble
me any farther on the subject.
This letter contains evidence that Sir David
Brewster's experiments were made previously to its
being written ; and when I had thought of publish-
ing, being desirous to know the exact time when
they were made, I wrote to Sir David to call his
attention to the subject. His answer, dated 16th
of April, 1840, was as follows :
" I am pretty sure that my experiments on the
structure of the crystalline lens of the parr, which
is identical with that of the salmon, were made
previous to 1828. x I remember well your stating
to me that when the silver scales of the young
salmon (which in Roxburghshire we call smouts)
were carefully rubbed off, the colours of a darker
hue which characterise the parr were invariably and
distinctly seen. I think you showed me the experi-
ments, but I am not sure of this. With the view
of confirming this your theory, or of over-turning
it, I mentioned to you that the fibres of the lens of
the salmon," &c.
Then follows the account of his experiments, as
detailed a little farther on.
Besides the reasons mentioned in the above letter,
there were other causes which influenced me in the
opinion I had formed; the two principal of which
were —
Firstly, That no one ever saw a clear silver-
1 The date of Mr. Kennedy's Bill, which I have but just ascertained,
proves that they were made in or before the year L825 ; whereas Mr.
Shaw's first account of his interesting experiments appeared in the
"•New Edinburgh and Philosophical Journal" for L836j vol. xxi. p. 99. —
eleven years after.
PARRS AND SMOLTS
looking Bry below the usual dimensions of those
which are ready to go down to the sea ; that is, till
the new dress conies over them, and obliterates the
distinguishing marks of what is called the pan-.
Secondly, Thai parrs are found above foils which
salmon can, but they cannot possibly, surmount.
A high spate might certainly bring some of these
tails more to a level ; but it would be as impossible
for a parr to swim up them in a raging Hood, as it
would be for the sere leaf that falls into the waves
to timl its passage upwards. Mr. Shaw, who has
carefully watched shoals of parr (correctly speaking,
smolts) in their descent to the sea, affirms that they
pass down the current with the greatest caution,
keeping their heads up the stream, and rowing
gently with their fins against it, so as to steady
themselves and prevent a too rapid descent ; and
thus they drop down by degrees, tail foremost,
precisely in the same manner that we manage a
boat in the Tweed when descending the rapids.
When the fry were congregating in May I
caught these little fish in various stages of the
growth of the new scale. In some it had super-
vened so as to obliterate the bars and spots entirely,
when their sides became silver ; in others they were
partially obliterated, so as to leave only a mere stain
of colour ; whilst some retained them almost entire.
As I caught these fry I sent them up to Sir David
Brewster, who was then residing at his beautiful
place on the banks of the Tweed. After a careful
examination he could find no distinction in the
structure of the organs between any of these little
creatures, however differing in colour.
SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
The salmon has a peculiar formation of the eye,
the crystalline lens having the fibres of which it is
composed arranged as in the annexed sketch A, the
line m n being horizontal on one side, and vertical
on the other ; whereas in many of the trout species
the fibres are arranged as at C, crossing one another,
or rather meeting at two opposite poles, like the
meridians of a globe, the line joining the two poles
being the axis of vision of the eye.
" After examining the lenses of the parr you sent
me," says Sir David Brewster in a letter now before
me, " I found the structure to be exactly the same
as that of the salmon. I have frequently had
occasion to mention the proofs that you gave me
of the identity of the parr with the salmon, and to
mention my own experiments on the lenses as
confirmatory of your opinion that the parr and the
salmon are one and the same species."
Salmon begin spawning as early as September,
and continue to do so throughout the winter
months ; December, January, and February being
the principal ones for that operation. They con-
tinue on the spawning ground, or rade, as it is
termed in Scotland, also during the spring months,
though in diminished quantities. I myself have
caught full roeners, as they are called, in the month
of May in the Tweed. Now we know from the
PARRS AND SMOLTS 27
proof of experiments that have been made by
various persons, that the spawn of the salmon
continues Imbedded in the gravel from ninety to
one hundred and fifteen days, according to the
temperature of the water, before it vivifies; and
indeed remains there some weeks after its exclusion
from the egg. Mr. Shaw has stated the exact time
iA' this latter period to be fifteen days; at the end
(A' which time, says he, the egg which was attached
to its abdomen, from which it derived its nourish-
ment, "contracted and disappeared; the fin or
tadpole-like fringe also divided itself into the dorsal,
adipose, and anal tins, all of which then became
perfectly developed ; the little transverse bars,
which tor a period of two years characterise it as a
parr, also made their appearance ; so that a period
(4' at least 140 days is required to perfect this little
fish, which even then measured little more than
one inch in length."
The above not being matter of conjecture, but
having been demonstrated by experiment, how by
any possibility can the old doctrine be true, that
the fry which go to sea about the first or second
week in May, six or seven inches long, can be the
spawn of the winter immediately preceding it ?
And what and w r here are the young of the salmon
all the summer, if they are not indeed parr ; for no
silver-coloured fry are at that time to be seen in
the river ? I must add also, that it is incumbent
upon those naturalists who assert that the parr is a
distinct species, to prove that it is so from com-
parative anatomy. But they have not been able to
do this ; on the contrary, as far as I can learn, they
28 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
confess they have discovered no variation of organic
structure.
I have heard it objected that the growth of the
salmon being very rapid, it seems out of the order
of nature to suppose that a creature should remain
so long in fresh water with so little increase of size.
But salmon never grow in fresh water ; on the
contrary, they begin to waste from the moment
they enter a river, whether they are clean at that
period, or forward in spawning. Besides, as the
full latitude of the spawning season endures for six
months, some of the fry, acknowledged by all to be
smolts, must be six months older than others, and
yet when they congregate to go to sea they will all
be found to be nearly of the same size. Now if the
fry, confessed by all to be smolts, or the young of
the salmon, do not increase during so many months,
why should it be objected that the parr is not the
young of the salmon on the same account ?
These and other arguments have occurred to me
from time to time. All reasoning, however, on
this subject is now become superfluous ; Mr. John
Shaw of Drumlanrig having demonstrated, by a
number of careful and scientific experiments, that
the parr is actually the young of the salmon. His
first paper, announcing this important fact, was
published in the "Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal" for July, 1836, vol. xxi. page 99. His
second was read before the Royal Society of
Edinburgh on the 18th of December, 1837, and
was published in the "" Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal" for January, 1838, vol. xxiv. page 1 <">.>.
His third and concluding communication, by far
MR SHAWS EXPERIMENTS 8
the most interesting, and which has been Lately
received by the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
contains a continuance and confirmation of the
results of the experiments mentioned in the two
first papers above alluded to, together with the \<r\
extraordinary fact, that the milt of a parr eighteen
months old, and only weighing an ounce and a half,
is capable of impregnating the ova of a full-grown
salmon.
Before proceeding to make the experiments
related in his last communication, he made three
ponds, the banks so raised, and constructed other-
wise in such a manner, that it was impossible for
the young fish to escape, or for any other fish to
have access to them. Accurate drawings and
descriptions of these ponds are given in his printed
pages, now before me, which he was so obliging as
to present me with. "Being thus prepared," says
Mr. Shaw (alluding to the construction of his
ponds), "with every means of carrying my ex-
periments into practice, I proceeded to the river
Nitb on the 4th of January, 1837, and readily
discovered a pair of adult salmon engaged in
depositing their spawn. They were in a situation
easily accessible, the water being of such a depth as
to admit of my net being employed with certain
success." The fish were accordingly captured by
means of a hoop net. The ova were then pressed
with the hand from the body of the female, and
impregnated in the same manner by the milt of the
male, and the spawn in this state was transferred to
a private pond previously prepared for its reception.
That there might be no doubt as to the species, the
30 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
skins of the parent salmon were kept, and may be
seen at any time.
On the 28th of April, 114 days after impregna-
tion, the young salmon were excluded from the egg,
which was not the case when they were visited the
preceding day. On the 24th of May, twenty-seven
days after being hatched, the young fish had con-
sumed the yolk which remains attached to the
lower part of the body, and which serves him for
nourishment, and the characteristic bai~s of the parr
had become distinctly visible. From a deposition of
mud, as Mr. Shaw apprehends, all these fry, except
one individual, were found dead at the bottom of
the ponds, so that there was no opportunity of
watching their future progress ; but an ingenious
experiment was made, which proved that an in-
creased temperature hastened the development of
the infant fish.
But we shall see that Mr. Shaw was too in-
defatigable to be daunted by such an untoward
accident, and that he persevered in his experiments,
till his efforts were rewarded by complete success.
On the 27th of January, 1837, he captured a
male fish of sixteen pounds, and a female of eight,
and expressed the ova of the female and im-
pregnated it with the milt of the male in the
manner above related, and deposited the spawn in
this state in a private pond as before, and to which
no fish could by possibility have access.
" On the 21st of March," says Mr. Shaw (that is,
fifty-four days after impregnation), "the embryo
fish were visible to the naked eye. On the 7th of
May (101 days after impregnation), they had burst
MR, SHAWS EXPERIMENTS 81
the envelope, and were to be found amongst the
shingle of the stream. The temperature of the
water was at this time 48 , and of the atmosphere
I.') : and it is this brood which 1 have now had an
opportunity o\' watching continuously for a Length
of time, that is, for more than the entire period
which was required to elapse from their exclusion
from the egg, until their assumption of those
characters which distinguish the undoubted salmon
fry."
Mr. Shaw then proceeds to describe the size and
appearance of the salmon fry at different periods of
their age, accompanied with several very accurate
and well-executed engravings illustrating the text.
" One of these is a specimen two years old, when it
has assumed its migratory dress, and measures
about six inches and a half, being about the average
size of the brood." Tzco years, — mark this, — and
only six inches and a half long ! It then goes to
the sea the first floods in May, and returns in two
or three months, as it may happen, when it is called
a gilse, 1 and is increased to the size of from four to
seven pounds, and indeed very considerably more,
being larger or smaller in proportion to the time it
has remained in the sea. A second visit to the sea
gives it another increase, when it returns to the
river as a salmon. This appears so wonderful and
extraordinary a departure from the general laws of
nature, that it is no wonder that the most scientific
men have been misled.
But if the salmon fry attain but to such pigmy
growth in fresh water, still less is that element
1 Generally written ''grilse." — En.
32 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
favourable to adult salmon, which, as I have else-
where observed, fall off in size and condition from
the moment they enter a river for the purpose of
spawning. When they have spawned, however,
they certainly do mend greatly in condition, or,
more correctly speaking, recover from their state of
weakness.
But to return to Mr. Shaw. — " The circum-
stance," says he, " of male parrs with the milt
matured, and flowing in profusion from their bodies,
being at all times found in company with the
adult female salmon while depositing her spawn
in the river, and the female parrs being in every
instance absent, suggested the idea that the males
were probably present with the female salmon at
such seasons for sexual purposes.
" To demonstrate the fact," he continues, " in
January, 1837, I took a female salmon weighing
fourteen pounds from the spawning bed, from
whence I also took a male parr weighing one
ounce and a half, with the milt of which I
impregnated a quantity of her ova, and placed
the whole in a private pond ; where, to my great
astonishment, the process succeeded in every
respect, as it had done with the ova which had
been impregnated by the adult male salmon, and
exhibited, from the first visible appearance of the
embryo fish up to their assuming their migratory
dress, the utmost health and vigour.
" The result from this experiment was of so
startling a nature, that it was not thought prudent
to give it publicity till the trial was repeated. It
was so, early in the following .January, 1838, when
MR. siiwvs EXPERIMENTS
two lots of eggs of a salmon, weighing eighteen
pounds, were impregnated with tin- mill of two
male parrs, ami there ensued precisely the same
result as before. Again, in December, is:js, four
lots of ova from an adult salmon were impregnated
with the milt of four parrs with similar success ;
and the same parrs, being afterwards placed in a
private pond, assumed the migratory dress in the
following May, not in the most minute degree
differing from what in the Tweed are universally
called sinolts, and are acknowledged by all to be
the young of the salmon."
All these experiments appear to me to be quite
conclusive, and of a nature to satisfy any one who
has not pledged himself to an opposite theory.
But if any thing were still wanting, it has been
completely supplied by an additional experiment,
which clenches the proof.
On the 4th of January, 1837, a male parr, itself
the produce of a male parr and female adult salmon,
was made by expression of the milt to impregnate
the eggs of a salmon weighing twelve pounds ; and
for the better security of the lot the whole was
placed in a wooden trough, over which a sheet of
fine copper wire-gauze was fixed. The trough was
then placed in a stream of water previously pre-
pared for its reception, and the results w r ere
precisely of a corresponding nature to those already
detailed.
Now, if the parr and the salmon were distinct
species, their produce would be hybrids, and would
not, therefore, breed again, according to the rules
of nature established to prevent the confusion of
i)
34 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
different species by a conservative law ; but this
last and most important experiment has proved
that the produce from the male parr and female
adult salmon Avill breed again with the old salmon,
and therefore that such produce are not mules, but
of the same species with their parents.
In a letter to Mr. Shaw, written in the spring
(1840), I suggested to him to impregnate the ova
of the salmon with the milt of the common river
trout, imagining that the produce, if any, might
be what is called in the Tweed the bull trout,
which exactly resembles in outward appearance
and general size what one would conceive such a
process would create.
I learn from Mr. Shaw's last paper that he has
succeeded in breeding the sea trout by artificial
impregnation with their own species ; so that the
produce of this cross, that is, of the river trout and
salmon, cannot be the sea trout of the Spey and
other rivers, but may possibly prove what I sug-
gested. It is at least a very curious coincidence,
that the Tweed, which abounds in common trout,
abounds also in bull trout ; whereas in the Annan
and the Tay, where trout are very scarce, the grey
or bull trout is very scarce also. But though
crosses may be produced by mechanical impregna-
tion, it is a matter of grave consideration whether
such take place naturally. Trout, however, are
always seen near the spawning beds of the other
Sdlmoniclcc.
" The young of these sea trout," says Mr. Shaw.
" at the age of six months bear no very marked
resemblance to the young of the real Salmon, either
MR. SHAWS EXPERIMENTS
in the parr or fry state; and as they advance in
aire and size the resemblance becomes still slighter.
Hut upon comparing them with the common trout,
the resemblance is very striking, the general outline
of the tish being much Less elegant than that of the
young salmon or parr; the external markings being
also more peculiarly those of the trout species ; so
that in the absence o\' the parent shins, which I
carefully preserved, it would be a matter of difficulty
to determine to which kind of trout they actually
belong."
Mr. Shaw afterwards impregnated the ova of
the salmon with the milt of the common river
trout, according to my suggestion ; and in a letter
with which he favoured me, dated 2Gth of April,
1841, he says: — "I am happy to inform you that
my experiments with the ova of the common trout
and salmon have been quite successful, and the
young hybrids are now hatched, and in good
health." Mr. Shaw will, of course, publish the
details of his late experiments, and thus add to the
obligations which those who are interested in this
subject already owe him.
I will only add, that his papers are written with
such candour, and all his experiments conducted
with such care and ability, and so often repeated
with similar results, without any effort or intention
to make them bend to a favourite theory, that
every one, I think, who reads lus pages, must
consider that the parr and the salmon are of the
same species, and that the question is so far set at
rest for ever.
To sum up, — it appears that the young fry had
36 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
burst the egg 101 days after impregnation, the
temperature of the water being at that time 43°,
and the temperature of the atmosphere 45° : a
former brood, which died and were excluded in a
colder temperature, did not come into life till 114
days after impregnation.
It further appears from a part of Mr. Shaw's
publication, which I have not hitherto quoted, but
which I have now before me, that the fry, at two
months old, are only one inch and a quarter long ;
at four months, two inches and a half ; and at six
months, three inches and a quarter : that makes
nine months and eight days after the impregnation
of the spawn. At eighteen months old the fry
measure six inches in length, and the milt of the
male is matured, and can be made to flow from
the body freely by the slightest pressure ; but the
females of a similar age do not exhibit a corre-
sponding appearance as to the maturity of the roe.
The male is at this time in the autumn of his
second year, and lies about and in the spawning*
beds of the large salmon, where he impregnates
the ova. The following spring he is about seven
inches and a half long, when beautiful silver scales
grow over the spots and bars which have charac-
terised him up to this period ; and the majority of
the breed then congregate, and go to sea with the
first floods in INI ay.
In the latter end of April, 1842, Mr. Shaw
obligingly sent me two parcels of the salmon fry,
which arrived in good condition ; and although
not so glossy as when first captured, were made
brighter in appearance by the application of water.
PARRS AM) SMOLTS :J7
I carried them immediately to Barnes, the residence
of .Mr. Edward Cooke; and having selected the
most silvery amongst them, I begged him to paint
it as faithfully as possible; and after he had so
done I desired that, during my absence, he would
remove the scales from the upper half of the same
fish, and paint it again as it should appear after
such removal. The result will be seen in the
accompanying lithograph, with the execution of
which I did not at all interfere. It proves what has
been asserted as to change of outward appearance.
All the fry, however, which go to sea at this
period, have not their silver scales perfected ; but
many have the bars and spots faintly indicated, as
represented in the lithograph (No. 3) introduced
a few pages forward,— another fish selected from
the same lot ; and although the majority of these
little emigrants go to the sea in large masses about
the first swells of the river in May, yet I have no
doubt but that some are continually going down
to the salt water in every month of the year, — not
with their silver scales on, but in the parr state.
I say not with their silver scales, because no clear
smolt is ever seen in the Tweed during the summer
and autumnal months. As the spawning season
in the Tweed extends over a period of six months,
some of the fry must be necessarily some months
older than others, — a circumstance which favours
my supposition, that they are constantly descend-
ing to the sea ; and it is only a supposition, as I
have no proof of the fact, and have never heard
it suggested by any one. But if I should be right,
it will clear up some things that cannot well be
38 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
accounted for in any other mode. For instance,
in the month of March, 1841, Mr. Yarrell informs
me that he found a young salmon in the London
market, and which he has preserved in spirits,
measuring only fifteen inches long, and weighing
only fifteen ounces. And again, another the follow-
ing April, sixteen and a half inches long, weighing
twenty-four ounces. Now, one of these appeared
two months and the other a month before the
usual time when the fry congregate. According
to the received doctrine, therefore, these animals
were two of the migration of the preceding year ;
and thus it must necessarily follow that they
remained in salt water, one ten and the other
eleven months, with an increase of growth so small
as to be irreconcilable with the proof we have of
the ^growth of the gilse and salmon during their
residence in salt water.
Having now sent these tiresome little creatures
to sea, it remains to me to trace their progress till
they become salmon.
A few, but a very few of these smolts, return
from the sea to the Tweed as early as the month
of May ; that is, during the same month in which
the general emigration takes place : they then
weigh from a pound to two pounds each, and are
long and thin, and very forked in the tail. They
keep on ascending the river during the summer
months, the new-comers increasing afterwards about
a pound and a half a month on an average, but much
less in their very young state. The most plentiful
season in the Tweed, if there is a flood, is about
St. Boswell's Fair, namely, the 18th of July, at
GRILSE 80
which period they weigh from Pom t<> six pounds;
and those which Leave the salt for the fresh water
at the end of September, and during the month of
October, sometimes come up the rh er of the weigh!
of ten and eleven pounds, and even more. All
these fish arc known in the North by the name
of gilses, but by the London fishmongers arc
generally, I believe, called salmon peel. Some of
them are much Larger than small salmon ; hut by
the term gilse I mean young salmon that have only
been once to sea. They are easily distinguished
from salmon by their countenance and less plump
appearance, and particularly by the diminished size
of the part of the body next to the tail, which also
is more forked than that of the salmon. They re-
main in fresh water all the autumn and winter,
and spawn at the same time with the salmon, and in
the manner which I have already described. They
return also to sea in the spring with the salmon.
It seems worthy of remark, that salmon are often-
times smaller than moderate -sized gilse ; but
although such gilse have only been once to sea, yet
the period they have remained there must have
exceeded the two short visits made by the small
salmon, and hence their superiority of size.
When these fish return to the river from their
second visit to the sea, they are called salmon, and
are greatly altered in their shape and appearance ;
the body is more full, and the tail less forked, and
their countenance assumes a different aspect.
It has formerly been suggested that the gilse
was a separate species from the salmon ; but they
have been proved to be one and the same by very
40
SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
conclusive testimony. Many years ago, when I
was on the Tweed, two were put in a salt pond by
Mr. Berry : one of them was found dead, and
supposed to have killed himself by rushing against
a stake ; the other was taken out some time after-
wards a complete salmon. But I shall mention a
recent experiment, made by a tacksman on the Duke
of Sutherland's salmon fishings on the river Shin.
In the course of February and March, 1841, he
took a considerable number of gilses, and marked
them with wire in various places sufficiently efficacious
to be again recognised. Of these, ten were retaken
in the course of the months of June and July
following, by which time they had assumed the
size and all the distinctive marks of the genuine
salmon. The following table shows when each
was taken, and its weight at that time, and its
increased weight when recaptured. In addition to
the fact which it establishes of the identity of the
gilse with the salmon, it shows also how rapid the
growth of the gilse is in his process of becoming a
salmon : —
When marked.
When retaken.
Weight of
Gilse.
Weight of
Salmon.
lbs.
lbs.
February 18
June 23
4
:i
18
25
4
n
18
25
4
9
18
25
4
10
18
27
4
rs
18
28
4
10
March 4
July 1
4
12
4
1
4
14
4
10
12
18
4
27
4
L2
GROWTH OF GRILSE H
The al><>\ e disparity of growth is easily accounted
for, since it is not probable that these fish, which
were caught and returned to the ri\er in February,
went down to the sea before March, if, indeed, so
early : of' course they would not increase in growth
in fresh water, though they would mend somewhat
in weight after their weak spawning state. Setting
these, therefore, aside, it appears that the growth of
the last tour fish averaged two pounds each per
month when they were at sea ; and if they remained
in the river after the 4th of March, as it is reason-
able to suppose they did, then their growth must
have been proportionally greater.
For the scientific and successful experiments of
Mr. Shaw, the Keith Medal was awarded to him
for the biennial period of 1838 and 1830 : it is of
gold, and of the intrinsic value of sixty guineas.
The importance of his proof is immense ; for the
parrs not having been before considered to be young
salmon, have not been hitherto protected by the
law beyond the short period in which they assume
their silver dress, and thus have been killed by
hundreds of thousands, by the multitude of boys
and men who angle in the various tributary burns
and rivers that pour their waters into the Tweed. I
Mr. John Wilson says, in his evidence before
the Select Committee, taken in 1824— " I have
seen from my own window upwards of seventy or
eighty people angling within the distance of half a
mile on the Tweed." Then there is the Tiviot ;
the Adder, comprising the White Adder and Black
Adder ; the Till, the Eden, the Kale, the Oxnam,
the Jed, the Ale, the Rule, the Slitrig, the Gala,
42 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
the Carter, the Borthwiek, the Leader, the Ettriek,
the Yarrow, the Lyne, the Eddlestone, the Manor,
the Quhair, with many smaller burns and mountain
streams. In floods salmons enter and spawn in most
of these rivers, if not in all of them ; at the subsid-
ing of the waters some of them fall back, and some
are left nearly dry, and easily captured. It is
ordained by nature that the parr should in these
cases impregnate such ova as have been deposited,
perhaps because he is not so easily discovered, or
such an object of attraction as a salmon. What an
ample space the above streams present for the
destruction of the fry ! And not only are they
killed by the rod, each urchin, perhaps, taking eight
or ten dozen a day, but by various other means in
a wholesale manner.
Mr. William Laidlaw, * a gentleman mentioned
with so much merited praise in the best biographical
work extant, perhaps, who formerly lay under the
general misapprehension regarding the parr, writes
to me as follows : —
" So great was the number of parrs in the rivulet
of Douglas Burn, that I have seen five dozen taken
out of one small pool with aid of a pair of old
blankets ; and I and my playfellows, when boys,
have committed great havoc by damming up one
of the streams, where the rivulet happened to divide
into two, and laying the other as dry as we could.
The parrs were so numerous, that we used to make
the water white with the milt of those we killed.
When the water was lowering, the poor creatures.
1 I am gTeatly indebted to this gentleman for his communications
respecting T. Purdie.
DESTRUCTION OF PARRS \ >
instead of swimming downwards, where they would
have had a chance of safety, all kept scattering
upwards, and we actually killed them by hundreds.
Bill a fact, which I could not account lor. was this,
— namely, that they appeared to come up the
rivulet during the early part of* the summer only ;
hut after the month of September there were very
tew to he seen, and not any in October; and when
this discovery relative to the parr was first made,
and / think if was from yourself 1 ft<«l it twenty
years ago, I used to notice that there were scarcely
any parrs in the Tweed during the winter months.* 1
So tar Mr. Laidlaw. The disappearance of the
parrs from the burns is easily accounted for. They
would naturally avoid the cold shallow rivulets,
and fall into the dee]) and warmer water of the
Tweed during the winter months, where they could
not be well discovered, or be so subject to the
action of torrents.
Besides the destruction of the fry in this and
similar modes, we must add the thousands that are
illegally taken at mill-dams, and the injury which
the long net occasions in sweeping over the spawn-
ing beds. In the evidence taken before a Committee
of the House of Commons in 1824 or 1825, there
was an attempt to prove that no harm could be
done in this latter manner, as there was no weight,
but only a rope attached at the bottom of the net.
This is very true; but the rope itself is sufficiently
heavy to sink to the bottom, and disturb the gravel
of the spawning beds, which, being newly raked up,
and put together by the salmon, must be easily
displaced. It is fair, however, to observe, that the
44 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
long net is not used in the generality of such places
as fish commonly spawn in.
To these sweeping modes of destruction we must
add the great havoc committed by the eels and
trout, which devour the spawn ; and when we
consider the peculiar powers and habits of the eel,
a fish most abundant in the Tweed, we must at
once see that a ruinous devastation is occasioned
by these creatures, which bore through the gravel.
Strongly, however, as all these causes operate,
there is one more destructive than all of them put
together ; namely, the effect of the furious spates
which are continually taking place in the Tweed,
and which put the channel in motion, and often
sweep away the spawning beds altogether.
Before the hills were so well drained as at
present, this was not so much the case ; as the
mosses gave out the water gradually, and the river
continued full for a long time, to the great solace
of the rod fisher. But now every hill is scored with
little rills which fall into the burns, which suddenly
become rapid torrents and swell the main river,
which dashes down to the ocean with tremendous
violence. Amidst the great din, you may hear the
rattling of the channel stones, as they are borne
downwards. Banks are torn away ; new deeps are
hollowed out, and old ones filled up ; so that great
changes continually take place in the bed of the
river either for the better or the worse.
When we contemplate these things, we must
at once acknowledge the vast importance of Mr.
Shaw's experiments ; for if ponds were constructed
up the Tweed at the general expense, after the
ARTIFICIAL REARING SI GGESTED Ml
model of those made by him, all these evils would
be avoided. The fry mighl be .produced iii any
quantities b) artificial impregnation; be preserved,
and turned into the great river at (he proper period
of migration There might at first he some diffi-
culty in procuring food tor them ; hut this would
easily he got over. At a \er\ small expense, and
with a tew adult salmon, more- try may he sent to
sea annually than the whole produce of the ri\er at
present amounts to. after having encountered the
sweeping perils I have mentioned. 1
Proprietors should call meetings for this purpose ;
and parrs, hitherto so called, should be protected
by law. Let all who have an interest in the river
consider the wisdom of mutual accommodation.
The proprietors of the lower part of the river are
dependent on the upper ones for the protection of
the spawning fish and the fry ; and they on their
part depend upon the lower ones for the strict
adherence to the weekly close time.
I think this method of artificial impregnation
would prove somewhat more successful than the
method said to be adopted by the Chinese, which,
for the better enlightening of barbaric nations, I
will transmit to posterity, from the authority of
" The English Chronicle " of the 25th July, 1839 :—
1 It is melancholy to record that at this day, when artificial propaga-
tion is so well understood and conducted successfully on so many
Scottish rivers throughout the whole length of the Tweed, there is
only one small hatchery, at Lord Polwarth's residence, Mcrtoun. The
impunity with which poaching is permitted to prevail, both in the sea
« 1 1 i i- i r iir the annual close time and on the spawning grounds of the upper
reaches, discourages proprietors from undertakinir this beneficial
enterprise. — En.
46 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
" The Chinese have taken a fancy to hatch fish
under fowls. For this purpose they collect from
rivers and ponds the gelatinous matter which con-
tains the eggs of fish, put it into vessels, and sell it
to the proprietors of ponds. When the hatching
season arrives, a fowl's egg is emptied of its usual
contents, and this gelatinous matter is put in. The
entrance is hermetically sealed, and the egg is then
put under a hen. After some days it is opened,
and placed in a vessel of water heated by the
sun ; it is kept in the rays until the little fish
become strong enough to bear the external tem-
perature."
Not to derogate from the ingenuity of the
celestial nation, I have no doubt but that fowls
may be dispensed with, and that a river may be
stocked with any sort of common fish by trans-
mitting the ova and milt amalgamated, embedded
in gravel, and placed in a vessel filled up with
water. One of our best fish, namely trout, cannot
be sent alive even to a moderate distance. It is
worth while, therefore, to try the experiment.
According to a letter published by the late Sir
Anthony Carlisle, something nearly approaching
to this was done by him in the river Wandle about
thirty years ago. He then imbedded the ova of
the salmon in the gravel without the milt of the
male, leaving the river trout to impregnate them :
lie asserts that they did so, and that the river was
afterwards full of the fry so produced. It would
be interesting to put the salmon eggs properly
impregnated with the milt of the same species in
one of our best streams, — in the upper parts of the
si/i: OF TWEED SALMON
Test, for instance, and to investigate the result
from year to \ ear.
Salmon keep on increasing in size till they
attain a prodigious weight, even up to eighty-three
pounds; which, says Mr. Yarrcll, is the Largest
tisli on record, and was exhibited at Mr. Grove's,
fishmonger, in Bond Street, about the season of
L821. Tliis was a female fish; and, from the
observation of the same eminent authority, those
fish which attain a very unusual size have always
proved to be females.
But the devices and intelligence of fishermen
have increased as salmon have become more
marketable, so that few escape all the perils that
beset them long enough to gain any considerable
size ; and we no more hear, as in days of yore,
i)i' a fish being exchanged, weight for weight, for
a Highland wedder, and the butcher having to
pay. The salmon in the Tweed are no longer
large ; far from it. During my experience of
twenty years I never caught one there above
thirty pounds, and very few above twenty. 1 I
have remarked that the largest fish are found in
the most considerable rivers, which I attribute to
the superior chance of longevity wdiere fish have a
greater scope for escape.
It appears, from the above facts and observa-
1 In this respect there seems to have been an improvement in
Tweed salmon, probably owing to the protection of kelts. In 1873 B
salmon of 57 lb. was taken in the Tweed, one of 57i lb. in 1B8G,
one of 66 lb. in 1889, and one of 51j lb. in 1892. Fish of 40 ]|..
and upwards are taken with the rod nearly every autumn, and from
.30 lb. to 36 lb. is nothing unusual, especially in the lower reaches.
—En.
48 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
tions, that salmon are not uniform in their habits.
Some come into the river many months before
they are in a spawning condition, and remain in it
till the time comes for depositing their spawn ;
getting worse in condition every day they are in
fresh water, and thus, as it should seem, doing
unnecessary penance all that time. Others, again,
remain in the sea, thriving all the while, and do
not enter the rivers till their spawn is nearly
matured. I have said above that I believe the
smolts singly, or in small quantities, are continually
falling down to the sea in nearly if not quite every
month of the year, according to their age ; but
that they congregate, and go there in vast shoals
in the beginning of the month of May. There
seems to be a corresponding habit as to the time
of their return ; for they come back at first in
small quantities, and periodically in the spring and
summer months, and in July they arrive in vast
quantities ; and this sudden abundance consists,
I think, of the fry that have assembled and gone
to sea the preceding May, whilst the others that
ascend at different periods are the smolts that go
down in the same manner.
The accompanying lithograph represents a fry
in the state when the silver scales just begin to
appear, and soften the bars and spots, — the inter-
mediate state between the summer parr and smolt.
As to the belief that salmon return to the same
river in which they are bred, I hold it to be a well-
founded one. But I think it is not invariably the
case ; and that should their native river be too low
for their ascent, owing to an extraordinary drought,
\r.
[MPRISONED s.\I.Mo\ I!)
and continue so when the period of spawning
approaches, most of the salmon will seek and
ascend some other river that may be contiguous to
it. whose volume of water is more abundant. Thus
many Tweed salmon have been caught in the Forth,
and a very successful fishing there is generally
followed by a scarce one in the Tweed.
It appeai-s that salmon will live, and even breed,
in fresh water, without ever making a visit to the
sea. Mr. Lloyd, in his interesting and entertaining
work on the Field Sports of the North of Europe,
says. u Near Katrinebergh there is a valuable fishery
for salmon, ten or twelve thousand of these fish
being taken annually. These salmon are bred in
a lake, and in consequence of cataracts cannot
have access to the sea. 1 They are small in size,
and inferior in flavour. The year 1820 furnished
21,817."
.Mr. George Dormer of Stone Mills, in the
parish of Bridport, put a female of the salmon
tribe, which measured twenty inches in length, and
was caught by him at his mill-dam, into a small
well, where it remained twelve years, and at length
died in the year 1842. The well measured only
5 feet by 2 feet 4 inches, and there was only 15
1 This is the so-called land-locked salmon of Lake Wenern, and the
ouananiche of some American waters. They are specifically in—
distinguishable from Saimo .salar, but it is now generally admitted to
be a fallacy to consider them "land-locked." No cataract could
prevent a fish descending to the sea, though it might bar his return.
The true explanation is that salmon are fresh-water fish, probably
descended from robust individuals of the trout species. They resort to
the sea for food which they cannot find in the rivers, but when they
can satisfy their appetites in vast and profound sheets of fresh water,
there is no object in going further. — En.
E
50 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
inches depth of water. In this confined spot she
remained up to Saturday the 12th of last month,
when death put a period to her existence. This
fish has been the means of great attraction since
the time she was mentioned in the newspapers,
which was about five years ago, many persons
having come a great distance to see her ; and those
who have witnessed her actions (of whom there are
many in the city of Exeter) can bear testimony to
the truth of the following statement : — " She would
come to the top of the water and take meat off a
plate, and would devour a quarter of a pound of
lean meat in less time than a man could eat it ; she
would also allow Mr. Dormer to take her out of
the water, and, when put into it again, she would
immediately take meat from his hands, or would
even bite the finger if presented to her. Some
time since a little girl teased her, by presenting the
finger and then withdrawing it, till at last she
leaped a considerable height above the water, and
caught her by the said finger, which made it bleed
profusely : by this leap she threw herself completely
out of the water into the court. At one time a
young duckling got into the well to solace himself
in his favourite element, when she immediately
seized him by the leg, and took him under water ;
but the timely interference of Mr. Dormer pre-
vented any further mischief than making a cripple
of the young duck. At another time a full-grown
drake approached the well, and put in his head to
take a draught of the water, when Mrs. Fish, seeing
a trespasser on her premises, immediately seized
the intruder by the bill, and a desperate struggle
COLOUR VARIATION 51
ensued, which at last ended in the release of Mr.
Drake from the grasp of Mrs. Fish, and no sooner
freed than Mr. Drake flew off in the greatest
consternation and affright ; since which time to
this day he has not been seen to approach the
well, and it is with great difficulty he can be
brought within sight of it. This fish lay in a
dormant state for five months in the year, during
which time she would eat nothing, and was like-
wise very shy." 1
That salmon and some other fish assume in some
degree the colour of the channel they lie upon, from
whatever cause, is a circumstance pretty generally
admitted by those who have paid any attention to
the subject ; and this, perhaps, is the reason why
fishermen tell you that they can distinguish the
salmon of one river from those of another con-
tiguous to it. Indeed, I myself could easily
distinguish the Isla from the Tay salmon by their
colours, when I rented fisheries on both those
rivers. This fact I thought so curious, that I had
some correspondence with my eminent friend Sir
David Brewster on the subject ; and at the Literary
and Philosophical Society of St. Andrews, Dr.
Gillespie read the following paper, entitled "Re-
collections of the Habits, Colours, and Sufferings
of Fishes."
" * My chief experience is with trouts, — such as
are found in our mountain lakes and streams ; and
it is mainly to these that my few recollections refer.
Trouts seem to have a generic type, comprehending
1 This account seems to have been sent to a Devonshire newspaper
by Mr. Dormer himself, or some of his family.
52 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
several apparently different species; which difference,
however, in many cases, disappears when the cir-
cumstances under which they are viewed are the
same. I know a locality in Dumfriesshire, amidst
the hills of Queensberry, where three mountain
streams, all of different character, meet — the one
proceeding from a moss ; the other running over a
clear channelly bed ; and the third, from its clayey
banks and bottoms, exhibiting a milk-and-water
aspect, like the ' flavus Tiberis ' (or Albula) of Italy.
Now the trouts in all these streams were of the
same generic type ; but differed, notwithstanding,
in external appearance or colour. The moss race
were of the Roderick Dhu tint — aspect grim and
swarthy : the clear channel produced those of a
brightly-spotted appearance ; and the clay bottom
exhibited a correspondingly bluish race. Now,
you might convert the blue fish into bright, and
the bright again into black, by merely transferring
them into the corresponding streams. This often
took place, more or less, after what is called a
thunder plump, which falls partially, and is quite
local. I have seen one of these streams overflow-
ing its banks, and carrying all before it, whilst its
two mountain sisters remained calm and unmoved.
Upon the ebbing of this partial flood, the trouts in
the two conjoining streams immediately rush in
quest of food (particularly after a long drought)
into the other ; and, in less time than any one who
has not marked the fact could believe, they all
become of the same appearance. Upon returning
again into their native waters, they reassume their
former colour. Fill your basket with fish from all
COLOUR VARIATION 53
the three streams, and in a little while that part of
the bodies which presses against the others will
exhibit the same appearance, whilst the other parts
will remain as before ; and hence the clouded aspect
they exhibit. I once threw a trout, by accident,
from a clear channel stream over my head into a
peat -moss pool behind me, which had no com-
munication with the running water ; and after a
few months I caught him as black and portly as
possible. Such facts certainly prove, to my own
satisfaction at least, that trouts do not vary in
original and indelible type so much as is generally
imagined. In regard to what follows upon the
changing colours of fish when in the act of dying,
I cannot speak with the same certainty ; but either
my eyes deceived me very much (and at the period
of life to which I refer they were pretty good), or I
observed the following phenomena : — I usually
killed my fish, not by breaking their necks, as is
now generally the method adopted, but by slapping
their heads against a stone, the edge of my shoe, or
the butt of my fishing-rod ; and even when a boy
I was sensible of some change which took place in
the colour of the dying victim. A kind of streamer,
or phosphorus light, seemed to shoot along the quiver-
ing flesh, and only ceased with the life of the trout.
In salmon I should think the fact is still more
manifest. The salmon fishery at the Eden afforded
me an accidental proof of this. Some summers
ago I was in the habit of bathing near the stakes
at ebb tide, when the salmon were removed from
the nets. I had a pleasure in walking into the
inside of the nets, and seeing the finely -shaped
54 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
living salmon plunging about, and still in their
native element. Upon securing the fish, the men
were in the habit of giving them the coup de grace
on the forehead with a wooden mallet — analogous
to my fishing-rod butt ; and at each successive
stroke on the brain, the colours undulated away in
the most delicate and beautiful radiance. All this
is, indeed, exceedingly revolting to humanity, and
presents a tempting theme for the reprobation of
the poet and sentimentalist ; and yet I confess that
I cannot enter completely into this feeling, not
only from my enjoyment of, and relish for, the
sport of rod-fishing, but even from considerations
of a more legitimate bearing. I do not think that
cold-blooded animals suffer equally with warm-
blooded ; and my grounds for forming this opinion
I shall shortly state. I have often lost a trout
which had gorged my bait, and yet recaptured him
in a short time with the former hook deep fastened
in his stomach, and the broken line pending from
his jaws. I, for one, certainly should have had
little appetite to dine so soon after swallowing
a fork. I have seen a large trout enjoying
the amplitude of a clear pond with a couple of my
fly -hooks appended to his nose. Nay, I have
even witnessed him rising to a natural fly in this
situation, whilst, fisher -like, he caught a smaller
companion by the depending hook. Nature is
wonderfully benevolent to her children. The
absence of all kind of medical aid in the waters
seems to be fully compensated by the vis medicatrioc
natures — an old experienced practitioner, by whose
management the most severe wounds made by the
UR. STARK'S EXPERIMENTS 55
pike upon the trout, and the grampus upon the
salmon, are safely and rapidly cured. I have
caught trouts, particularly in the neighbourhood
where pike harbour, in various states of mutilation,
yet seemingly in good health and spirits ; from all
which I infer that their physical sufferings are less
than we suppose, and that the quiverings which
they exhibit when dying are rather of a galvanic
(which the change of colour seems to countenance)
than of a convulsive or very painful character. It
is, at least, comfortable for those who have been
accessary in early life to much apparent suffering,
to find out afterwards that the suffering was more
apparent than real.'
" Sir David Brewster stated to the Society that
he had been led to consider this subject in con-
sequence of a correspondence with W. Scrope,
Esq., who had paid much attention to the change
of colour in fishes. Mr. Scrope was of opinion
that a real change of colour took place, if not
voluntarily, at least very quickly ; and he supported
his views by the following opinions of Mr. Yarrell
and Mr. Shaw : —
" ' An interesting account (says Mr. Yarrell) of
some experiments made by Dr. Stark, was pub-
lished in Jamieson's Edinburgh Journal for 1830,
page 327. It shows that the colour of stickle-
backs, and some other small fishes, is influenced
not only by the colour of the earthenware or other
vessel in which they are kept, but also modified by
the quantity of light to which they are exposed ;
becoming pale when placed in a white vessel in
darkness, even for a comparatively short time, and
56 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
regaining their natural colour when placed in the
sun. From these circumstances, observed also in
some species of other genera, Dr. Stark is led to
infer that fishes possess, to a certain extent, the
power of accommodating their colour to the ground
or bottom of the waters in which they are found.
The final reason for this may be traced to the
protection such a power affords to secure them
from the attacks of their enemies, and exhibits
another beautiful instance of the care displayed by
Nature in the preservation of all her species. Dr.
Stark often observed that on a flat, sandy coast
the flounders were coloured so very much like the
sand, that, unless they moved, it was impossible to
distinguish them from the bottom on which they
lay.'
"Mr. Shaw, who has the charge of the salmon
cruive at Drumlanrig, has observed that the salmon
taken in it change their colour in consonance with
the turbid or refined state of the water. In the
experiments he has made with parr in different-
coloured earthenware vessels, the change of colour
is perfected in the space of four minutes. If pan-
is taken from the dark-coloured vessel, and put
immediately to the parr in the light-coloured one,
the difference of colour between the two fish will
be found strikingly observable.
" Mr. Scrope himself had observed that the
trout at Castle Combe are white in a chalky spate,
resuming their colour when the water clears ; and
that in all the rivers in which he had fished, the
fish are clear in a gravelly bottom, and dark in
that overhung with trees. All this he considered
COLOUR VARIATION 57
as resulting from the same principle of preservation
by which the ptarmigan and alpine hares have
their colours changed with the approach of snow.
"Notwithstanding these distinct statements by
so many observers in whom confidence might be
placed, Sir David thought that the experiments
required to be repeated by persons acquainted with
those branches of physical optics with which the
phenomena were intimately allied. It is very easy
to explain why a fish may appear dark in a dark
vessel, and light in a coloured one ; and why it
should have a still different appearance when taken
out of both vessels and exposed to the light of
the sun. All bodies assume the colour of the light
which they reflect, and a brilliant light will develope
colours which are invisible in light of ordinary
intensity. As the peculiar colours of fishes depend
on the thickness or size of certain minute trans-
parent particles, it is not easy to understand how
the fish could voluntarily alter the size or thickness
of those particles, or how exposure to another
colour could permanently produce the same me-
chanical effect. If a fish is kept in mossy or muddy
water, it will doubtless absorb the colouring matter
which the water may contain ; but this is rather a
process of dyeing than one of physiological action.
The changes said to take place in the colour of
fishes when dying might arise from the drying of
their scales, which produces a change in all colours,
but particularly in those of thin films, which are
quite different when they are dry from what they
are when immersed in a fluid.
" A conversational discussion then took place, in
58 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
which Professor Connell supported Dr. Gillespie's
views, and Dr. Reid those of Sir D. Brewster."
This subject is in such good hands, that I shall
not intrude any speculative observations of my
own. We have lately seen such wonderful effects
produced by the agency of light, that these things
are become less startling.
It is very certain that trouts and salmon are less
vivid in colour, and in fact more grey, when they
have been some time out of their element ; fish-
mongers throw water from time to time over their
fish, as well to preserve their colour as to keep
them fresh. I would recommend any one who
wishes to show his day's sport in the pink of
perfection, to keep his trouts in a wet cloth, so
that on his return home he may exhibit them to
his admiring friends, and extract from them the
most approved of epithets and exclamations, taking
the praise bestowed upon the fish as a particular
compliment to himself.
Since our writing the above remarks, I have
paid more attention to the subject, and am enabled
to state that in one particular part of the river
Chess, I have been in the habit of taking trouts of
a darker and greyer colour than those which I
captured in the other parts of this little stream ;
and, observing this to be invariably the case, I
desired my fisherman to scoop up some of the
channel with his landing net, which proved upon
inspection to be part of a stratum of black flint.
I can state farther, — what appears to me to be
altogether a curious circumstance. I had often
observed that the largest of those trout which
COLOUR VARIATION 59
almost continually lay under the hides, which were
constructed in the stream and covered with boards
— being, in fact, large troughs open at the lower
end so as to admit the fish, and staked within so as
to preserve them from being poached out — were of
a very black colour : this arose, no doubt, from the
privation of light. Sometimes I have seen them
lying on the shallows within a few yards of the
hide, where they still retained their black hue. I
caught with a minnow one of these dirty-looking
animals in the month of June last. He was not
only black in the back, so that he could be seen at
a considerable distance in the water, but was also
of a granulated inky cast on his sides and under-
neath : his resort was under a hide in comparative
darkness. He was not wasted, but of the same
proportions with his brighter companions. I con-
cluded, however, that from his African appearance
he would cut but a sorry figure at the table ; but
being about three-quarters of a pound, with no
promise of amendment, I bagged him notwith-
standing. As this was the first trout I took that
morning, he lay at the bottom of my basket. After
catching a few more lower down in the river, I
thought I would have another look at my swarthy
captive. I found him more praiseworthy than at
first ; for the upper side, which came in contact
with the other fish, became also bright, and of a
colour exactly similar to them, whilst the lower
side that touched the dry basket retained its
original dark hue ; but by turning that part of the
fish also towards the others, the whole trout after
a time became of a uniform bright colour, and was
60 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
not in that respect dissimilar to the rest. I do not
mean to hint that the blackamoor was dyed by his
dead companions, because I think that a wet cloth
would have produced the same effect ; but it seems
extraordinary that the water, which had no effect
upon his colour when living in the river, should
have so decided a one after he was dead, — not
bringing back the original dye, but removing the
dark tint entirely.
But to return to my subject.
It is an undoubted fact that salmon ascend some
rivers much earlier than others. I have rented
fisheries both in Tweed and Tay, and to my own
knowledge the latter river is a month earlier than
the former. The Esk and the Eden both fall into
the Solway Firth, and are only separated at their
mouths by a sharp point of land ; yet, according
to the statement of Mr. Howard, 1 a proprietor and
renter of the river Eden, new fish go up that river
three months before they ascend the Esk, and the
month of February is one of the greatest produce
there. The Irthing falls into the Eden, and may
be a fourth of its water ; but no salmon run up it,
except in spawning time. Now the waters of the
Eden may be presumed to be of a warmer tempera-
ture than those of the Esk, which latter is a brawl-
ing shallow stream, wider also than the Eden,
which is of a deeper and more tranquil nature.
Snow water is offensive to fish, and they will
not ascend a river whilst it is impregnated with it. 2
1 Evidence before Select Committee in 1825, p. 140.
2 This is erroneous, as acquaintance with some of the smaller, yet
very early, rivers in the north of Scotland will prove. The Thurso,
EARLINESS OF THE NESS
61
Setting aside this impediment, and cceteris paribus ',
I believe the season of all rivers depends upon the
temperature of their waters during the winter and
spring months. Thus the Ness is the forwardest
river in Scotland, which the following table of
monthly captures produced by Mr. Alexander
Fraser l will prove.
Statement op the Number of Salmon killed in the Ness
in Twelve Years.
Total
1811.
1811-12.
1812-13.
1813-14.
1814-15.
1815-16.
1816-17.
1817-18.
1818-19.
monthly
in Eight
Years.
Sal.
Gr.
Sal.
Gr.
Sal.
Gr.
Sal.
Gr.
Sal.
Gr.
Sal.
Gr.
Sal.
Gr.
Sal.
Gr.
Dec.
226
454
391
240
324
422
128
220
2,405
1812.
Jan.
427
565
354
204
370
1052
38S
194
3,554
Feb.
194
874
289
296
298
696
326
266
3,239
March
103
591
522
164
645
490
270
244
3,029
April
157
461
227
195
283
370
248
206
2,147
May
29
157
359
152
102
246
34
48
1,127
June
6
39
18
27
69
iso
7
20
16
ii
40
10
4
170
July
25
211
38
20S 21
263
51
97
40
164
57
184
12
147
9
84
253
Aug.
236
1361
318
700 221
710
292
186
187
406
604
340
260
286
74
240
2,192
Sept.
77
482
74
169 15
97
21
142
18
126
178
187
19
170
28
120
430
14S0
2093
3550
1104J246S
1250
1622
435
•2283
707
4155
711
1695
603
1293
444
18,546
Sal.
1819-1820 1215
1820-1821 180G
1821-1822 710
1822-1823 344
Now it must be observed that the Ness never
freezes, even with the most intense frost. In the
year 1807, when the thermometer at Inverness
was from 23 to 30 and even 40 degrees below the
freezing point, it made no impression upon the
river or the lake. " The Ness (says Mr. Eraser)
which is quite as early as the Ness, depends for its volume almost
entirely on melted snow, and so do the best rivers in Norway. — Ed.
1 Evidence before Select Committee in 1825, p. 42.
62 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
was always privileged earlier than any river in
Scotland from this cause ; l and it will be evident
that the salmon taken in December and January
are the most valuable produce : for though they
appear to be only one third of the total number,
yet from their size they constitute more than half
the weight."
The most forward rivers in Ireland, I am in-
formed by the London fishmongers, and from
other sources, are those on the western coast. In
England, perhaps the Severn produces the finest
salmon during the winter months ; and the Lord
Viscount Clive, proprietor of a salmon fishery in
the Severn, near Poole Quay, says a the best fish
are commonly taken there in November, December,
and January, though they are not numerous, and
that in the Dovey and Tivy. two rivers with which
he is well acquainted, the salmon are always in the
best season at the period when the Severn salmon
are in the worst condition.
But if salmon prefer the warmest rivers in the
winter, they spawn earliest in those that are most
cold. Thus in the shallow mountain streams which
pour into the Tay nearer its sources (I do not
mean such as may issue from lochs), the fish spawn
much earlier than those in the main bed of the
river. The late John Crerar, head fisherman and
forester to the Duke of Atholl. wrote thus in his
manuscript : —
1 The Thurso ami Helmsdale freeze very readily, yet they are fully
as early as the Ness. It is no uncommon thing to take fish with the
fly in these rivers after thick iee has heen poled oft' the pools. — Ed.
- Minutes of Evidence taken in 1826^ OvO.jp. 14.
VALUE OF TWEED FISHINGS 63
"There are two kinds of creatures that I am
well acquainted with, — the one a land animal, the
other a water one : the red deer, and the salmon.
In October the deer ruts, and the salmon spawns.
The deer begins soonest, high up amongst the
hills, particularly in frosty weather ; so does the
salmon begin to spawn earlier in frosty weather
than in soft. The master hart would keep all the
other harts from the hind, if he could ; and the
male salmon would keep all the other males from
the female, if he was able."
The gross rental of the salmon fishings in Tweed
is very considerable ; but has varied very much in
amount from time to time, according to the plenty
or scarcity of fish. Mr. John Wilson * states, that
during the seven years previous to 1824 it averaged
12,000/. a year ; but in that year only about 10,000/.
With the present rental I am unacquainted.
" The fishings, as regards their relative value,
may be divided into the following classes : — The
first comprehends the short distance from the
mouth of the river to Berwick Bridge, where alone
there are probably a greater number of salmon
captured than in all the remainder of the river.
From Berwick Bridge to Norham, to which place
the tide reaches, may be considered the second
class : as far as this place the net and coble only
are in use. From Norham to Coldstream Bridge
the fishings are of still less value ; and here, besides
the net and coble, the various modes of fishing
practised in the upper parts of the river are also in
use — rod fishing, setting, leistering, cairn, hanging,
1 Minutes of Evidence, &c. in 1824, p. 9.
64
SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
and straik nets. From Coldstream to the Bridge
of Kelso the net and coble are used only par-
tially in floods ; and on Mondays, says Mr.
Houy, when, by the cessation of the lower fishings
on Sunday, the salmon get further up, I have seen
from 100 to 500 salmon and gilses caught at Kelso
in the morning by the net and coble. From Kelso
to the higher districts of the river the principal
modes of fishing are by the rod, leister, cairn and
straik net."
When fish are ascending the river the cairn net
is very destructive. In the parts of the river most
favourable for placing it a cairn is built, as in the
vignette. 1 This projection into the current makes
the water comparatively still and easy below ; and
salmon in travelling naturally take to it, as finding
there some relief to the labour of ascending. They
pass between the net and the shore ; and en-
1 This mode of fishing, like leistering and " burning the water," is
now illegal. — Ed.
THE SALMON TROUT 65
deavouring to get forwards at the point of the
cairn become entangled in the net, and are taken
in great quantities.
THE SALMON TROUT
Salmo Trutta, Linn.
This fish is called by different names in various
localities, — white trout, phinock, sea trout, whitling,
hirling. It is little inferior to the salmon in flavour ;
and being less rich, is I presume more wholesome.
It is distinguished, says Mr. Yarrell, by the gill-
cover being intermediate in its form between that
of the salmon, and grey or bull trout. The teeth
likewise are more slender, as well as more numerous
than in those fish. The tail is less forked than in
salmon of the same age, and smaller in proportion,
but becomes ultimately square at the end.
It is found in most, if not in all salmon rivers ;
but it is now very scarce in the Tweed, which I
attribute to the spates that are become more
sudden and violent in that river than formerly,
owing to a more complete drainage of the moun-
tains and adjoining lands ; for these fish always
prefer the smaller and less turbulent streams. Like
the salmon, it remains in the river two years before
it puts on the migratory dress, and the males also
shed their milt at eighteen months old, similar to
the parr (so-called) of a corresponding age. The
orange fin, for so the fry of the sea trout is called,
so much resembles the common river trout, that it
is with very great difficulty it can be distinguished
from it. Like the gilse, it returns to the river the
F
66 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
summer of its spring migration, weighing about a
pound and a half upon an average. It afterwards
increases about a pound and a half a year ; but is
seldom seen above six or seven pounds, though it
probably attains to a much greater weight.
By the aid of the cruive, Mr. Shaw traced this
fish from the orange fin of three ounces to the
hirling or whitling, up to the sea trout of seven
pounds ; and he has now a specimen in his posses-
sion exhibiting the four several marks he had put
on it in the course of its annual migrations. At
the size of six pounds the central rays of the tail
were considerably increased in length, so much so
in the males that their tails became actually
rounded : the fish altogether at this time loses a
great deal of its former elegance. The tails of the
females of a corresponding age are more square,
and their general shape is more slim.
These fish may be crossed with salmon ; I mean
that by artificial impregnation hybrids may be thus
produced. Mr. Shaw says in a letter to me, dated
November 25th, 1840 : — " I put some of your sug-
gestions regarding the ova of the salmon, and the
common trout, sea trout, and salmon, into practice
about a month ago, and shall let you know the
result." The following year I had the pleasure of
a letter from him, dated October 14th, 1841, saying
that " The hybrids which I produced by artificial
impregnation last autumn are all in a very healthy
state, the cross not having in the slightest degree
affected their constitution. Those produced between
the salmon and the salmon trout (Salmo Trutta)
appear to partake more of the external markings,
THE BULL TROUT 67
silvery coating, and elegance of form of the parr
(young salmon) than any of the others. Those
produced between the salmon and common trout
{Salmo Fario), and between the common trout
and salmon trout, have in every respect more the
appearance of the common trout than the former."
Some have imagined that the whitling or hiding
are the young of the bull trout. But this is a
mistake, as the hirling abounds in the Annan,
where the bull trout is very rarely seen ; and also in
the Nith, where Mr. Shaw has never been able to
discover one of the other species. Lord Home
likewise, whom I consider the very best practical
authority, says, " The whitling of the Tweed is the
salmon trout, and not the young bull trout, which
now goes by the name of trout simply."
THE GREY, BULL TROUT, on ROUND
TAIL
Salmo Eeiox, Linn.
"The grey trout," says Mr. Yarrell, "is dis-
tinguished from the salmon and salmon trout by
several specific peculiarities. The gill-cover differs
from them decidedly in form, and the teeth are
longer and stronger." The tail grows square at an
earlier period than in the salmon ; and the central
caudal rays continuing to elongate with age, the
whole tail, originally concave, eventually becomes
convex, and from thence it has been called the
round tail. The elongation of the under jaw is
peculiar to the males only, and is less than in the
salmon. The scales also are less, the shoulders
68 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
thicker, and the tail more muscular. In short, it is
altogether a more thick and powerful fish than the
salmon, and consequently gives the angler more
sport ; but to the epicure it gives less, as it is in-
ferior in flavour and colour, and if not very fresh
from the sea its flesh is short and woolly. It is
very much the colour of the salmon, but tinted
with grey or brown spots.
These fish are found in many salmon rivers, but
not in all. It is very abundant in the Tweed, which
it visits principally at two seasons ; in the spring
about the month of May, and again in the month
of October, when the males are very plentiful ; but
the females are scarce till about the beginning
or middle of November. With salmon it is the
reverse, as their females leave the sea before the
males. The bull trout is also more regular in his
habits than the salmon, for the fishermen can cal-
culate almost to a day when the large black male
trouts will leave the sea. The foul fish rise eagerly
at the fly, but the clean ones by no means so.
They weigh from two to twenty-four pounds, and
occasionally, I presume, but very rarely indeed,
more. The largest I ever heard of was taken in
the Hallowstell fishing water at the mouth of the
Tweed, in April, 1840, and weighed twenty-three
pounds and a half. 1
The heaviest bull trout I ever encountered my-
self weighed sixteen pounds, and I had a long and
severe contest with his majesty. He was a clean
fish, and I hooked him in a cast in Mertoun water
1 Instances of bull trout much heavier than this have been recorded
in the Tay and other northern rivers. — En.
LARGE BULL TROUT 69
called the Willow Bush, not in the mouth, but in
the dorsal fin. Brethren of the craft, guess what
sore work I had with him ! He went here and
there with apparent comfort and ease to his own
person, but not to mine. I really did not know
what to make of him. There never was such a
hector. I cannot say exactly how long I had him
on the hook ; it seemed a week at least. At length
John Haliburton, who was then my fisherman,
waded into the river up to his middle, and cleiked
him whilst he was hanging in the stream, and before
he was half beat.
Besides the three species I have mentioned, I
have sometimes, though very rarely, caught a fish
very similar in shape to the grey or bull trout, but
much cleaner, which the fishermen call a north-
country salmon. It is clearly not a bull trout, for
that fish is as well known in the Tweed as the
salmon itself. I have no doubt but that it is rightly
named, and a wanderer from the northern coasts.
I have also occasionally caught in the Tweed a
small silver fish, between a quarter and half a pound,
which seems of the salmon tribe ; its flesh is of a
pale pink, and good eating. In the river Isla I
have taken many of them with a net.
I have now given a brief account of all the fish
of the salmon tribe in the Tweed, except the Salmo
Fario, or common trout, which I do not profess to
treat of. Much more has been said by naturalists
as to distinctive character and organisation. Who-
ever wishes for minute information on these points,
cannot do better than consult the new edition of
Mr. YarrelTs unrivalled work on British fishes — a
70 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
gentleman to whom I feel much indebted for some
very liberal and scientific communications ; nor
must they omit to look into the pages of a most
highly entertaining and clever work lately published,
called " The Rod and the Gun."
I shall only add, that in allusion to the con-
sequence attributed to these beautiful fish in the
Tweed, and in consideration of the favourable
places for spawning in the upper parts of the river,
the Royal Burgh of Peebles wears for arms, — vert,
three salmon counter naiant in pale argent, with
the motto, " Contra nando incrementum."
In the arms of the city of Glasgow, and in those
of the ancient see, a salmon with a ring in its
mouth is said to record a miracle of St. Kentigern,
the founder of the see, and the first Bishop of
Glasgow.
" They report," says Spotswood, " of St. Kenti-
gern, that a lady of good place in the country,
having lost her ring as she crossed the river Clyde,
and her husband waxing jealous, as if she had
bestowed the same on one of her lovers, she did
mean herself unto Kentigern, entreating his help
for the safety of her honour ; and that he going to
the river after he had used his devotion, willed one
who was making to fish to bring the first fish he
caught, which was done. In the mouth of this fish
he found the ring, and, sending it to the lady, she
was thereby freed of her husband's suspicion."
The classical tale of Polycrates, says the very
clever author of " The Heraldry of Fish," related by
Herodotus a thousand years before the time of St.
Kentigern, is, perhaps, the earliest version of the
FISH LEGENDS 71
fish and the ring, which has been often repeated
with variations. The ring, says Herodotus, was an
emerald set in gold, and beautifully engraved, the
work of Theodorus the Saurian ; and this very ring,
Pliny relates, was preserved in the Temple of
Concord in Rome, to which it was given by the
Emperor Augustus.
In the Koran of Mahomet the legend of the
ring, and its recovery by means of a fish, is
introduced. " Solomon entrusted his signet with
one of his concubines, which the Devil obtained
from her, and sat on the throne in Solomon's shape.
After forty days the Devil departed, and threw the
ring into the sea. The signet was swallowed by a
fish, which being caught and given to Solomon, the
ring was found in his belly, and thus he recovered
his kingdom." l
1 Sale's Translation of the Koran.
CHAPTER III
" Hostess. Say what beast, thou knave thou.
Falstaff. What beast ! Why, an otter.
Hostess. An otter, Sir John ! why an otter ?
Falstaff. Why, she's neither fish nor flesh. A man knows
not where to have her. 1 '
Befoee I enter upon the practical part of salmon
fishing, I will just say a few words about my
natural tendency to the sport, to the end that it
may be evident that my maxims are not drawn from
books, but originate in my own experience.
I declare, then, that I, Harry Otter, am by
nature a person of considerable aquatic propensities,
having been born under the sign of Aquarius, or
Pisces, — it matters not which. My delight in
water, however, has its limits, and extends only to
external applications : the placid amusement of
wading in a salmon river is very much to my taste
— quite captivating. Showers, and even storms, if
not of too long a continuance, are exceedingly
refreshing to my person ; but I must in candour
admit that the decisive action of a water-spout
may not possibly be so gratifying — ne quid minis.
Macintosh's invention I consider as wholly uncalled
for, accounting it, as I do, an unpardonable intrusion
Otter devouring a Salmon.
From a drawing by E. Landseer, R.A.
THE JOY OF WADING 75
to place a solution of Indian-rubber between the
human body and a refreshing element. It is like
taking a shower-bath under shelter of an umbrella.
Thus far I can extend ; but desire me to drink
water by itself, and I am your very humble servant.
Had I been at a symposium of brandy and the said
vapid element with that worthy Magnus Troil, he
should not have drunk all the brandy himself, and
put me off with the water, as he is recorded to have
done to his very simple friend. I beg to say that I
am not one of those two thousand patients who
have been relieved by a water cure, administered by
James Wilson, Esq., physician to his Serene High-
ness the Prince of Nassau, as advertised. Internally,
in its pure state, I totally discard it. But I like the
society of fish ; and as they cannot with any con-
venience to themselves visit me on dry land, it
becomes me in point of courtesy to pay my respects
to them in their own element.
Next to wading in water, comes, I think, the
pastime of trudging over bogs and fens — ground
intimately allied to it, and which Colonel Hawker
has made quite classical. This is a sort of debateable
land, and the natural inhabitants of it reject you
with most unequivocal signs of disapprobation.
The redshank, the peewit, the curlew, and all their
allies, scream and dart around you, inhospitable as
they are, and tell you, as plainly as bills can speak,
to sheer off, and not invade their premises. But we
are a sort of Paul Pry, and love to persist responding
now and then with our double barrel, which we
more especially direct towards the ruff, snipe, wild
duck, and teal — birds whose merit we particularly
76 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
appreciate. Thus we are, as may be seen, of an
amphibious nature, and respond to the fat knight's
description, when he compared Hostess Quickly to
our namesake. That this predilection for humidity
is with me an instinct, may be seen from the
following brief notice of my infant propensities.
When I was an urchin I stole off, and wandered
up the stream that came winding through the
verdant meadows of my native valley, till I arrived
at the foot of the Castle Hill ; following the little
path that dived into a thicket, and wound round its
base near the margin of the river : thence, amongst
irregular clumps of thorn bushes, holly trees, and
other wild wood, stopping a while to gather the
cowslips and white violets that dappled the sunny
slopes, I pursued my way through a tangled thicket,
whose branches overhung the stream. I remember
even now that the sunbeam glittered on the leaves,
struck through the masses here and there, and
pierced to the surface of the water, which shone in
spots through the gloom like the fragments of a
broken mirror : these lucid touches caught my
childish fancy ; but my favourite spot was not yet
attained. Not until I had rounded the rib of the
promontory on which stood the grey castle, and
came to another face of it, did I obtain the object
of my ramble. At this turn of the stream I found
myself in a small lonely meadow sprinkled with
cowslips, upon which opened two wooded valleys,
each watered by a small stream, which at their
junction washed out a deep hole ; and at the foot
of the hole a small gravel heap was thrown up, upon
which grew the yellow iris, and some other vegeta-
AN EARLY ESCAPADE 77
tion. In Lilliput it would have been termed an
island : so in truth it was. I know not how it
happened, — unless, indeed, that I was strictly en-
joined not to go near the water — but I had a decided
propensity to establish my little person on this
insular spot. For some time I was either very
good, or very much afraid — it matters not which,
— and the achievement was dubious. At length the
demon of temptation appeared in the form of a
dragon-fly, which, glancing from some branches
that extended across the stream a little above,
danced up and down in the air in all its gaudy trim,
and at length settled on an iris, in this enchanted
island. I stood enraptured on the bank with my
arms outstretched, and my longing eyes fixed upon
the beauty. It was irresistible — I could hold out
no longer. So mustering up my naughty courage,
and letting myself gently down the bank, I paddled
through a little shallow water, till I actually set
foot safely on the desired spot. Here I found that
my love for the Libellula was not mutual ; or, if it
was, I may say,
" Love, free as air, at sight of human ties
Spreads its light wings, and in a moment flies."
Even so did the dragon-fly ; he and my hopes
vanished at once. Nevertheless I showed a decided
taste for an insular life, and sat down watching the
trout rise on all sides, as happy as a king ; and I
might have remained there to this day, had not that
kill-joy Martha, who was blest with the care of me,
and from whom I had escaped in the morning, come
upon my trail. Infuriated she was (for the whole
78 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Xantippe possessed her). She sallied forth like
another Ceres in quest of her lost child. Half
frightened, half pleased, I could see her toiling up
the hill. " Master Harry ! Master Harry ! " re-
sounded shrilly through the woods and valleys :
even now methinks her voice rings in my ears. In
vain —
" Nor at the lawn, nor at the wood, was he."
But when at length she returned, "alia solinga
valle," I stood confessed within the range of her
animated optics. She declared her sentiments with-
out reserve in very fluent language. I was an
obstropolous brat ; a perfect demon (demon), as fond
of dabbling in water as a sallymander. I should
catch it when she got hold of me, that I should.
This being intelligibly explained, I thought I would
delay that period as long as possible. To all this
eloquence, therefore, answer made I none ; but I
believe I looked and felt rather oddly. At length,
seeing her amble to and fro upon the banks, and
perceiving that she had the hydrophobia strong
upon her, I told her if she wanted me she must
come and fetch me, as I was forbidden to go into
the water. " Hang your imperance, I says, Master
Harry, but I'll find one as shall fetch you in a
twinkling ! " So saying, the eloquent Martha
suited the action to the word, and ran round the
turn of the river, where it seems she knew the
keeper was fishing, who, I believe, in village phrase,
" kept company with her." Down comes John, a
good-natured fellow ; tickles me with the point of
his fishing rod in gamesome mood ; makes two or
PHYLLIS WAS COY 79
three casts with his fly at me ; and at length wades
to me, and places me on the mainland at the gentle
Martha's side. Peace was made, but without
promise for the future.
Henceforth, when I could escape control, I
divided my time between the water and the
meadows : in warm weather the water, in cold the
land possessed me. Then I began to tamper with
the minnows ; and, growing more ambitious, after
a sleepless night full of high contrivance, I betook
me at early dawn to a wood near the house, where
I selected some of the straightest hazel sticks 1
could find, which I tied together and christened a
fishing rod : a rude and uncouth weapon it was. 1
next sought out Phyllis, a favourite cow so called,
in order to have a pluck at her tail to make a line
with. But Phyllis was coy, and withheld her
consent to spoliation ; for when I got hold of her
posterior honours, she galloped off, dragging me
along, tail in hand, till she left me deposited in a
water-course amongst the frogs. The dairy-maid,
I think, would have overcome this difficulty for me,
had I not discovered that horse-hair, and not cow's
tail, was the proper material for fishing lines ; so
the coachman, who was much my friend, plucked
Champion and Dumplin, at my request, and gave
me as much hair (black enough to be sure) as
would make a dozen lines. For three whole days
did I twist and weave like the Fates, and for three
whole nights did I dream of my work. Some rusty
hooks I had originally in my possession, which I
found in an old fishing book belonging to my
ancestors. In fact, I did not put the hook to the
80 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
rod and line, but my rod and line to the hook. I
next proceeded to the pigeon-house, and picking
some coarse feathers, made what I alone in the
wide world would have thought it becoming to
have called a fly ; but call it so I did, in spite
of contradictory evidence. Thus equipped, I pro-
ceeded to try my skill ; but exert myself as I
would, the line had domestic qualities, and was
resolved to stay at home. I never could get it
fairly away from the hazel sticks ; therefore it was
that I hooked no fish. But I hooked myself three
times : once in the knee-strings of my shorts, once
in the nostril, and again in the lobe of the ear. At
length, after sundry days of fruitless effort, like an
infant Belial, I attempted that by guile which I
could not do by force ; and dropping the fly with
my hand under a steep bank of the stream, I
walked up and down trailing it along : after about
a week's perseverance, I actually caught a trout.
Shade of Izaak Walton, what a triumph was there !
That day I could not eat, — that night I slept not.
Even now I recollect the spot where that generous
fish devoted himself.
As I grew up I became gradually more expert,
and at length saved money sufficient to buy a real
fishing rod, line, reel and all, quite complete.
Down it came from London resplendent with
varnish, and many cunning feats did I perform with
it. About this time I learned to shoot ; not that I
was strong enough to hold a gun, but that the keeper
put the said implement to his shoulder, when I took
aim at larks and sparrows, and those sort of things,
and pulled the trigger. So I waxed in years and
GREAT FUN FOR A BOY 81
wisdom. All the time I could steal from my lessons
(for I was not quite a Pawnee) I spent in this edify-
ing manner ; at length I was fully initiated in all
the mysteries of sporting by a relation, himself the
prince of sportsmen, who took a fancy to me. The
reason was as follows : —
In the depth of winter, the ground being
smothered with snow, and the blast bitter, I
followed him out a wild -fowl shooting. I was
devoid of hat, an article that I looked upon as
superfluous, and that I always lost or mislaid as
soon as it was given me. Equipped I was in white
cotton stockings ; and my shoes, which were of the
thinnest, I had tied to my feet with a string which
passed over the instep. I could not put them up
at heel with any comfort, because I had large
chilblains there, which were broke. At length,
after creeping a space on my gloveless hands and
knees in the snow, and under cover of some sedge
and willow bushes, up flew some wild ducks before
my patron. " Quack, quack ! " — down came one
to his shot, and fell with a splash into the river.
In I plunged after him like a Newfoundland dog :
you might have heard the flounce in a still day at
Chippenham, about six miles off. The duck not
being dead, made a swim and a dive of it. Long
and dubious was the chase ; but in the end I de-
scried his bill amongst the sedges, where he had
poked it up to take a little breath. Making a
dexterous snatch, I seized him underneath by the
legs — Chinese fashion, with the exception of the
pumpkin — and drew him loud quacking to the
bank. When landed I squeezed my clothes a little,
G
82 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
according to order ; but I do not believe that I
benefited my chilblains.
At a rather more advanced period of my life I
used to make long fishing excursions, generally with
prosperous, but occasionally with disastrous results.
I remember well, when a pair of bait-hooks was to
me a valuable concern, I hooked two large black-
looking trouts in a deep pool at the same time.
As I had to pull them several feet upwards against
the pressure of the stream, my line gave way, and
left me proprietor of a small fragment only. For
some time I looked alternately at my widowed rod
and my departed fish ; which last were coursing it
round and round the pool, pulling in opposite direc-
tions, like coupled dogs of dissenting opinions :
durum — sed levius fit patientid. So I sat down
with somewhat of a rueful countenance, and began
to spin with my fingers some horse-hair which I
had pulled that morning, at the risk of my life,
from the grey colt's tail. This being done in my
own peculiar manner, and my only remaining hook
being tied on with one of the aforesaid hairs, I con-
tinued to follow my sport down the stream for about
half a mile. After the lapse of a considerable time,
I had occasion to cross bare-legged from one bank to
the other. In my transit through the current, I
found something like a sharp instrument cutting
the calves of my legs. I scampered ashore, under
the impression that I was trailing after me some
sharp-toothed monster, perhaps a lamper eel ; when,
upon passing down my hand to ascertain the fact,
I found to my great astonishment and delight that
I was once more in possession of my lost line, hooks,
DISASTER 83
fish, and all. The fish had fairly drowned each
other, and, by a curious coincidence, were passively
passing in the current at the time my legs
stemmed it.
Originally I had what in Scotland is called a
poke or bag to carry my trouts in. This being
rather of a coarse appearance, I panted after a
basket. One of my schoolfellows had exactly the
thing ; and I bargained for it by giving in return
all my personal right in perpetuity to two young
hawks. Proud of my acquisition, I set out with
no small share of vanity, carrying my basket
through the whole length of a neighbouring village,
which was considerably out of the way. When I
arrived at the happy spot where my sport lay, I
was successful as usual. At length the declining
sun admonished me of some ten miles betwixt me
and home ; so I resolved only to take a few casts
in a dark and deep pool which was close at hand,
and then to bend my course homeward. There I
hooked a fine fish, which I was obliged to play for
some time, and then, after he was fairly tired, to
lift out with my hands, not having yet arrived at
the dignity of a landing net. In stooping low to
perform this process, the lid of my new pet basket,
which from want of experience I had omitted to
fasten, flew open, and two or three of my last-
killed fish dropped into the deep water immediately
before me. In suddenly reaching forward to secure
these, round came my basket, fish and all, over my
head, and fairly capsized me. With some difficulty,
and even risk of drowning, I got my head above
water, and my hand on the crown of a sharp rock.
84 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
There I stood, streaming and disconsolate, casting
a wistful look at the late bright inmates of my
basket, which were tilting down the weeds through
the gullet into a tremendous pool, vulgarly called
Hell's Cauldron. Into that same pool with the
ominous name had I myself very nearly passed, and
thus had followed my hat, which was coursing
about in the eddy or wheel of this fearful depth.
Thus vanished before my eyes my whole day's
sport, for dead fish immediately sink ; and it was
not without some skilful fishing up that my hat and
I renewed our acquaintance. I have before observed
that when I was quite an urchin I never wore a hat,
or any covering over my hair ; but as I grew older
I thought it decorous to follow the fashion.
At another time, whilst still a puer, and only
possessed of one single bait-hook, to my utter con-
fusion I found that solitary hook had been swallowed
by a duck, which a mass of sedges under the bank
had concealed from my view. There we were, Mrs.
Duck and I, dashing, swashing, and swattering
down the stream ; the duck all the time declaring
his sentiments by the utterance of a fearful noise,
and I endeavouring by every means in my power
to prevent my only hook from being ravished from
me by my feathered opponent. In the meantime
a group of lasses, who were washing clothes at the
river side, and were friendly to the bird, set upon
me, first with their tongues, of the use of which
they seemed to be in full possession, and latterly
with their pails and watering pans ; in consequence
of which I was compelled to snap my line, and
turn upon my fair tormentors. But let no boy of
HARRY OTTER 85
fourteen ever try to face a batch of lasses. In
fine, I was terribly mauled, and did not feel my
ears at all comfortable in their externals for a con-
siderable time afterwards.
But enough of these idle anecdotes. The reader
will now understand that I, Harry Otter, was an
idle scamp. If he chooses to keep company with
me in my rambles, he will, nevertheless, find no
very particular harm in me, and I on my part shall
be delighted to hold good fellowship with an
indulgent brother of the craft.
CHAPTER IV
" I in these flowery meads would be ;
These crystal streams shall solace me."
Much has been said by various humane persons
about the cruelty of fishing ; but setting aside that,
according to the authority of the eminent author
of Salmonia, and of Dr. Gillespie also, who, by-the-
by, is professor of humanity at St. Andrews, fish
seldom feel any pain from the hook. Let us see
how the case stands. I take a little wool and
feather, and, tying it in a particular maimer upon
a hook, make an imitation of a fly ; then I throw
it across the river, and let it sweep round the
stream with a lively motion. This I have an un-
doubted right to do, for the river belongs to me
or my friend ; but mark what follows. Up starts
a monster fish with his murderous jaws, and
makes a dash at my little Andromeda. Thus he
is the aggressor, not I ; his intention is evidently
to commit murder. He is caught in the act of
putting that intention into execution. Having
wantonly intruded himself on my hook, which I
contend he had no right to do, he darts about in
various directions, evidently surprised to find that
the fly, which he hoped to make an easy conquest
FISHY ETHICS 87
of, is much stronger than himself. I naturally
attempt to regain this fly, unjustly withheld from
me. The fish gets tired and weak in his lawless
endeavours to deprive me of it. I take advantage
of his weakness, I own, and drag him, somewhat
loth, to the shore, where one rap at the back of
the head ends him in an instant. If he is a trout,
I find his stomach distended with flies. That
beautiful one called the May-fly, who is by nature
almost ephemeral, who rises up from the bottom
of the shallows, spreads its light wings, and flits in
the sunbeam in enjoyment of its new existence,
no sooner descends to the surface of the water to
deposit its eggs, than the unfeeling fish at one fell
spring numbers him prematurely with the dead.
You see, then, what a wretch a fish is ; no ogre is
more bloodthirsty, for he will devour his nephews,
nieces, and even his own children, when he can
catch them ; and I take some credit for having
shown him up. Talk of a wolf, indeed, a lion, or a
tiger ! Why these are all mild and saintly in com-
parison with a fish. When did any one hear of
Messrs. Wolf, Lion, and Co. eating up their grand-
children ? What a bitter fright must the smaller
fry live in ! They crowd to the shallows, lie hid
among the weeds, and dare not say the river is
their own. I relieve them of their apprehensions,
and thus become popular with the small shoals.
When we see a fish quivering upon dry land, he
looks so helpless without arms or legs, and so
demure in expression, adding hypocrisy to his other
sins, that we naturally pity him ; then kill and eat
him Avith Harvey sauce, perhaps. Our pity is mis-
88 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
placed, — the fish is not. There is an immense
trout in Loch Awe in Scotland, which is so
voracious, and swallows his own species with such
avidity, that he has obtained the name of Salmo
ferooc. I pull about this unnatural monster till he
is tired, land him, and give him the coup de grace.
Is this cruel ? Cruelty " should be made of sterner
stuff. " There is a certain spurious sort of humanity
going about that I cannot understand. Thus I
know a lady who will not eat game, because, she
says, shooting is a cruel amusement ; but she is
very much addicted to fowls, and all domestic
poultry, feeding them one day, and eating them
up the next, with treacherous alacrity and amiable
perseverance. It would be more candid in her,
therefore, to say to us sportsmen, like the fox in
the fable, —
" Go, but be moderate in your food ;
A pheasant too might do me good. 11
" I once saw," says the learned and accomplished
Dr. Gillespie, " one of these all-devouring fish in a
curious predicament. In fishing, or rather strolling,
within these few years, with a rod in one hand
and a book in the other, so as to alternate reading
and fishing, as the clouds came and went, I observed
a great many June-flies, at which the fish were
occasionally rising, and which at the same time
were picked up by the swallows, as they skimmed
over the surface of the still water. It so happened
that a trout from beneath, and a swallow from
above, had fixed their affections upon the same
yellow-winged and tempting fly. Down came the
FISHERMEN'S YARNS 89
swallow, and up came the open mouth of the fish ;
into which, in pursuit of his prey, the swallow
pitched his head. The struggle was not long, but
pretty severe ; and the swallow was once or twice
nearly immersed, wings and all, in the water, before
he got himself disentangled from the sharp teeth of
the fish." It is true that the trout had no intention
of encountering the bird ; but every one knows that
pike will pull young ducks under the water, and
devour them.
" The Tay trout," says John Crerar (I copy from
his MS.), " lives in that river all the year round. It
is a large and yellow fish, with a great mouth, and
feeds chiefly on salmon spawn, moles, mice, frogs,
&c. A curious circumstance once happened to me
at Pulney Loch. One of my sons threw a live
mouse into it, when a large trout took the mouse
down immediately. The boy told me what had
happened ; so I took my fishing rod, which was
leaning against my house close to the loch, and
put a fly on. At the very first throw I hooked a
large trout, landed it, and laid it on the walk : in
two seconds the mouse ran out of its mouth, and
got into a hole in the wall before I could catch it."
Thus far John Crerar.
" The mouse that is content with one poor hole
Can never be a mouse of any soul. 1 ''
I believe every author on the subject, from the
time of dear Isaak Walton to the present day, has
taken some pains to vindicate the amusement of
angling. For this purpose they have quoted men
eminent for humanity, illustrious for science, and
90 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
famed for high achievement — philosophers, warriors,
divines, — who have been dear lovers of the sport. 1
But does it require this vindication ? For myself,
far from being surprised that distinguished men
have delighted in fishing, I only wonder that any
man can be illustrious who does not practise
either angling or field sports of some sort or
another. They all demand skill and enterprise.
If you ask me to reconcile angling to reason, you
may possibly distress me. It is an instinct, a
passion, and a powerful one, originally given to
man for the preservation of his existence. The
waters as well as the land yield forth their increase.
In the joyless regions of the north, when the bear
famishes on the iceberg, and the gaunt wolf howls
amongst the snow-drifts, the miserable tenant of
the land stalks along the desolate shores, and with
his javelin, or hooks of bone, acquires by his rude
skill a precarious subsistence for his family. Ever-
lasting winter has stamped her iron foot upon the
soil : the snow whitens all interminably, except
where the blasts drive it from the face of the bleak
rocks ; and without this resource he must perish, —
he and his sad family together. Even so it is
ordained from above.
Thrice happy are we, who live in a more genial
climate, and who inherit the instinct given to our
less fortunate fellow-creatures, and exercise it not
1 When Sir Humphrey Davy was at Gisburn, the late Lord
Ribblesdale took him to see the celebrated Gorsdale Rocks, expecting
they would astonish and interest him, and call forth some very learned
remarks ; but the great philosopher noticed only the stream beneath
them, which he scrutinised minutely, saying he was sure there were no
fish in it, or he should have discovered them.
WHALE FISHING 91
from hard necessity, but as a means of recreation.
Man being thus evidently destined to fish, let us
consider the style of thing that is likely to give
him the most gratification.
When I read of the whale fishery, and of that
animal running out a mile of rope, for an instant
my thoughts were bent on the seas of Greenland ;
but I was taken aback by the frontispiece of
Captain Scoresby's entertaining narrative, which
represents his boat thrown aloft in the air by a
playful jerk of a whale's tail, and all the crew
tumbling seaward in very sprawling and unstudied
attitudes. Now this is a sort of adventure which
1 do not covet myself, or recommend others to
seek. In such case, perhaps, the heroes of the
harpoon might be caught at their descent by some
ravenous shark ; and unless people have a curiosity
about the construction of that animal's intestines
for the sake of scientific purposes, a visit to his
interior would be useless, and I think imprudent.
Besides, whale fishery is a sort of unsavory
butchery, which does not suit all tastes. We will
take leave, therefore, to discard it at once.
The truth is, that I like no sea fishing whatever,
being of opinion that it requires little skill ; neither
do I enjoy sailing in the salt element, for very
particular reasons relating to health. But my mind
is full of solemn thoughts as I stand on the sound-
ing shore, and see the gallant vessel pass away into
the great desert of waters, till her misty hull rests
lonely in the horizon. Then, as shades of night set
in, and as she fades in the general gloom, I meditate
on the perils of storm and battle, and all the ad-
92 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
venturous scenes her crew may encounter, for good
or for evil, — far, far away from the land of their
affections.
" Nos patriam fugimus, nos dulcia linquimus arva :
Nos patriam fugimus. 1 ''
No ; the wild main I trust not. Rather let me
wander beside the banks of the tranquil streams of
the warm South, "in yellow meads of asphodel,"
when the young spring comes forth, and all nature
is glad ; or if a wilder mood comes over me, let me
clamber among the steeps of the North, beneath
the shaggy mountains, where the river comes
raging and foaming everlastingly, wedging its way
through the secret glen, whilst the eagle, but dimly
seen, cleaves the winds and the clouds, and the dun
deer gaze from the mosses above. There, amongst
gigantic rocks, and the din of mountain torrents,
let me do battle with the lusty salmon, till I drag
him into day, rejoicing in his bulk, voluminous and
vast.
But, alas ! we run riot. Let me now set forth
by what chance I became a fisher for salmon.
Dining one auspicious day with a friend in London,
after a sultry morning gratifying to nothing but a
lizard or a serpent, — the town hot, still, and deserted,
as the ruins of Pompeii, — we turned from the base
thraldom to which we had subjected ourselves, and
resolved to wander over the blue hills of Scotland ;
" for we had heard of grouse-shooting, and we longed
to follow in the field some lusty heath-cock" It
was Wednesday. On Friday we would depart,
that was certain ; for we were young and ardent.
A FALSE START 93
Our travelling means were not very rich : they
consisted of a curricle with one horse (his companion
having died lately), and a tilbury without any. But
the next day there was to be a sale at TattersalFs,
which all juveniles delight in ; so away we went to
the hammer, rejoicing in our soi disant judgment,
and purchased two animals most indubitably of the
horse species. My friend accommodated himself
with a chestnut, I with a mottled grey ; and it
would be difficult to say which of the two had the
best bargain.
Now it chanced that these two nags never had
harness on their backs from the time of their
foalhood ; but this did not interest us in the least :
they had it on soon at all events, all at the door of
Thomas's Hotel, Berkeley Square. The chestnut
shone as off- horse in the curricle, the grey was
resplendent in the tilbury. As for the start, I
cannot boast much of that — kicks, plunges, rearings
to match. There was evidently some misunder-
standing. My fellow-traveller, wheeling round in
spite of curb or rein, passed me in an opposite
direction. My thoughts were intent on Davies
Street : the grey differed with me widely in opinion,
and was ambitious of the Square ; round which (if
I may use the expression) he galloped with un-
necessary haste, till he met my fellow-traveller at
the bottom, and we passed each other in grand
style, our nags being considerably animated by the
lumbering of the wheels. Not once alone did this
happen ; and before our coursers could be gained
over to our opinion, Charing Cross possessed the
curricle, and Hanover Square could boast of the
94 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
tilbury. Our skill might reasonably be questioned
— our perseverance could not ; for before midnight
we rallied, and urged our reluctant beasts to the
dulness of Stilton. From henceforth everything
went on smoothly with them ; except that the
chestnut died of the distemper, and the grey fell
out of a crazy boat into Loch Lomond, ran away
some time afterwards, overturned the vehicle, broke
my unfortunate servant's leg, and lamed himself for
life.
We journeyed on to Selkirk in juvenile mood.
From hence my friends went to Edinburgh, where
I agreed to join them. And now comes the point
— what made me, Harry Otter, a fisher for salmon ?
Why thus it was : I went forth, after my arrival at
the aforesaid town, at the hour of prime. I asked
no questions, for I cannot endure to hear before-
hand what sort of sport I am likely to have. Sober
truth is sometimes exceedingly distressing, and
brings one's mind to a lull ; it puts an end to the
sublimity of extravagant speculation, which I hold
to be the chief duty of a sportsman. So, as I said,
I asked no questions ; but I saw the river Ettrick
before me taking her free course beneath the misty
hills, and, brushing away the dew-drops with my
steps, I rushed impatiently through the broom
and gorse with torn hose and smarting legs, till I
arrived at the margin of that wild river, where the
birch hung its ringlets over the waters.
Out came my trusty rod from a case of " filthy
dowlass." Top varnished it was, and the work of
the famous Higginbotham : not he the hero of an
hundred engines, " who was afeard of nothing, and
"IN HIM!" 95
whose fireman's soul was all on fire ; " but Higgin-
botham of the Strand, who was such an artist in the
rod line as never appeared before, or has ever been
seen since. " He never joyed since the price of
hiccory wood rose," and was soon after gathered to
the tomb of his fathers. I look upon him, and
old Kirby the quondam maker of hooks, to be
two of the greatest men the world ever saw ; not
even excepting Eustace Ude, or Michael Angelo
Bonarotti.
But to business. The rod was hastily put
together ; a beautiful new azure line passed through
the rings ; a casting line, made like the waist of
Prior's Emma, appended, with two trout flies
attached to it of the manufacture even of me,
Harry Otter. An eager throw to begin with :
round came the flies intact. Three, four, five, six
throws — a dozen : no better result. The fish were
stern and contemptuous. At length some favour-
able change took place in the clouds, or atmosphere,
and I caught sundry small trout ; and finally, in the
cheek of a boiler, I fairly hauled out a two-pounder.
A jewel of a fish he was — quite a treasure all over.
After I had performed the satisfactory office of
bagging him, I came to a part of the river which,
being contracted, rushed forward in a heap, roll-
ing with great impetuosity. Here, after a little
flogging, I hooked a lusty fellow, strong as an
elephant, and swift as a thunderbolt. How I was
agitated say ye who best can tell, ye fellow tyros !
Every moment did I expect my trout tackle, for
such it was, to part company. At length, after
various runs of dubious result, the caitiff began to
96 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
yield ; and at the expiration of about half an hour,
I wooed him to the shore. What a sight then
struck my optics ! A fair five- pounder at the
least ; not fisherman's weight, mark me, but such
as would pass muster with the most conscientious
lord mayor of London during the high price of
bread. Long did I gaze on him, not without
self-applause. All too large he was for my basket ;
I therefore laid the darling at full length on the
ground, under a birch tree, and covered over the
precious deposit with some wet bracken, that it
might not suffer from the sunbeam.
I had not long completed this immortal achieve
merit ere I saw a native approaching, armed with
a prodigious fishing rod of simple construction
guiltless of colour or varnish. He had a belt round
his waist, to which was fastened a large wooden
reel or pirn, and the line passed from it through
the rings of his rod : a sort of Wat Tinlinn he was
to look at. The whole affair seemed so primitive ;
there was such an absolute indigence of ornament,
and poverty of conception, that I felt somewhat
fastidious about it. I could not, however, let a
brother of the craft pass unnoticed, albeit somewhat
rude in his attire ; so, " What sport," said I, " my
good friend ? "
" I canna say that I hae had muckle deversion ;
for she is quite fallen in, and there wull be no good
fishing till there comes a spate."
Now, after this remark, I waxed more proud of
my success ; but I did not come down upon him at
once with it, but said somewhat slyly, and with
mock modesty, —
A COLD CRITIC 97
" Then you think there is not much chance for
any one, and least of all for a stranger like myself."
" I dinna think the like o' ye can do muckle ;
though I will no say but ye may light on a wee
bit trout, or may be on a happening fish. That's a
bonny little wand you've got ; and she shimmers
so with varnish, that I'm thinking that when she is
in the eye o' the sun the fish will come aneath her,
as they do to the blaze in the water."
Sandy was evidently lampooning my Higgin-
botham. I therefore replied, that she certainly
had more shining qualities than were often met
with on the northern side of the Tweed. At this
personality, my pleasant friend took out a large
mull from his pocket, and, applying a copious
quantity of its contents to his nose, very politely
responded —
" Ye needna fash yoursel' to observe aboot the
like o' her ; she is no worth this pinch o' snuff."
He then very courteously handed his mull to me.
" Well," said I, still modestly, " she will do well
enough for a bungler like me." I was trolling for
a compliment.
" Ay, that will she," said he.
Though a little mortified, I was not sorry to get
him to this point ; for I knew I could overwhelm
him with facts, and the more diffidently I conducted
myself the more complete would be my triumph.
So laying down my pet rod on the channel, I very
deliberately took out my two-pounder, as a feeler.
He looked particularly well ; for I had tied up his
mouth, that he might keep his shape, and moistened
him, as I before said, with soaked fern to preserve
H
98 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
his colour. I fear I looked a little elate on the
occasion ; assuredly I felt so.
" There's a fine fish now, — a perfect beauty ! "
" Hout tout ! that's no fish ava."
" No fish, man ! What the deuce is it, then ?
Is it a rabbit, or a wild duck, or a water-rat ? "
"Ye are joost gin daft. Do ye no ken a troot
when ye see it ? "
I could make nothing of this answer, for I
thought that a trout was a fish ; l but it seems I
was mistaken. However, I saw the envy of the
man ; so I determined to inflict him with a settler
at once. For this purpose I inveigled him to where
my five -pounder was deposited ; then kneeling
down, and proudly removing the bracken I had
placed over him, there lay the monster most mani-
fest, extended in all his glory. The light, — the
eye of the landscape, — before whose brilliant sides
Kunjeet Sing's diamond, called "the mountain of
light," would sink into the deep obscure ; — dazzled
with the magnificent sight, I chuckled in the
plenitude of victory. This was unbecoming in me,
I own, for I should have borne my faculties meekly ;
but I was young and sanguine ; so (horresco refer ens)
I gave a smart turn of my body, and, placing an
arm akimbo, said, in an exulting tone, and with a
scrutinising look, "There, what do you think of
that ? " I did not see the astonishment in Sawny's
1 Salmon, salmon trout, and bull trout alone, are called fish in the
Tweed. If a Scotchman means to try for trout, he does not say " I am
going a fishing," but ' ' I am going a trouting."
[It requires some courage to criticise the phraseology of such a
master as Scrope, but let the stranger beware of applying the term
"fish" to anything of less dignity than a salmon in Scotland. — En.]
"A WEE BIT GILSE" 99
face that I had anticipated, neither did he seem to
regard me with the least degree of veneration ; but,
giving my pet a shove with his nasty iron-shod
shoes, he simply said,
" Hout ! that's a wee bit gilse."
This was laconic. I could hold no longer, for I
hate a detractor ; so I roundly told him that I did
not think he had ever caught so large a fish in all
his life.
" Did you, now ? — own."
" I suppose I have."
" Suppose ! But don't you know ? "
" I suppose I have."
" Speak decidedly, yes or no. That is no
answer."
"Well, then, I suppose 1 I have."
And this was the sum-total of what I could
extract from this nil admirari fellow.
A third person now joined us, whom I after-
wards discovered to be the renter of that part of
the river. He had a rod and tackle of the selfsame
fashion with the apathetic man. He touched his
bonnet to me ; and if he did not eye me with
approval, at least he did not look envious or
sarcastic.
"Well, Sandy," said he to his piscatorial
friend, my new acquaintance, "what luck the
morn ? "
" I canna speecify that I hae had muckle ; for
they hae bin at the sheep-washing up bye, and she
is foul, ye ken. But I hae ta'en twa saumon, —
1 Suppose, in Scotch, does not imply a doubt, but denotes a cer-
tainty.
100 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
ane wi' Nancy, 1 and the ither wi' a Toppy, 2 — baith
in Faldon-side Burn £111.''
And twisting round a coarse linen bag which
was slung at his back, and which I had supposed
to contain some common lumber, he drew forth by
the tail a never-ending monster of a salmon, dazz-
ling and lusty to the view ; and then a second, fit
consort to the first. Could you believe it ? One
proved to be fifteen pounds, and the other twelve !
At the sudden appearance of these whales I was
shivered to atoms : dumbfoundered I was, like the
Laird of Cockpen when Mrs. Jean refused the
honour of his hand. I felt as small as Flimnap
the treasurer in the presence of Gulliver. Little
did I say ; but that little, I hope, was becoming a
youth in my situation.
I was now fairly vaccinated. By dint of snuff
and whiskey, I made an alliance with the tenant
of the water ; and being engaged for that year to
join my friends at Edinburgh, and go on a shooting
excursion to the Hebrides and the north of Scot-
land, I resolved to revisit the Tweed the summer
following.
It was the above incident that regulated my
residence, in a great measure, for above twenty
years of my life.
A year had rolled on since this my first excursion
to the North, and I, Harry Otter, was again seated
in an open vehicle, enriched with fishing rods, both
of small and of ample dimensions ; I must say
1 A fly so called from Nancy Dawson, who was born on the Tweed,
near little Dean Tower.
2 The Toppy will be described hereafter.
MELROSE UNSUNG 101
exceedingly ample. The stanch " Arno " lay at my
feet ; nor was I deficient in a gun, such as Manton
used to turn out in that age of flint. My attend-
ant, or groom, was of the freshest fashion, a youth
newly hired. John, who was whilom in my service,
understood the arts of travelling better than this
man. But, alas ! John was a backslider ; for when
I asked him if he had any objection to go to Scot-
land, "Pray, sir," said he, "is that the country as
is infested with eagles ? " I candidly confessed
that there certainly were birds of that description
there. " Then, I am sorry, sir, but I must beg
leave to decline going," was his valorous reply.
Tedious it were to recount the dawdling of a
long journey performed by the same man and the
same horses. I will not therefore utter such an
infliction. It is quite enough to say, that in the
end I ensconced myself in an hostel in the little
town of Melrose : inn, properly so called, there
was none, for Melrose was then unsung. It was
late, and I looked forth on the tranquil scene from
my window. The moonbeams played upon the
distant hill-tops, but the lower masses slept as yet
in shadow ; again the pale light catched the waters
of the Tweed, the lapse of whose streams fell
faintly on the ear, like the murmuring of a sea-
shell. In front rose up the mouldering abbey,
deep in shadow ; its pinnacles, and buttresses, and
light tracery, but dimly seen in the solemn mass.
A faint light twinkled for a space among the tomb-
stones ; soon it was extinct, and two figures passed
off in the shadow, who had been digging a grave
even at that late hour.
102 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
As the night advanced, a change began to take
place. Clouds heaved up over the horizon ; the
wind was heard in murmurs ; the rack hurried
athwart the moon ; and utter darkness fell upon
river, mountain, and haugh. Then the gust swelled
louder, and the storm struck fierce and sudden
against the casement. But as the morrow dawned,
though the rain-drops still hung upon the leaf, the
clouds sailed away, the sun broke forth, and all was
fair and tranquil.
The fisherman was sent for express. His apparel
may be taken as a general sample of the garb of the
piscator on that river, where " Flora discloses her
beauties " par excellence. A hat with salmon flies
round the crown, the loop of each gut being passed
over the head of a pin stuck into the said hat, and
the barb of the hook fastened into the felt. The
bonnet on such occasions is laid aside. A short coat
or jacket ; waistcoat according to fancy ; blue panta-
loons ; and a pair of colossal shoes, studded with
splatter-headed nails.
" Well, Wattie, I am glad you are come ; for
you shall see me catch a dozen salmon to-day."
" You mun be a warlock then ; for the deil a
mon atween Bolside and Kelso, beside yoursei', wull
tak ae saumon the day. If ye were even to throw
the Lady of Mertoun l into the water, they wudna
look at her ; for the storm cam' from the wast last
nicht ye ken, and she 2 wull be waxing the morn ;
but we can gang doon to her and see." Down we
1 The Flower of Yarrow, married to Scott of Harden.
2 The Tweed, like a ship, is always called she, the feminine gender
giving it its due consequence.
A WAXING WATER 103
accordingly went, and she was decidedly waxing, he
said.
All this was a mystery to me at that time ; but
I learned from him that when the river is about to
flood, the rain that has fallen near its sources comes
pouring down from the gulleys and drains, and
propels the clear water before it, which then climbs
the dry stones of the channel, exhibiting a convex
surface, like wine in a glass filled to the brim.
This effect cannot be perceived where the river is
in quick motion ; but in the little bays and pools
that are here and there in the channel, it is
very visible : the water will rise to some height
before it is in the slightest degree discoloured, and
this in proportion to the quantity of rain that has
fallen near the sources ; so that a stranger would
not notice the change. In strong spates it is after-
wards of a reddish cast, and fines by degrees into a
porter colour, which gets clearer and clearer till it
resumes its wonted transparency. It must be noted
that I speak with reference to the Tweed only ; for
it is obvious that every river is coloured somewhat
differently, according to the nature of the soil from
which, and through which, it flows. Thus the Tay
partakes much of the dark moss and peat colour ;
and on part of the Inverness coast, where some of
the rivers come from a hard stony soil, they are
never much discoloured, or, if discoloured, in a
different manner. Thus the fisherman is kept two
or three days days from his sport. And he may
as well go home when the waxing begins, though
the water is clear, and the rise is imperceptible,
except in the way I have mentioned ; for it is a
104 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
singular truth that the salmon will not take the
fly into his mouth when this change takes place,
though he will often rise to it, and leap over it. 1
This fact is so well known, that no experienced
person on the Tweed thinks of fishing during such
an occurrence. This waxing commences sooner
or later, according to the violence or quantity of
the rain that has fallen, and the situation where
the storm breaks. In a moderate spate, with a
westerly wind, it is seen at Melrose about ten or
twelve hours after the rain, more or less. If the
wind is very violent, also, the water which is
blown out of the lakes will make the river rise
slightly ; but in that case no change of colour will
afterwards take place.
" Ye can no fish the day ; so I wud hae ye
advised to gang after the patrigs."
So indeed I did, auspice Wattie, who, to my
surprise, seemed somewhat loth to attend me.
We found birds — Arno stood — we shot to the top
of our bent ; and Wattie would have marked well,
but for one failing, which, lover as he was of the
sport, he could not overcome. This failing, to call
it by the mildest name, was an apprehension of
evil, which possessed him to that absurd degree
that he sculked astern, and lay upon the ground
the moment he expected a shot to be fired ; and
I verily believe that he stopped his ears also.
Once, when a covey spread beautifully amongst
some gorse, for a space he eluded my vision, and
1 This rule does not apply to northern rivers flowing- through un-
cultivated land. I have known fish killed in the Helmsdale with the fly
after the river had risen six inches, and was still rising. — En.
THE EILDON HILLS 105
when the firing ceased, I detected him in his form
couched between two blocks of granite ; " for he
kent," he said, "that it was no canny to dander
aboot, and disturb the patrigs." And I think this
was judicious ; but it did not seem to account for
the paleness of his complexion.
My bag was now sufficiently full ; and in return-
ing to the hotel I noticed the form of the Eildon
Hills, which, we have since been credibly informed,
were cloven in three by the art of gramarye. It
was then that I discovered that my companion's
mind was completely subdued by superstition.
" Thae hills are pleasant to the view," said he ;
"and it is the custom on the seventh day for
people to ascend the middle one, and enjoy the
prospect. On the last Sabbath I gaed up ; and
instead of the hill being throng as usual, I fund
mysel' alone, and when I was near the tap a sudden
mirkness cam owre me, and I sat doon on the sod
in a cauld sweet. Then I cast my een up ; and I
saw, as plain as I see ye the noo, twa men houking
a grave by the light of a torch ; and ither men
joined them, walking twa by twa, wi' pale lights.
And when they cam to the grave, they gaed to
the far side of it ; and an auld wife cam in front
wi' a lang white stick in her hand, and a light
like a star a tap o' it : she had an awfu' beard, and
beckoned me to the grave. Ou it was dreadfu !
I believe I swooned away, as it was richt I should ;
and when I cam' to mysel', all was vanishit, and it
was as mirk as pick. And a' this day I thocht
that your gun was the instrument that was to pit
me intill that grave."
CHAPTER V
" And far beneath in lustre wan
Old Melros 1 rose, and fair Tweed ran."
Lay of the Last Minstrel.
My first visit to the Tweed was before the Minstrel
of the North had sung those strains which en-
chanted the world, and attracted people of all ranks
to this land of romance. The scenery therefore at
that time, unassisted by story, lost its chief interest;
yet was it all lovely in its native charms. What
stranger just emerging from the angular enclosures
of the South, scored and subdued by tillage, would
not feel his heart expand at the first sight of the
heathery mountains, swelling out into vast pro-
portions, over which man has had no dominion ?
At the dawn of day he sees, perhaps, the mist
ascending slowly up the dusky river, taking its
departure to some distant undefined region ; below
the mountain range his sight rests upon a deep and
narrow glen, gloomy with woods, shelving down
to its centre. What lies hid in that mysterious
mass the eye may not visit ; but a sound comes
down from afar, as of the rushing and din of waters.
It is the voice of the Tweed, as it bursts from the
melancholy hills, and comes rejoicing down the
Melrose Abbey.
From a Drawing by E. Cooke.
ABBOTSFORD 109
sunny vale, taking its free course through the
haugh, and glittering amongst sylvan bowers —
swelling out at times fair and ample, and again
contracted into gorges and sounding cataracts — lost
for a space in its mazes behind a jutting brae, and
reappearing in dashes of light through bolls of trees
opposed to it in shadow.
Thus it holds its fitful course. The stranger
might wander in the quiet vale, and, far below the
blue summits, he might see the shaggy flock grouped
upon some sunny knoll, or straggling among the
scattered birch trees ; and, lower down on the
haugh, his eye perchance might rest awhile on some
cattle standing on a tongue of land by the margin
of the river, with their dark and rich brown forms
opposed to the brightness of the waters. All these
outward pictures he might see and feel ; but he
could see no farther : the lore had not spread its
witchery over the scene — the legends slept in
oblivion. The stark moss-trooper, and the clanking
stride of the warrior, had not again started into life ;
nor had the light blazed gloriously in the sepulchre
of the wizard with the mighty book. The slogan
swelled not anew upon the gale, resounding through
the glens, and over the misty mountains ; nor had
the minstrel's harp made music in the stately halls
of Newark, 1 or beside the lonely braes of Yarrow.
Since that time I have seen the cottage of
Abbotsford with its rustic porch, lying peacefully
on the haugh between the lone hills ; and have
listened to the wild rush of the Tweed as it hurried
beneath it. As time progressed, and as hopes arose,
1 The tower of Newark stands near Bowhill.
110 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
I have seen that cottage converted into a picturesque
mansion, with every luxury and comfort attached
to it, and have partaken of its hospitality : the
unproductive hills I have viewed covered with
thriving plantations, and the whole aspect of the
country civilised, without losing its romantic char-
acter. But, amidst all these revolutions, I have
never perceived any change in the mind of him who
made them, "the choice and master-spirit of the
age." There he dwelt in the hearts of the people,
diffusing life and happiness around him : he made a
home beside the border river, in a country and a
nation that have derived benefit from his presence,
and consequence from his genius. From his
chambers he looked out upon the grey ruins of the
abbey, and the sun which set in splendour behind
the Eildon Hills. Like that sun, his course has
been run ; and though disastrous clouds came
across him in his career, he went down in unfading
glory.
These golden hours, alas ! have long passed ; but
often have I visions of the sylvan valley, and its
glittering waters, with dreams of social intercourse.
Abbotsford, Mertoun, Chiefswood, Huntley Burn,
Allerley ! — when shall I forget you ?
But, to our humble business. The swell of the
river had been trifling, and it would be fit to fish on
the morrow. The later in the day, said Walter the
Bold, the better ; so I fidgeted away the early part
of the morning, and hauled over my London tackle,
which proved unseemly to the sight of the Scotch-
man. The flies, he said, were dressed like dancing
dogs ; but my rod, he owned, was fine.
AN AGITATING MOMENT 111
At last we started. We had about two or three
miles to go to the upper cast, called the Carry-wheel. 1
As I neared it, and saw the sweep of the gallant
river, I stepped out in eagerness till I came to the
top of a steep covered with wood, gorse, and broom ;
then I dashed down the rocks, and found myself on
the channel, with the rush of a glorious salmon cast
before me. Think of this, ye gudgeon fishers !
The rod was put together in haste, — out came the
London book ; and whilst I selected that misnomer,
a metropolitan salmon fly, a huge fish sprang out
of the water before me, bright and lusty. What a
challenge ! In my agitation the flies got entangled ;
— confusion worse confounded beset me. The hooks
stuck into my quivering fingers, and then a puff of
wind scattered them abroad in various directions.
To crown all, Walter kept me in a perspiration by
making, as if he would throw for the fish, which,
by anticipation, I considered as my property. At
length I collected my senses, and my flies also ; and
it is a wonder that I did so, as the said fish continued
his gambols, and repeatedly claimed my attention.
Now then for it. The cast being narrow at the
throat, I began with a short line, which I kept
lengthening as it got wider ; for so it became me.
I came now, step by step, to the spot where I
expected to do for the fish. Excited as I was, I
flung with spirit ; but the fly alighted not upon the
wave ; far from it ; it attached itself most perfectly
to a birch-tree in my rear, and crack went my top-
1 " Wheel," or " wiel," rather, is a common term in Lowland Scots
for a salmon pool, and, like English " well," a spring is a derivative
of the Anglo-Saxon weallan, to well or boil up. — Ed.
112 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
varnished Higginbotham. Thus I was at once dis-
comfited almost in the arms of victory. Being totally
driven from my propriety, I cannot be answerable for
what I said or did : something very sublime it was, no
doubt ; but let that pass. Certain it was that each
particular hair of my head stood an end with horror.
As I had spare tops to my rod, I soon set all to
rights again. But throw, and throw as I would, the
salmon would not " come and be killed ; " so I gave
up the unreasonable brute at last as unattainable.
Nor could the Scotchman make any hand of him
afterwards. In fishermen's language, / had set Jiim
down,
The tail of the cast now grew broader, and it was
necessary to wade ; so in I went, accoutred as I
was ; that is to say, in light, flimsy walking shoes,
without nails. I soon perceived that the wet stones
were slippery and treacherous beyond endurance,
and that my shoes had no adhesive qualities. My
untutored feet took no hold, and I floundered about
in the superlative degree, quite innocent of a due
balance. At length, joyous to relate, I saw a break
in the water, and the switch of a fish's tail : I struck,
and found I had him fast. As for playing him, I
did no such thing ; on the contrary, I honestly
confess that he played me, and had all along the
best of it too, for I could not keep my footing. I
swayed like a pendulum, only more unevenly, till
down I went from a treacherous stone, which
joggled under my step, and tilted me in about
middle deep. Being thus sufficiently humid, I beat
a retreat as soon as I was able, and backed out on
the channel : arrived there, I felt the beauty of my
LOST! 113
new situation, and made certain of a capture. The
monster was still strong, and sprung out of water, as
if to show me what a prize I was about to obtain,
and I acknowledged his value secretly. He next
judged it prudent to give a sudden turn, a sort of
ill-natured twist — an obstinate obliquity of motion
that I shall never forget, or forgive : at once my
muscles ceased to quiver — the line lost its strain
and sprang aloft in thin air, and the rod was as
straight as when it came from the maker's hands.
Here was an exposition ! — here was a horror ! To
crown all, Walter stood by and took snuff most
provokingly philosophical, and I thought I detected
a half-suppressed smile on his visage. Raving as I
was internally, I still conducted myself with outward
decency, particularly when I found that the fish was
lost owing to the bad temper of a London hook,
which broke in the animal's jaw ; so that I, Harry
Otter, was not to blame after all. I gave one solemn
sigh for the death of old Kirby, whose hooks would
not have broken in the mouth of a shark.
My Scotch friend now fitted me out with one of
his own flies, but desired me not to throw any more
in the Carry-wheel ; " for," said he, " as sure as
deid, the spirit is against ye : he hampered yer
heucks, he broke yer goad and yer flee, and he
pulled ye doon in the waters ; and ye never would
hae been seen again in this life, gin I hadna cotched
ye by the oxter. 1 Thae that the Kelpie grips
seldom rise again ; but nae ither spirit, ye ken, has
power in the rinnin' water." Whether I partook
of this superstition matters not ; but I left the cast
1 The armpit.
I
114 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
because it was unlucky, which is much the same
thing.
I was now under the influence of some better
spirit of the flood ; for I absolutely landed two
gilse of six pounds each in a cast called the Noirs.
Wattie, seeing my rod bent, came up : he said but
little ; but that little was the most unqualified
abuse of my mismanagement. The fact is, I treated
the gilse just as I would have treated a trout ; a
very base mistake. I bagged them, however, not-
withstanding — thanks to the excellence of the
channel.
The next cast I came to was called the Brig-end ;
and here I hooked a fine salmon : he was brave
and strenuous, and so ponderous, that it seemed
as if my hook had caught hold of a floating Nor-
wegian pine, "fit for the mast of some high
ammiral." After various eccentric courses, Master
Fish made a sudden and desperate rush down the
river ; — out went my line with a whirring rattle,
and cut one of my fingers sharply. I followed as
best I might, prancing in the water like a war-
horse, with the spray about my ears. Wattie
hallooed out, and said I know not what ; but the
tone of his voice was far from being complimentary.
Nearly all my line of a hundred yards was now run
out ; when the fish made a sudden turn, crossed to
the opposite bank, and coasted up it amongst the
rocks. Here again Wattie was perfectly wild.
" Gang back, I tell ye ! — hand up yer gaud ! —
shorten yer line ! — keep aboon him, ye gomrell !
Ou, ye are drownit as sure as deeth ! Pirn in, pirn
in ! — pirn out, pirn out ! Gang forrat, gang forrat !
THE CONTEST 115
— gang ahint, gang ahint ! " These contradictory
exclamations I could have excused, as I believe
they were warranted by the sudden turns of the
fish ; but the fellow had absolutely the temerity to
attempt to take my rod from me, whereat I lashed
out behind, and gave him sundry kicks, as strong
and hearty as could be managed with my degenerate
shoes.
I did shorten my line a little, however ; but
the water pressed against it so heavily that I could
not extricate it as I wished. I had now receded
to the shore, and gained, as I thought, the victory.
Being resolved to be canny, I fixed my eyes
intently upon the point where the line dipped into
the water, under which I conceived the fish to be ;
but to my surprise I caught a glimpse of my play-
fellow with the tail of my eye, springing out of
the water, and towing my tackle after him about
twenty yards above the spot where I conceived
him to be. I was in a perfect tremor — ye gods,
how I did shake ! But that did not last long, as
the line all of a sudden vaulted into the air, and
streamed abroad like the lithe pennon on a ship-
mast, being, at a rude guess, about twenty yards
minus of its pristine proportions. This was all
magic to me at the time — magic of the most dis-
tressing sort ; but in after days I saw what my
error was. I knew that it consisted in giving out
too much line at first, which would have been
unnecessary, had I stepped back at once on the
channel, kept my rod aloft, and ran down the
river-side with my fish, still keeping above him.
This, as has been seen, I did not do ; but kept
116 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
deep in the water, where I could make but little
way. With a shorter line, and good footing, I
might have kept above my fish when he crossed
over and made up the stream, and thus have held
the line tight ; but as it was, it hung back in a
huge sweep, that would have gone round the
foundations of another Carthage ; which sweep,
coming in contact with a concealed rock or stone,
gave the fish a dead pull, and he broke it incon-
tinently : abut, evasit, erupit. It was very distress-
ing — very.
Now having your line in this untoward position
is called being drowned, and the breaking of the
tackle in the manner described being cut — soul-
harrowing, suicidical miseries, that no one can
properly describe except Mr. Richard Penn.
Here ended my fishing, and in summing up
the events of the day I had not much to congratu-
late myself upon. I had been guilty of almost
every error possible : I broke my hook and my
rod ; I was moreover cut and drowned, technically
speaking. I learned, however, four things : firstly,
never to fish in a cast where the Kelpie has his
stronghold ; secondly, to look occasionally behind
me before my throw, where the banks are steep
and near ; thirdly, to try the strength of my hook
before I use it, not after; and, fourthly, to get
into shoes of a proper consistency, and well studded
with nails of Brobdingnag dimensions. Take warn-
ing, gentle readers, from these disasters, which are
recounted for your benefit and instruction.
The day following I was more successful ; for
1 shot twelve brace of partridges, and killed seven
WADING GEAR 117
salmon in the evening. This I thought good
sport, as partridges are scarce by the river side.
I rented various houses and large fisheries on
Tweed -side for about twenty years after this,
remaining there not only during the summer
months, but sometimes all the year round except
close time ; so that my experience reaches to all
the methods of catching salmon during the legal
time of the year. I shall now proceed to give as
good an idea as I can of the sort of thing to be
expected by those who are inclined to follow the
same amusement, together with such instructions
as I would fain hope may increase their success.
And, first, for wading.
Wading in the water is not only an agreeable
thing in itself, but absolutely necessary in some
rivers in the North that are destitute of boats ; and
that you may do this in the best possible style,
procure half a dozen pair of shoes, with large knob-
nails at some distance asunder : if they are too
close, they will bring your foot to an even surface,
and it will glide off a stone or rock, which in deep
water may be inconvenient. Cut some holes in
the upper-leathers of your shoes, to give the water
a free passage out of them when you are on dry
land ; not because the fluid is annoying, for we
should wrong you to say so, but to prevent the
pumping noise you would otherwise make at every
step. If you are not much of a triton, you may
use fishermen's boots, and keep yourself dry : it is
all a matter of taste. When you are wading
through the rapids, step on quickly and boldly, and
do not gaze down on the stream after the fashion
118 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
of Narcissus ; for running waves will not reflect
your beauty, but only make your head giddy. If
you stop for a moment, place your legs abreast of
each other : should you fancy a straddle, with one
of them in advance, the action of the water will
operate upon both, trip you up, and carry you out
to sea. Observe, I am talking of a heavy stream.
The body of a man, who probably lost his life in
this manner, was found low down the river when I
was fishing. I asked John Haliburton, who was then
my fisherman, where it came from. " I suppose,"
said he, " it travelled all the way from Peebles." 1
Avoid standing upon rocking stones, for obvious
reasons ; and never go into the water deeper than
the fifth button of your waistcoat : even this does
not always agree with tender constitutions in frosty
weather. As you are likely not to take a just
estimate of the cold in the excitement of the sport,
should you be of a delicate temperament, and be
wading in the month of February, when it may
chance to freeze very hard, pull down your stock-
ings, and example your legs. Should they be black,
or even purple, it might, perhaps, be as well to get
on dry land ; but if they are only rubicund, you
may continue to enjoy the water, if it so pleases
you. If you go in far enough to throw over the cast,
that is sufficient ; for, remember, it is not good to
have a very long line when a short one will answer
your purpose. You will not strike your fish so
soon, and a sudden run of his might place you in
an awkward predicament when your progress is
impeded by wading.
1 Peebles was about twenty-five miles from tbe spot in question.
GREAT FAITH IN WADING 119
It is really refreshing, and does one's heart good,
to see how some that are green in the sport will, in
the language of stag hunting, "take to soil." I
heard of a very fat man from the precincts of
Cheapside, who was encountered in the river Shiel,
in Inverness - shire, by two gentlemen — merrier
ones than whom " I never passed an hours talk
withal." The corpulent man looked at the water
for some time.like a child that is going into a cold
bath, and does not half like it ; he then broke forth
in the following guise : —
" I am convinced, gentlemen, that your waders
catch most fish. I say, gentlemen, that those who
wade are the most successful." His opinion being
greatly encouraged, he put forth one foot in the
pool ; and not finding the sensation very alarming,
for the weather was warm, he walked soberly
forward, saying at every step, " Ay, ay, — your
waders catch the most fish." Now the rock shelv-
ing down near the bank, in progressing he was soon
up to the hips —
" Tendebatque manus ripae ulterioris amore ; "
but he could not reach the desired spot even then.
In this dilemma he looked wistfully at the shore
for advice. " How deep should I go ? " said the
enterprising man. One said to the fifth button of
your waistcoat, and the other to your shirt-collar.
He preferred the fifth button ; and soon treading
on a faithless stone, fairly toppled head foremost
into the pool. His hand relaxed its grasp, and
away went the fishing rod down the stream. He
himself was soon placed out of danger by the
120 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
gentlemen, an attention that, considering all things,
he was fairly entitled to ; but his rod lay across the
river, the butt end opposed in its passage by one
rock in the middle of it, and the top by another ;
so the weight of the stream bore upon the centre,
and snapped it in twain. The corpulent gentleman
took all with the greatest good humour ; and as
the water streamed from him at all points, as it
were from a river god, and as he applied a brandy
flask to his mouth, he said only at the intervals
between his potations, " I am not quite so sure
that your waders catch the most fish ; gentlemen, I
say, I have my doubts of it."
To the credit of my friends be it spoken, they
waded and swam after the two divisions of his rod,
which they spliced together for him, and set him
going again ; not in the faithless water, but on the
trusty shore, which he now seemed to prefer.
I cannot in conscience recommend a course of
wading to a sedentary man as a new experiment, or
even as an old custom revived after a lapse of years ;
and this for the following reason.
General Gowdie was born on the banks of the
Leader-water, which falls into the Tweed about a
mile and a half below Melrose, near Fly Bridge.
In his youth he was an ardent and expert salmon
fisher ; in after life he went out to India, and
served honourably there for forty years. At
length, in the decline of life, he was seized with the
Swiss passion — an unconquerable yearning to revisit
the land of his sires. Night after night he heard in
his dreams the murmuring lapse of the Leader as
it glided down his native valley ; again he reposed in
GENERAL GOWDIE 121
the sunny dell, and thought of " auld lang syne " ;
then, when the cheerless morn broke forth, and he
found himself on a vast continent, far away from
the land of his fathers, he felt as one cast out of
Paradise. Gone were the visions of his early scenes
and companions ; — lost, long lost, but too well
remembered. How distant, alas ! from the bonny
copses of Carrol-side ! — how far from the silver
waters of the Tweed !
After honourable service he set sail for the
shores of Scotland, determined to pass the re-
mainder of his days in comparative privacy and
tranquillity. I met him soon after his arrival, and
gave him some salmon fishing. It was delightful
to see how he enjoyed himself : he waded as deep
as any of us. And I well remember showing him a
favourite seat for a salmon near the point of a cairn :
he cast his fly at once in the exact spot to an inch,
and threw several times with the same adroitness ;
not because he expected to raise a salmon — for he
well knew that if a fish did not come at the first
dexterous throw, it was useless to cast a second
time for him in the same place 1 — but because he
felt great satisfaction at his renewed dexterity, and
he was pleased that any one should witness it.
Poor fellow ! his happiness did not last long.
The habit of wading at his advanced time of life
brought on internal disease, which soon ended
fatally ; and he only repassed the seas to lay his
bones in the fatherland.
1 This is doctrine which it is strange an experienced salmon fisher
should utter. Many, many times may a fish disregard the fly, and
yet suddenly leave his lair and seize it. — Ed.
CHAPTER VI
" I tell you more : there was a fish taken,
A monstrous fish, with a sword by's side, — a long sword ;
A pike in's neck, and a gun in's nose, — a huge gun ;
And letters of mart in's mouth from the Duke of Florence.
Cleanthes. This is a monstrous lie.
Tony. I do confess it ;
Do you think I'd tell you truths ? "
Fletcher's Wife for a Month.
Having set forth the advantages, as well as the
risk of wading, in a fair, and I hope a rational light,
I will proceed to advise on other matters.
In primis, your rod should be proportioned to
the size of the river you fish in ; eighteen or twenty
feet long. The longer the rod, the greater com-
mand you will have over your fish ; for being
enabled to keep the line more perpendicular, you
can lead him with more ease and security amongst
rocks and eddies ; whereas with a short rod you
cannot keep enough of your line clear of the water
to prevent danger in such places. It is true that
the late Lord Somerville, who was an excellent
fisherman, used a one-handed trout rod for salmon.
He did not, however, do so from choice, but from
necessity ; for having once put out his shoulder, he
could not manage to throw with a rod of the usual
PROPER TACKLE 123
size. He once put this little rod into my hands
when we were fishing together in his water ; but,
for want of practice, I could make little or nothing
of it, but I was astonished to see what a long line
he himself could throw with it. It must be noted,
however, that he fished from a boat in the upper
and narrower part of the Tweed, where the channel
is excellent, and where there are few bad rocks ; in
a large river, abounding in all those natural obstruc-
tions which its waters fight with, no human ingenuity
could have saved him from being often cut with
such Lilliputian tackle.
Your line should be about a hundred or a
hundred and twenty or thirty yards, according to
the breadth of the river you fish in ; tapering, of
course, towards the end. Your gut single, clear,
and round. Of such you may make a casting line
sufficiently strong for any salmon you will ever
encounter in these degenerate days.
The colour of your casting line should depend
upon the state of the river. Take some thought,
therefore, to adapt it accordingly : in doing so, you
may fancy that you and the fish have changed
places. Whilst you are on dry land your object of
comparison is the dark bed of the river, which mis-
leads you of course ; whereas the objects of com-
parison to the fish, who lies below, are the colour
of the sky and the medium of water. If the water
then be moss-stained, your gut may be very faintly
tinged of the same colour, — very faintly indeed, as
all dyes are overdone ; but if the river be clear, do
not on any account stain your casting line at all.
The sky may vary in colour every minute : an
124 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
attempt to match it, therefore, is out of the question.
You may easily satisfy yourself of the superiority
of white over dyed gut, in ordinary cases, by
remarking the appearance of both when placed
in a tumbler of pure water.
Whatever you do, have nothing to say to multi-
plying reels : they are apt to betray you in the hour
of trial.
My first discovery of their insufficiency for heavy
fish created some embarrassment at the time. I
had a pet multiplier, which ran beautifully, and
which I had long used for trout fishing. As it was
sufficiently large to contain a salmon line, I
employed it for that purpose also, till it began to
get rickety with the more heavy work. One day,
the water being fallen in, and the morning also
being sunny, so as to exclude the expectation of
killing a salmon, I put some trout tackle at the end
of my line, which was on the said reel, and began
trouting in Bolside- water. In the course of the
day a cloud passed before the sun ; and at the same
time, as is usually the case, a slight breeze arose
and ruffled the surface of the water. I hastened to
change my tackle, and substituted a small salmon
fly in place of the trout ones : small, because, as I
have said, the water was quite fallen in. Though
many years have passed over my head since that
time, I remember this fly well. His wings were of
the clear brown feather from the bittern ; his body
of black wool, with a hackle of the same colour ;
and his tail of a very pronounced yellow, being
made of the feather of a golden pheasant ; red he
was in the head, and altogether of a very commend-
A BAD REEL 125
able and alluring aspect. The curl on the water
still continuing, I whisked him off gaily. At the
very second throw, the pool being somewhat dead,
I saw the water heave up, advancing in a wave
towards me. I waited patiently for the break,
which was a slight one, but pleasant and beauteous
to behold. This I knew to be the act of the Salmo
solar ; and as my line was short, I was, as I before
recommended to others, in no hurry to strike ; but
fix him I did in due season. He no sooner felt the
hook than he began to rebel ; and executed some
very heavy runs, which so disconcerted the
machinery of my multiplier as almost to dislocate
the wheels. The line gave out with starts and
hitches, so that I was obliged to assist it with my
hands. To wind up it resolutely refused ; so that
I was compelled to gather in the line in large
festoons when it was necessary to shorten it, and
again to give these out as best I could when the
fish made a run. Add to this embarrassment that
the ground was distressing, there being alder bushes
in my rear, which made it impossible for me to
retreat and advance by land, by which means I
could have humoured the fancies of the fish, so as
to obviate in some degree the necessity of giving
out and shortening the line. So I had no power
whatever over the salmon, which was evidently a
very large one.
In the course of an hour I made no impression
upon him at all, my whole aim being to avoid a
break. I never engaged with a more subtle animal.
Sometimes he would make the tour of all the
neighbouring stones, where he endeavoured, no
126 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
doubt, to rub the hook out of his mouth ; then he
would take a long rest, as if he cared nothing about
it. From the cause I have mentioned my tackle
was always in disorder, which kept me in great
apprehension. Thus the matter went on for
nearly two hours more, still with a very dubious
result. At length a stone being thrown in by my
attendant at a spot where I could follow along the
bank, he put his head down the river peremptorily,
and went off like a rocket. I ran with him down
the channel, as he skimmed through the shallows
and darted through the rough gorges, in evident
danger, as I was, of losing him every moment. At
length he fairly exhausted himself, and I was able
to urge him to a sandbank, and lay him on his
broadside.
The sandbank, however, had a few inches of
water running over it, but not sufficient to cover
the fish. My attendant, Philip Garrat, had the
tact to place himself between the deep water and
the fish. Then came the struggle. A Wiltshire
novice, like the said Philip, could not hold a live
salmon with his hands, so he tried to kick him
forward on the dry channel. All this time I
hallooed stoutly to him to take care of the line.
My anxiety was extreme ; for the fish was some-
times able to place himself in a swimming posture,
and wriggle away near the deep water. In fact,
had there been but one inch of water more over
the sandbank, he would have had it all his own
way. Philip, aware of the danger, set at him with
redoubled activity, kicking his fastest and best.
But the event being still doubtful, he knelt down
Salmon Reel, 1843.
Latest Pattern, 1898.
OLD PATTERN AND NEW 129
and grappled with him ; and finding him still
slippery and elusive, he cast himself bodily upon
him, and fixed him with his weight at once : toto
certatum est corpore regni. So thought he of
Macedonian appellation ; but he did not express
himself in such terms, being a man of no clerk-like
capacity : whatever he might have thought, he only
said, looking up with a grin of delight and with a
Wiltshire accent, " I got un ! be hanged if I ha'nt."
A cold bath for a few minutes more or less is of
no consequence ; so I made him remain a space,
like iEtna pressing upon the shoulders of Enceladus,
till I came up and gripped the huge salmon by the
tail, and walked to dry land with him, triumphant.
I was nearly three hours in killing this fish, all
owing to the derangement of a multiplying reel ;
and as this contrivance, though useful enough in
our trout rivers, will by no means answer with very
large fish, I have mentioned the above occurrence
in detail as a warning to others.
After this time I caused to be made some large
single reels, nicely constructed, so as to give the
line out evenly, and not run too slackly ; and I
directed that the cylinders should be of a very
ample circumference, which gave me the same
advantage that a multiplying reel has with the
usual cylinder. 1
1 The original cut being here reproduced, the reader may perceive
with what prodigious disadvantages our predecessors had to contend in
the matter of tackle. Imagine going forth to battle with a winch of
this description : long in that diameter which ought to be short, and
shallow in that which should obviously be deep — a very nightmare of a
salmon reel. As a contrast I have inserted, by permission of Messrs.
Farlow and Co. of 191 Strand, a cut of their latest pattern of aluminium
patent lever reel. — Ed.
K
130 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
William Purdie at that time rented the Bolside-
water, which runs by Abbotsford, and in which I
caught this fish. His son, then a little boy,
happened to pass by when I landed him, and I sent
him home to his father with the salmon ; but it was
with extreme difficulty that the little fellow got up
the brae, as his load, which was hung over his
shoulders, frequently made him stagger back down
the rocks which he had from time to time ascended.
That little boy came into my service as fisherman
some seasons afterwards, and has lived with me
now about eighteen years. He is a capital fly-
maker and boatman, and a most valuable servant.
Some of his exploits appear in these pages, he being
the identical Charlie Purdie so repeatedly mentioned
in them.
A great deal of mystery is made on every river
as to the flies you should fish with. Thus when a
novice arrives at his fishing station, he sends for
the oracle of the river ; pulls out his book, crammed
as closely as a pot of pemmican, and displays before
him the various devices of an Eaton, an Ustonson,
or a Chevalier. Nothing dazzled, Donald much
admires what one may be, and what the other ;
this he rejects as useless, that he laughs to scorn.
At length, after having grinned extensively at those
tinselled animals called kill-devils, he examines some
twenty dozen of your best flies ; and, pulling out
one from the number, tells you that might serve
well enough if it had different wings, a different
body, and a yellow tail. Now all this is overdone ;
but I would advise you to acquiesce in the predic-
tions of the said oracle, simply to save the trouble of
FANCIES ABOUT FLIES 131
argument. One thing you may be sure of : namely,
that you may as well attempt to make the Tweed
run back to its source as to shake his opinions.
Now, as there is no month in the year when
salmon flies are made by nature, so no distinction
of species need be observed. My rule has been to
adapt my fly, both as to colour and size, to the
state of the water : a large fly with sober colours
for deep and clear water, and a smaller one, equally
unassuming, where it is shallower ; in the throat of
the cast, and as long as it continues rough, a large
fly also ; at the tail of it, where the water runs
more quietly and evenly, a smaller one serves the
purpose best. Thus you should change your fly in
every stream once or twice. A large and rather
gaudy fly is preferable when the river is full and
discoloured, that the salmon, which lie at great
depths, may see it ; but I never had any great
success with very gaudy flies, either in the Tweed
or elsewhere, in clear and low waters. Salmon will
rise at them, it is true ; but those that have been
long in the water will not take them freely when
the river is in the state I have spoken of, though
they excite their curiosity, and serve them for play-
things. I believe it is the fashion now to think
otherwise ; so that in these days a golden pheasant's
feathers are in as high estimation in Scotland as
they always have been in Ireland.
In tying your flies, you may have some regard
to the harmonic colours, as less startling and more
natural. You may laugh, if you please, but I
would fain think there is something in this. If
you know them not, consult Sir David Brewster's
132 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
table of spectral colours in his distinguished
" Philosophical Magazine."
I have said that there is no animal in nature re-
sembling our salmon flies ; but I once caught a fish
who was certainly persuaded that he was attacking
an animal that he had previously seen flying. This
event happened when I was a novice. Walter
Ronaldson was attending me, and we were walking
by the side of the Elm-wheel in the Pavilion-water.
Walter was some way in advance, when I saw a
white butterfly fluttering up and down over the
water, and a salmon make a fruitless dart at it. It
chanced that I had made some large salmon flies
with white wings, in imitation of a pattern that
was formerly the fashion for trout fishing, and was
called, I know not why, the coachman. One of
these I immediately looped to my line : the fish, no
doubt taking it for the butterfly that he saw flitting
above him, came at it at once, and I took him.
When he was landed, Walter's astonishment was
great when he saw the fly, and he made a dozen
imitations of it before he laid his head on the
pillow. I should not think that under other
circumstances such a fly would be alluring.
When a man toils a long time without success,
he is apt to attribute his failure to the using an
improper fly ; so he changes his book through, till
at last, perhaps, he catches fish. The fly with
which he achieves this is naturally enough a
favourite ever afterwards, and probably without
reason : the cause of success might be in the change
of air and temperature of the water ; and the same
thing would probably have occurred if he had
FALLACY OF FREQUENT CHANGE 133
persevered with the same fly with which he began.
When the night has been frosty, salmon will not
stir till the water has received the genial warmth
of the day ; and there are a thousand hidden causes
of obstruction which we, who are not fish, know
nothing about.
As an instance, I once fished over a short stream
above the Webbs, in Mertoun- water, without
having an offer ; being convinced there were fish in
it, I went over it a second time with the same fly
immediately afterwards, and caught two salmon
and two gilse. Now if I had changed my fly, as
is usual, the success would naturally have been
attributed to such change. But, observe, I do not
mean to assert that all flies are equally successful,
for there must obviously be a preference, however
slight ; but I mean merely to say that a failure
oftener occurs from atmospheric variations than
from the colour of the fly. Yet an occasional
change is always advisable, particularly if you have
had any offers ; since the fish in so rising, having,
perhaps, discovered the deception, will not be
solicitous to renew their acquaintance with a
detected scamp. After all, the great thing is to
give the appearance and motion of a living animal.
Once, when I was adjusting my tackle on Tweed-
side, I was accosted by a native fisherman in these
words — " Ye need na fash yersel' the day wi' yer
lang wand, for I wud na gie a pinch o' snuff for a'
that ye'll get ; there are too many pouthered lawyers
aboot." Powdered lawyers ! I gazed around me,
and did not see a single gentleman of the long robe.
What on earth could the man mean ? and what
134 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
had a powdered lawyer to do with my sport ?
Upon explanation, I found out that he alluded to
the numerous puffy white clouds above. Whether
the likeness of these to lawyers' wigs was appropriate
or not, I leave to those who are learned in similes
to determine ; but he certainly was right in his
main position.
If your fish misses the fly in making his offer,
wait a while before you throw a second time ; and
if he rises at all, he will come more eagerly for this
delay. 1 When he returns to his seat, after the
unsuccessful sortie, he will say mentally (for thus do
fishes and novelists discourse), " What a donkey I
was to be so awkward ! By St. Antonio, if he
comes again, I'll smash him ! " But if you keep
lashing away at him immediately, as I have seen
many fishermen do, — ay, and practised hands too, —
he will probably treat you with contempt, and will
have no intercourse with your gay deluders for the
rest of the day. It is some time, perhaps, since he
has taken up his seat in the water, without ever
having seen an animal like that which you are so
obliging as to tender him : all of a sudden come
a swarm of locusts, as it were, one after another
over his neb, which astonish and alarm him exceed-
ingly. Thus it is apparent, my most excellent but
too persevering friend, that you do not do justice
to his sagacity, or instinct, or whatever you please
to term it, if you set to work in such an intrusive
manner.
1 This is not universal experience. A salmon frequently rises a
second time immediately after he has missed the fly once. It is best
not to waste px - ecious minutes. — Ed.
FAVOURITE FLIES 135
As in all other rivers, so there are various flies
made use of in the Tweed ; but the variety consists
more, I think, in size than in colour. A large fly,
as I have said, for the heavy and deep waters, and a
smaller one for the upper part of the river. That
is the general system. More minute particulars
I have already given. Here are six flies, which I
have always found the most successful : I do not
mean to say that they are the best that can be used,
but only that they are such as I have most con-
fidence in from experience. They were tried by
my fisherman Charles Purdie, and in such a manner
as to make them cut their way steadily through
the water. They are known by different names ; so
that when I say to my fisherman give me this, or
give me that, mentioning the patronymic, forth it
comes, without the trouble of searching over the
book myself.
Two of these flies are of the masculine gender,
three of the feminine, and one of the neuter. The
masculine are Michael Scott and Kinmont Willie ;
the feminine, the Lady of Mertoun or the Flower
of Yarrow, Meg with the Muckle Mouth in her
usual dress, and Meg in her bravery — or, Scottice,
braws. The fly of the neuter gender has been
called Toppy from time immemorial.
No. 1.
Kinmont Willie.
Wings . . . Mottled feather from under the wing of a
male teal.
Head . . . Yellow wool.
Body . . . Fur of the hare's ear.
136
SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
End of body . . Red wool.
Tail . . . Yellow wool.
Round the body . Black-cock's hackle.
I found this fly very successful in the Annan
when I lived at Kinmont, from which place it
derives its name.
No. 2.
The Lady of ' Mertoun.
Wings . . . Mottled feather from under the wings of the
male teal.
Head . . . Crimson wool.
Body . . . Water-rat's fur.
End of body . . Crimson wool.
Tail . . . Yellow wool.
Round the body . Black-cock's hackle.
End of body . . A little red hackle.
No. 3.
Toppy.
Wings .
. Black feather from a turkey's tail, tipped
with white.
Head
Crimson wool.
Body .
Black bullock's hair.
End of body
Crimson wool.
Tail
Yellow wool.
Body .
Black-cock's hackle.
End of body
Small piece of red-cock's hackle.
No. 4.
I will now describe Michael Scott, a most killing
wizard.
" Chi veramente
Delle magiche frodi seppe il gioco. 1
Wings
Head
Mottled feather from the back of a drake.
Yellow wool, with a little hare's fur next
to it.
FAVOURITE FLIES
137
Body .
End of the body
Tail
Round the body
End of the body
Round the body
Black wool.
Fur from the hare's ear ; next to ^the hare's
ear crimson wool.
Yellow wool.
Black-cock's hackle.
Red-cock's hackle.
Gold twist, spirally.
No. 5.
Meg with the Muckle Mouth.
Wings .
Head
Body
End of body
Tail
Round the tail
Round the body
From the tail of a brown turkey.
Crimson wool.
Yellow silk.
Crimson wool.
Yellow or orange wool.
Red-cock's hackle.
Gold twist ; over it hackle mixed
colour, as above.
with
No. 6.
Meg in her Braws.
Wings .
Head . .
Next the head .
Body .
Towards the end of body
Tail
Round the body
Light brown, from the wing of a bittern.
Yellow wool.
Mottled blue feather from a jay's wing.
Brown wool mixed with bullock's hair.
Green wool ; next to that crimson wool.
Yellow wool.
Gold twist ; over that cock's hackle, black
at the roots and red at the points. l
Concerning these flies I will note one thing,
which is, that if you rise a fish with the Lady of
Mertoun, and he does not touch her, give him a
rest, and come over him with the Toppy, and you
have him to a certainty, and vice versa. This I
1 The fashion in flies has changed on the Tweed, as on most other
Scottish waters. The gaudiest colours, the brightest tinsel, the most
daring combinations are displayed in the lures now in vogue. — Ed.
138 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
hold to be an invaluable secret, and is the only
change that during my long practice I have found
eminently successful.
Having now named all things necessary for the
sport, 1 must now advise all fishermen, Cockneys
in particular, to provide themselves with plenty of
spare tackle before they go felicity-hunting ; for in
the wilds of Scotland it is not easy to replace any
loss that inexperience and ill fortune may occasion.
A friend of mine told me a circumstance, by
which it appeared that a very worthy person was
considerably embarrassed for want of this due
precaution. This said friend had been fishing in
the river Shiel in Inverness-shire, and was seated
on a bank with a large salmon before him that he
had just caught. He was eyeing the fish with com-
placency, and smoking a cigar in all the enjoyment
of success. Whilst in this tranquil mood, a man
suddenly vaulted over the wall of the Shiel bridge ;
" And when he had not the least suspicion,
Was with him like an apparition.' 1
This man he described to me as fresh in his attire.
Thin and new were his shoes, new also was his
jacket, new his waistcoat, and novel his pantaloons ;
but newest of all was his top- varnished salmon rod,
turned out by Eaton : but he was shabbily thatched,
his hat being worse than common. His flies, to all
appearance, were made by the Turks — men for-
bidden by their religion to imitate any of the
works of the Creation. As for the man himself,
no one could look at him without being put in
mind of Mantalini.
AN ECCENTRIC STRANGER 139
"Demnition fine pool, sir."
" Very fine indeed, sir ; but you will never catch
a fish where you are casting at present, because
fish do not lie in that bare water."
Upon this our man faced round, put his fore-
finger to his nose, and, with an expression of
sagacity and wisdom that I should in vain attempt
to describe, said :
" Do you see anything green in my eyes, sir ? "
It was evident such a person was not born to
be instructed, but simply to be admired. My
friend, therefore, left his rod upon the bank, and
walked after him, cigar in mouth, to get some
insight into his tactics. Arrived at a better part
of the pool, he hooked a fish ; and here it was
curious to see the difference of opinion between a
Cockney and one who had been bred to the sport.
The Cockney was of a yielding disposition, and
judged it advisable to let the fish have his own
way ; the result of which was, that he ran out an
exorbitant length of line, and was going to a sort
of whirlpool amongst the rocks.
" Hold him in, hold him in ; if he gets to that
eddy, you are done."
" Fine fish, sir, fine fish ; fast hooked, sir. Do
you see anything green in my eyes ? I have an
opinion of my own, sir."
" So has the fish. And now it is all over with
you ; for if you had nothing but a dried herring at
the end of your line, you would never get it out of
that mess. I hope you have another casting line,
because you will never see that again."
" Fine fish, sir ; fine rod, sir ; fine line, sir ; fast
140 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
hooked, sir, — fast hooked. Do you see anything
green "
He was stopped short in the sentence by an
alarming rush of the salmon, who shot forward up
the stream, and took out the whole of the line of
the consenting party to the tune of 120 yards.
Now it is a wholesome rule to make fast the end
of the line, by running it through a hole in the
cylinder of the reel, and tying some knots at the
extremity to secure it ; and as this rule is whole-
some, so it has been practised time immemorial by
all sagacious persons, and even by some who are
not very sagacious. But there are exceptions to
all rules, and our man had neglected this caution ;
consequently, the line, being all run out, vanished
at once through the rings of the rod, and streamed
fair and ample below the surface of the water.
The mermaid may, but that line shall no terrestrial
ever see again.
"Demnition hard that, sir. What an extra-
ordinary incident ! Fish well managed, dexter-
ously, artistically. Very odd indeed, sir : beauti-
fully played ; — fine rod, fine hand. Demnition
hard, I must say. Now how far must I go to
get a line ? "
" If you mean to get the same, probably to the
middle of the Irish Channel, or the mouth of the
Shannon ; but if you seek a new one, which I
think would be the most prudent course, walk up
to the road, and you will see a milestone, which
says, 'To Inverness 120 miles,' — exactly a mile for
every yard of line you have lost, and I am sorry
for it."
THE ART OF CASTING 141
Casting the fly is a knack, and cannot well be
taught but by experience : the spring of the rod
should do the chief work, and not the labour of
your arm. To effect this, you should lay the
stress as near the hand as possible, and make the
wood undulate from that point ; which is done by
keeping your elbow in advance, and doing some-
thing with your wrist, which, as Mr. Perm says,
is not very easy to explain. Thus the exertion
should be chiefly from the elbow and wrist, and
not from the shoulders. You should throw clear
beyond the spot where the salmon lie, so that they
may not see the fly light upon the water ; then
you should bring the said fly round the stream,
describing the segment of a circle, taking one step
in advance at every throw. In this manner the
fish see your fly only, and not the line. It is
customary to give short jerks with the fly as you
bring it round, something in the manner of minnow
fishing, but in a more gentle and easy way ; and I
think this manner is the most seducing you can
adopt : it sets the wings in a state of alternate
expansion and contraction that is extremely
captivating.
Salmon will often take your fly on one side of
the river when they will not touch it on the other.
In high water, the channel side, 1 as a general rule,
is the best, and at the cheek of the current ; and
you should not be in a hurry to pull your fly into
the more bare and still parts of the channel, where
the fish will come more cautiously and lazily. In
low water it is best to throw over the channel
1 i.e. the shallow side. — Ed.
142 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
from the rocky side, drawing at first rather quickly,
that your fish may take your fly in the current,
which is material. In very low water, indeed,
when the fish may be said to give over rising, you
may try your luck in the rapids by hanging your
fly on them ; indeed, you should always let your
fly dwell on this sort of water, or the fish will
either lose sight of it, or not choose to follow
where you may wish him. All these things are
not easily explained in writing, nor, I believe, in
conversation, as will appear from the following
example.
A friend of mine went with two companions to
fish in the river Morar, on the coast of Inverness-
shire. One of these two comrades was a young
Oxonian, and a novice ; the other was an ex-
perienced fisherman. They were all three in one
of those Highland shielings, redolent of peat smoke
and whisky, which is absolute luxury to a thorough-
bred sportsman, as being in keeping and character
with the nature of his pursuit. The Oxonian was
an excellent person, but, as I have hinted, knew
nothing upon earth about salmon fishing ; so Mr.
E. C, who was an adept in the said art, set about
instructing him by word of mouth. The third
person of the party happened not to coincide with
the excellence of the simple instructions he was
giving, and laid it down as an axiom, that it was
impossible to catch a fish, unless your fly was at
right angles to your rod. This seemed not at all
to be comprehended ; and after a little arguing, the
said oracle, by way of illustration, took a stick,
tied his handkerchief to it, and gave a few throws
A THEORIST AT FAULT 143
on the table. "Now," said he, "these are very
bad throws, and would never catch a fish." This
assertion was applauded, and immediately carried
by acclamation. " To make a good cast, and keep
your fly in the rectangular position," continued the
maestro, " you must furl your line thus." So say-
ing, he gave the handkerchief a knowing whisk,
which extinguished both the candles. Thus he
argued with all his might, feeding the young
Oxonian with scientific maxims, who promised that
he would furl his line, and fish mathematically.
The next morning no one could start with a
fairer prospect of sport than the said novice. He
was accompanied by Alan Beg, or Little Allan,
because he was told it was quite impossible for him
to catch a salmon without his assistance ; and he
was taught how to kill his fish par raison demon-
strative. But throw as he would, furl as he might,
he could by no means manage to keep his fly always
at right angles to his rod, although he was a most
excellent mathematician. At length, after having
lost seven favourite flies, and two casting lines, he
broke out in unqualified abuse of the system ; which
so enraged his gentle brother of the angle, that
high words arose, and they were on the point of
committing the duello on those very sands where it
is said Prince Charles drew up his forces. My
friend was asked to act as impartial second to both
parties, which he consented to, on condition only
that they should stand and fire so that the balls
might cross at right angles to each other. But
"Etes-vous fou," said he to the Oxonian, "de
Taller quereller, lui qui entend les angles, et qui
144 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
sait tuer un saumon par raison demonstrative ? "
At this good humour returned, and each party
fished the rest of the day according to the angles
that best suited his fancy, without let or argument.
Now in holding your fly on a rough stream
you must advance your arms, and bring your rod
straight across the river, consequently your line
hanging straight down the stream may form a right
angle at the point of your rod, and so you should
work it in this instance ; but in most other cases I
prefer the obtuse angle. As to the argument —
lis avoient raison tons deux.
In hooking a rising fish, it is best to strike a
little sideways, that the hook may fasten in the
fleshy part of the mouth ; whereas, if you pull
straight up, you are apt to encounter the upper or
bony part ; or if the fish has not closed his jaws, and
fairly turned off, you may pull the fly away from
him too soon, to the disappointment of both parties.
As a proof of this, if it does not appear sufficiently
obvious, I appeal to any one, who has tried it, to
say whether or not it is an easy matter to hook a
rising fish, the experimentalist being stationed on a
high bridge.
Sometimes, however, when a salmon is clean run,
and in high glee, you can scarcely miss him, strike
which way you will.
I remember fishing at the Troughs, under the
auspices of Rob Kerse, early in the spring, before a
clean fish had been caught there that season. I
stood over one of those gorges where an immense
volume of water, pent up in a narrow passage, rolls
furiously between its rocky barriers. Here I fixed
A SPRING SALMON 145
myself for a few casts — the rocks being of such a
nature that I could not go lower down the river
either in a boat or by wading. This cast is called
the Clippers, and is in Makerstoun-water.
Here, with a line not given out above my rod's
length, I hooked a clean salmon that rose close
under me. I struck him as he was at the surface
of the water : as soon as he felt the hook, he en-
deavoured to dig downwards. I gave him the butt
of my rod, and he bent the whole of it in a way
that I never saw before, making it in shape, with a
slight exaggeration, nearly two-thirds of a circle.
" Gie him line, gie him line ! " roared out Kerse and
Charlie Purdie, " od but he'll break ye, mon."
Now I knew that if he went down the Clippers
amongst the rocks, I should be cut in a moment
to a dead certainty ; for, as I noted before, I could
not follow. So I was determined not to yield at
all events, and I held him firm at the surface of the
water. In this position he had not half his natural
power, and in less than a minute Charlie cleiked
him, and brought him out before he could dig
down. Thus he was taken by surprise. He proved
to be a clean salmon of ten pounds, and the first
that had been caught that season. Now this could
not have been done, had not the line been short
and the fish almost immediately under me. I re-
member Kerse (who had before been pressing the
necessity of using double or triple gut in such danger-
ous water) saying, " Ay, that was canny enough ;
but if you had not been advised by me, it could not
have been done at ony gait." I showed him my
casting line, however, which, excepting the first
L
146 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
length next the line, was of strong single gut. But
he was certainly right in his assertion as to the
necessity of very strong tackle in such a singular
cast, especially as the river was very full, and the
torrent so impetuous that nice tackle was by no
means requisite.
In a low clear water you must be somewhat
dilatory in striking : you often see the heave of
the water and a break before the fish has actually
seized your fly. Give him time to turn his head in
his way back to his seat, to which a salmon always
returns after rising at the fly. Tom Purdie gave
me an account of a fish that had perplexed him
greatly by his non-observance of this rule, as nearly
as possible in the following words. He might have
used fewer certainly, but Tom was not laconic.
" I had," said he, " risen a sawmon three suc-
cessive days at the throat of Caddon-water fut, and
on the fourth day I was determined to bring him
to book ; and when he rose as usual, I went up to
Caddon Was, namely, the pool opposite the ruins
of Caddon Lee, where there had been a terrace
garden facing the south ; and on returning I tried my
old friend, when he rose again without touching the
heuck : but I got a glimpse o' him, and saw he was
a sawmon o' the biggest sort. I then went down
the river to a lower pool, and in half an hour came
up again and changed my heuck. I began to
suspect that having raised the fish so often, I had
become too anxious, and given him too little law,
or jerked the heuck away before he had closed his
mouth upon it. And as I had a heavy rod and
good line, and the castin' line, which I had gotten
TOM PURDIKS YARN 147
frae the Sherra, had three fadom o' pleit gut at the
end of it, and the flee was buskit on a three plies o'
sawmon gut, sae I was na feard for my tackle.
I had putten a cockle-stane at the side o' the water
foment the place where he raise ; forbye I kend fu'
weel where he was lyin' : it was at the side o' a
muckle blue clint that made a clour i' the rough
throat, e'en when the Queed was in a brown flood,
as she had been for twa days afore. Aweel, I
thought I wad try a plan o' auld Juniperbank's
when he had raised a sawmon mair nor ance. I
keepit my eyne hard closed when the heuck was
comin' owre the place. Peace be here ! I fand
as gif I had catched the branch o' an aik tree
swingin' and sabbin' in a storm o' wind. Ye needna
doobt I opened my eyne ! An' what think ye was
the sawmon aboot ? — turnin' and rowin' doon the
tap o' the water owre him and owre him (as ye hae
seen a hempie o' a callant row down a green brae
side) at great speed, makin' a fearfu' jumblin' and
splashin', and shakin' the tap o' the wand at sic a
rate, that deil hae me but I thocht he wad hae
shaken my arms afF at the shouther joints, tho' I
said to mysel' they were gey firm putten on. I
never saw a fish do the like but ane i' the Auld
Brig pool in the Darnwick-water. I jalouse they
want to unspin the line ; for a fish has far mair
cunnin' and wiles aboot him than mony ane wad
think. At ony rate it was a fashious plan this
I fell on ; for or he war to the fut o' the pool
I was tired o' him and his wark, and sae was he, I'se
warrant ye. For when he fand the water turnin'
shallow, he wheeled aboot, and I ran up the pool
148 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
as fast as I could follow him, gien' him a' the line I
could at the same time ; and when it was just about
a' off the pirn, and he was comin' into the throat,
he wheeled again in a jiffy, and cam' straight for my
feet as if he had been shot out o' a cannon ! I
thocht it was a' owre atween us, for I fand naething
at the wand as the line was soomin' i' the pool a'
the way doon. I was deid sure I had lost him after
a' my quirks ; for whan they cast a cantrip o' that
kind, it's done to slacken the line to let them draw
the heuck out o' their mouths wi' their teethy
to ung — an' they are amaist sure to do sae. But
he was owre weel heuckit, this ane, to work his
purpose in that gyse, as ye sail hear ; for when by
dint o' runnin' back thrae the water as fast as I
could and windin' up the line, I had brought a bow
on the tap o' the rod, I fand the fish had reistit in
the deepest part o' the pool, trying a' that teeth an'
toung could do to get haud o' the heuck ; and there
did he he for nearly an hour, for I had plenty o'
time to look at my watch, and now and then to
tak' mony a snuff too. But I was certain by this
time that he was fast heuckit, and I raised him
again by cloddin' stanes afore him as near as 1 durst
for hittin' the line. But when I got him up at
last there was mickle mair to do than I thocht of;
for he ran up the pool and doun the pool I dar' say
fifty times, till my feet wur dour sair wi' gangin' sae
lang on the channel : then he gaed owre the stream
a'thegither. I was glad to let him change his gait
ony way ; and he gaed down to Glenbenna, that
was in Whitebank's water, and I wrocht him lang
there. To mak' a lang tale short, before I could
A FISH FOUL HOOKED 149
get at him wi' the gaff, I was baith hungry an'
tyrt ; an' after a' he was firm heuckit, in the
teughest part o' the body, at the outside o' the
edge o' the wick bane. He was a clean sawmon,
an' three an' twenty meal pounds."
No creature is more capricious than a salmon.
One of the lairds of Makerstoun, many years ago,
had a fisherman named Robin Hope, who, like
many of his brethren on the Tweed, was an original.
Attending his master on a day that was considered
quite a killing one, not a fish would stir. " What
is the meaning of this, Robin ? " said the laird.
" Deed, sir, I dinna ken," said Robin ; " for some-
times they will tak' the thoom o' yere mitten, if ye
would throw it in, and at ithers they wad na look
at the Lady o' Makerstoun and a' her braws."
Salmon never take well when the weather is
about to change ; it is therefore useless to go out
when the mercury remains at this point. When it
first sets in for a continuance of dry weather the
fish will rise about your hook, and only break the
surface of the water ; but before a flood they will
spring clean out of it, for the purpose, perhaps, of
filling their air-bladder before travelling.
These sportive fellows, however, sometimes get
into a scrape by being hooked outside. A salmon
of ten pounds was caught in the Skurry- wheel, at
Sprouston, in the following curious manner. The
fish were rising wantonly, but not taking the fly ;
in striking at one of them the line looped over its
tail, and the hook catching the line on the upper
side the fish was fairly snared, and at length killed,
after showing extraordinary sport.
150 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Sometimes, also, they will leap out for pastime,
and at others from fear. Thus if a salmon has been
once touched sharply with the hook, when he sees
the fly above him on some future day he will often
vault into the air. I once saw a marked instance
of this.
A very young friend who was fishing with me
saw a fish spring over his line in this manner, and
he kept flinging at him with the same result, the
salmon always moving forward, till he fairly chased
him up the water some hundred yards ; that is to
say, from the Webbs, above Craigover Boat Hole
in the Mertoun-water, half way up to Maxwell
Burn foot. Believe me, it was a pleasant thing to
behold. My friend would not be denied. Master
Salmo salar, and he was a lusty one, would not
accept, but acknowledged the courteous tender of
Michael Scott at every cast, in the manner I have
described. Thus, they held correspondence with
each other a considerable time without coming in
contact. At length piscator began to suspect that
the repulsive qualities were on his side, and the
attractive ones only on the part of the fugitive,
who knew,
" but how it mattered not,
It was the wizard Michael Scott.' 1
So he turned his back upon him reluctantly ; but,
casting a lingering look behind, he could not for-
bear returning and doubling his defeat. This fish
had probably been touched by a fly before.
That night, the hostel being full, we slept in a
double-bedded room. At the dead hour of twelve
THE WATER IN TRIM 151
I was awakened by loud cries of " I have him, I
have him ! " — " Hold him fast then," said I, for
I thought he had collared a thief; but in truth he
had not : he had only got hold of the bell-rope,
and was fishing away with it in his dreams, with a
salmon, of course, at the end of it. Luckily he
did not arouse the Maritornes of the inn : no bell
having ever been attached to the pull, which was
a mere matter of ornament.
The first thing to be considered in rod fishing
is the state of the water proper for the sport ; and
I beg that it may all along be borne in mind that
my observations relate to the river Tweed only : for
it must be obvious that as rivers vary in their depth
and volume of water, no general rule for their
being in proper order for the fly can be laid down.
The waxing, as it is called, and the progress of
a flood, has been already explained in a former
part of these pages.
When the Tweed is not clear, but, as it is
termed, drumly, salmon that have been some time
in the river never take well ; in such case, when
there were no clean fish in the water, I have some-
times had fourteen or fifteen offers without taking
above one or two fish. They do not see the fly
distinctly, and therefore come at it slowly and
with hesitation. One would think they had some
particular method of holding it a while by way of
experiment, just within the point of their noses ;
for I have often struck a salmon sharply, and felt
as if my hook was firmly fixed in him, when in a
moment afterwards it has come away quite easily ;
and this has happened two or three time in sue-
152 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
cession, the water being in the foul state I have
mentioned. It must be noted also, that when the
river is swoln and discoloured, salmon travel in
the daytime, particularly when there is a fresh
wind to ruffle the surface of the water ; and as
they are intent on their journey, they are not apt
to pay much attention to such food as we worthies
offer them. Now as this uncertainty of hooking
a fish that offers happens to me or to you, so the
same thing will occur to every other fisherman
that is out on the same day, these animals being
all of the same mind ; but I have heard good
fishermen in the North say, that they always had
the best sport before the river cleared. I suppose
it was in shallow streams ; because it is evident
that salmon, who always lie at the bottom of the
river, or on the edge of a rock near it, could not
see the fly at any great depth when the waters were
turbid. It must be observed, however, that in
more shallow places, where they can distinguish it,
there is a great difference between a newly-run fish
and one that has been some time in the river ; the
new one being wild and gamesome, and ignorant
of the ways of the world, and the other the very
emblem of prudence, and an admirer of the old
adage, "Always look before you leap." It is
difficult to express by words the exact state of the
water I wish to allude to : if it is only moss-stained
good sport may be had with clean fish, but there
must be a certain degree of transparency.
The upper parts of the Tweed come into order
for being fished much sooner than those below, and
this in proportion to the depth and volume of water.
THE USE OF THE CLEIK 153
It must be owned that fish may occasionally be
caught in turbid, and even full water ; but then
it must be by a perfect change of system. At
such a time the strong streams and usual salmon
casts are useless ; and you must throw in the easy
cheeks near the land, and in the tails of the streams,
where the fish rest in travelling. In this way I once
caught five salmon in the Pavilion-water from off
the shore, unattended even by a man with a cleik ;
whilst my friend, who fished above me in the finest
streams in the water, with a boat and all appliances
and means to boot, did not rise a single fish ; not
from want of skill — for it was Lord Somerville —
but simply because the salmon did not lie in their
usual seats.
A word or two I will now say about the
management of the cleik, which, although it seems
simple enough, requires some address. Take care,
most worthy attendant — for it is to you I speak —
that in the effervescence of your zeal you steer clear
of the line, and that after you have struck the fish
you tow him steadily to the shore ; and I beg, sir,
to caution you, and just merely to hint, that if you
attempt one of your flourishes, and try to do all at
one rapid jerk, you will have decidedly the worst of it.
There must be two motions — a strike, and a haul.
By way of illustration, I must tell you of a
gentleman who came to visit me whilst I lived on
the banks of the Tay, and was desirous of seeing a
salmon caught before he returned to the South ;
so I launched my boat and set to work. Now on
these pressing occasions one has commonly a blank
day, instead of a show-off: not so, however, in the
154 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
present instance, for in a short time I killed six
fish. When I had subdued their strength, I gave
up the rod to my companion, who finished them
skilfully enough. These fish were from seven to
twelve pounds each, as well as I can recollect. I
next hooked a large and peremptory salmon ; and
when he got weak I could not land, on account of
the alders which grew on the margin of the river.
" Give me the cleik," said my confident friend ;
"let me come at him. I should like to try my
hand at that, as well as at the rod, though it is a
savage affair. Do you think I can manage it ? "
" I have no doubt of it," said I, — " tarn Marti,
quam Mer curio. But pray let me interrogate
you a little. Can you swim ? "
" Swim ! no, not I ; why do you ask me that ? "
" Because assuredly, if you do not take care, that
salmon will pull you into the water ; so be canny."
There was an open laugh at this, and a look of
defiance at the fish. Rash youth ! you stretched
forth your dexter, and executed a well-directed
stroke at the animal, thinking to tuck him out of
the water at one coup ; but you had very consider-
ably miscalculated your own powers, and the weight
you were to encounter. There were two things
decidedly against you : one, that the salmon was
three feet long, and lay with his broadside towards
you, so that you had a heavy weight to lift, and a
considerable column of water to displace ; the other,
that you were standing in a boat, and had an
unstable balance. Thus, you were tilted forward in
a way with which your will had nothing to do ; so
that had not I, even I, Harry Otter, laid hold of the
RAPID SPATES 155
skirts of your coat, we should have been fishing with
the long net for you : as it was, the resistance only
threw you prostrate in the boat ; and I was sorry to
see you so much incommoded by the water which
had not been ladled out of it : inheriting all the
valour of your ancestors, you still grasped the cleik,
and, as I pushed the boat ashore, struggled your
very best, till you dragged your prey to firm land.
He was not a clean salmon, nor was he the cause
of cleanliness in others ; but, as you may remember,
exceeded twenty pounds.
The success of a salmon fisher not only depends
upon the weather, but upon the state of the river as
it is affected by the rains ; so that one may be weeks,
and even months, on the spot, without the possibility
of taking a fish with the rod. The water may be
too low to admit of fish coming up, or it may be too
full in flood, with diurnal waxings ; so that sports-
men who come from a distance, and have not much
time to spare, may be grievously disappointed. In
the upper part of the Tweed, real good rod fishing
lasts but a few days after a spate : indeed, the
water there is not properly supplied with fish till
there are two or three spates in succession.
The hills are now so well drained, that the flood
runs off rapidly ; and thus the river soon falls in,
and becomes too low for the fly, except in the strong
streams.
Before these complete drainages took place, the
Tweed kept full a much longer time than it does at
present ; for the rains which fell remained in the
mosses, which gave out the water gradually, like a
sponge.
156 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Now the hill-sides are scored with innumerable
little drains, which empty themselves into the burns,
which burns soon become impetuous torrents ; thus
suddenly supplied, the Ettrick, the Yarrow, the
Leader-water, the Ale, the Teviot, and the many
other streams that empty themselves into the
Tweed, come raving down from the mountains and
from the lakes, and, with their united volume, raise
that river to an alarming height in the space of a
few hours, which then spreads over the haughs, and
sometimes sweeps off corn and cattle, and levels the
bridges in its irresistible course. In these awful
spates, the water is too strong and turbid for fish to
travel : the soil is washed away partially from the
ploughed lands ; and, as the practice of liming
them is very prevalent, the waters are obnoxious
to the fish. I have often wondered how the trout
could possibly survive this state of things ; but
they do survive it, by keeping at the eddies and
close to the banks amongst the grass, where the
pout nets haul them out by dozens.
Though I have given the foregoing instructions
with much pleasure, I would not advise any one
who wishes to stand well with society to utter
a word about his propensity for fishing. It is
generally thought a poor, inanimate occupation ;
and so, indeed, it is in some cases ; and yet the
passion is so strong, that I believe the sedentary
angler who catches a roach or dace, worthless
though he be, and weak and diminutive withal,
has as much pleasure in his way as the proud
conqueror of a twenty-pound salmon.
I was once rowing: on the Thames when a
ENDURANCE RATHER THAN PATIENCE 157
friend hailed me from afar, and beckoned with
joyous and eager solicitation. Though I was
pressed for time, I pulled up to him against the
wind and stream, for I thought he had something
of great moment to impart ; but it was only to
say " that I would be glad to hear he had caught
two dozen gudgeons that morning." But I do
not think I was glad, at least not particularly so,
though he was a very worthy man.
As for myself, if I am ever so indiscreet as to
utter a word about fishing, I am always asked
"if it does not require a great deal of patience."
Now, these sort of interrogators are in Cimmerian
darkness as to the real thing. But I tell them,
that to be a first-rate salmon fisher requires such
active properties as they never dreamed of in their
philosophy. It demands (salmon fishing at least)
strength of arm and endurance of fatigue, and a
capability of walking in the sharp streams for
eight or ten hours together, with perfect satisfac-
tion to one's self; and that early in the spring
season, when the clean salmon first come forward.
In after life, people are considerably addicted to
boats, and to go about attended like admirals ;
that is what we must all come to. But your real
professor, who has youth on his side, should neither
have boats nor boots, but be sufficient in himself.
No delay, no hauling the boat up the stream, but
in and out, like an otter ; even like we ourselves
in the time of our prime, Fahrenheit being below
zero. We then pitched our tent under Craigover
rocks, on Tweedside, and slept in it, that we might
go forth, rod in hand, at five o'clock each morning
158 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
to our aqueous pastime. It is true that the late
John Lord Somerville objected to our tent, as
being a white object, and therefore likely to
prevent the fish from passing by it to his upper
water. But we proved to him, by mathematical
lines adroitly drawn, that it was not within the
range of a salmon's optics. So our tent stood, till
a violent storm assailed us one night with barbarous
fury, tore up the pegs to which the ropes were
fastened, and gave up all our canvass to the winds.
Thus, we got an ample soaking in our bed, in
which we cut a pretty figure, no doubt, when dis-
closed to public gaze ; but we were not blown into
the Tweed ; so that, upon the whole, we were
uncommonly fortunate. But we discard ourselves
for the present.
I say then, and will maintain it, that a salmon
fisher should be strong in the arms, or he will
never be able to keep on thrashing for ten or
twelve hours together with a rod eighteen or
twenty feet long, with ever and anon a lusty
salmon at the end of his line, pulling like a wild
horse with the lasso about him. Now he is obliged
to keep his arms aloft, that the line may clear the
rocks ; now he must rush into the river, then back
out with nimble pastern, always keeping a steady
and proper strain of line ; and he must preserve his
self-possession, even in the very tempest and whirl-
wind of the sport, when the salmon rushes like a
rocket. This is not moody work ; it keeps a man
alive and stirring. Patience, indeed !
It is indispensable to have a quick eye, and a
ready hand : your fly, or its exact position, should
THE PLEASURES OF HOPE 159
never be lost sight of; and yon should imagine
every moment of the livelong day that an extra-
ordinarily large salmon is coming at it. No man can
do any thing properly unless he is sanguine, and
his whole heart and soul is in the business. " Re-
member, my good people all, I do not wish to press
this laborious sport unfairly upon you : excuse me,
but it may be you are not exactly fit for it — non
cuivis homini" &c. You may saunter about with a
gauze net and two sticks, if you prefer it, and catch
butterflies. Every man to his vocation ; but " what
is a gentleman without his recreations ? "
There is a speculation in angling that gives
great zest to the sport. You may catch a
moderate -sized fish, or a distinguished one ; or,
mayhap, a monster of such stupendous dimensions
as will render your name immortal ; and he may
be painted, and adorn some fishing-tackle shop in
London, like Colonel Thornton's pike, which threw
Newmarket on his back as he was landing him — a
lad, says the Colonel, so called from the place of
his nativity. Of course you expect the latter
phenomenon every cast. You see him in your
mind's eye eternally following your fly, and you
are ready to strike from second to second. It is
true he does not actually come, as experience
teaches. But what of that ? he may come in an
hour — in a minute — in a moment ; the thing is
possible, and that is enough for an angler.
A friend of mine (sacred be his name !) of great
repute for his dexterity with the rod, and celebrated
for his agreeable and amiable qualities, as well as
for his intelligence and various accomplishments,
160 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
had this poetical facility of seeing what did not
really exist in substance. A curious instance of
this popular talent occurred at a friend's house in
the country with whom he was staying. There
was a fine piece of water in the park, well stored
with fish, where he used to spend most part of the
morning, rod in hand ; so that his perseverance
excited considerable admiration from the host, as
well as from his guests. Not having been very
successful, his ardour at length began to flag. It
was a pity, for it is a pleasant thing to be excited.
What was to be done ? You shall see. A report
was raised that there was an enormous pike seen in
the water, about the length of a decent - sized
alligator. He was said to have maimed a full-
grown swan, and destroyed two cygnets, besides
sundry ducks. At first he was no more believed
in than the great sea snake, which encloses at least
half the world in his folds. But after the lapse of
a few days, the keeper came to the private ear of
my friend, and told him that a mortal large pike
was basking amongst some weeds, and could be
seen plainly. " You are sure to cotch en, sir."
He was rewarded for this intelligence, and exhorted
to keep the important secret from the other visitors
at the mansion.
When piscator, cunning fellow ! thought that
all were out of the way, employed in hunting,
shooting, or some other occupation, he and John
Barnes the keeper glided down secretly to the
awful spot, and they there descried the semblance
of a fish so enormous that it was doubted if any
thing less than a small rope could hold him. The
WHAT EYES HE HAS
A PRODIGIOUS PIKE 161
sportsman was astounded — the keeper was not ; for
the said awful animal was nothing more than a
large painted piece of wood, carved deftly by him-
self into the shape of a pike, painted according to
order, and stuck in the natural position by means
of a vertical prop, which could not be discovered
amongst the weeds. It was too bad, really a
great deal too bad ; but tolerably ingenious, and
beautifully deceptive. The gentleman approached
with tact and caution, and the eyes of the fish
glared upon him ; as well they might, for they were
very large and dazzling, being made of glass, and
originally designed to be inserted in a great horned
owl which the keeper had stuffed.
" What a prodigious fish, John ! "
" Very perdigious indeed, sir."
" What eyes he has ! "
"So he has, sir."
" I'll try him with a roach. — There, — it went in
beautifully, and he did not move."
" No, he won't take it nohow. Give him a frog ;
he seems a difficult fish."
Piscator did tender him a very lively one in
vain ; in short, he offered him every bait he could
possibly think of, running through all the devices
and temptations he was master of. Cautious in his
approaches, that the supposed fish might not see
him, he always advanced to make his cast upon his
knees, to the no small merriment of his friends,
who were looking at him through a telescope from
the windows of the mansion.
Well, thus he spent the whole morning ; waiting,
however, at times, for a cloud to intercept the sun-
M
162 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
beams, and a breath of air to ruffle the surface of
the water. When these came, he would set to
work again with renovated hopes ; till at last, tired
and discomfited, he bent his steps homewards. On
his arrival there, he was accosted on the very
threshold by some of the guests.
" Oh ! you have been fishing all the morning, I
see ; but what could make you stay out so long,
and get away so cunningly with the keeper ? "
" Why, to tell you the truth, Barnes (you know
what a good creature he is) told me of an immense
pike that was lying amongst the weeds at the end
of the lake ; he must be the same that swallowed
the cygnets. I never saw so enormous a monster
in fresh water."
Omnes. — " Well, where is he — where is he ? let
us look at him."
Host. — "John, tell the cook we will have him
for dinner to-day. — Dutch sauce, remember."
Piscator. — " You need not be in such a hurry to
send to the cook, for I am sorry to say I did not
catch him."
Host. — " Not catch him — not catch him ! Im-
possible, with all your skill, armed as you are to
the teeth, with roach, bleak, minnows, frogs, kill-
devils, and the deuce knows what. Not catch him !
Come, you're joking."
Piscator. — " Serious, I assure you. I never was
so beat before, and yet I never fished better ; but
though I did not absolutely hook him, he ran at me
several times.'"
An universal shout of laughter followed this
assertion, which made my friend not a little sus-
THE TAY 163
picious ; but he never again touched upon the
subject. Some time afterwards, wandering near
the scene of his operations, he saw an immense
carving of a pike placed upon a pole near the
margin of the water, and painted beautifully : he
guessed he had seen him before.
Let us now return to the Scotch rivers.
The Tay, which rises from, and is approximated
by, vast and desolate regions 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 wilder-
ness 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 America, and the difficulty of steering
and shooting down them in safety ; and the accom-
paniments 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
164 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
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 resolved to put them to the proof. Nor was an
opportunity long wanting. After a night of heavy
rain, the Tay, which flowed through the park of
Meikleour, rose to a fearful extent. This was
exactly the sort of thing to suit me ; so I proposed
to my fisherman, Charles Purdie, to go down the
flood to Perth, a distance of about twelve miles by
water. We did so ; and I here insert the particulars
of our voyage, as they may serve to give an idea of
a Scottish spate.
We were standing at the foot of the sloping
lawn before my house ; and as Charlie Purdie bent
his regards on the frightful violence of the flood, I
thought he did not half like to embark on it. In
fact, he did not only disapprove of the general
conduct of the river, but also of the peculiar rocky
nature of the channel in which it was its pleasure
to gallop along to the ocean. Moreover, he knew
there was an obstruction in the river at a place
called the Linn of Campsie, about four miles below
the proposed starting-place, where at the arrival of
CAMPSIE LINN 165
his little boat he did not anticipate much pleasure.
In fact, neither Charlie nor his master conceived it
would be possible to pass the falls into the Linn,
since no boat could do so in the ordinary state of
the water without being upset, or dashed to shivers.
They would see how things looked, however, on
their arrival at the spot, and act accordingly.
" Now then, loosen my boat, Charlie : I will go
first ; and take care you do not run foul of me."
The boats being unmoored, we shot down the
river in a moment, and were soon at the end of the
park, where the Isla comes into the Tay. This
additional volume of water increased our velocity ;
we guided our boats into the main currents, and
away we went with the swiftness of a steam-engine.
Rocks and woods opened to our view in an instant,
and in an instant vanished behind us. Thus we
were driven along with great fury till we came
within the sound of the great falls of the Linn of
Campsie : soon we descried before us the awful
barrier of rocks which rose up right athwart the
stream, extending from bank to bank.
The waters had worn their way in some places
through this barrier, and tumbled madly through
the rocky gorges ; down they went, thundering
with stunning sound into the enormous cauldror
below. Then arose the strife — the dashing of the
spray — the buffeting against the banks — the swirl-
ing of the eddies, crested with large masses of foam
— all was in hideous commotion.
This state of things threatened to put an end to
our projected voyage. To go right onwards through
the centre gorge was to pass to certain destruction :
166 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
as well might one hope to shoot in safety down the
falls of Schaffhansen.
I was prepared for all this, and was quite aware
of the impediment before I began my voyage ; so
I did as I had made up my mind to do before I
started. I pulled towards some alder trees which
grew on the bank above the fall, and held my
boat fast by the branches ; I then told Charlie to
secure his boat also with a rope, and to land and
reconnoitre. We were enabled to do these things
without much difficulty, as the water was in some
measure arrested in its course above the fall, being
slightly bayed back by the barrier of rocks. Being
on terra firma, my hero looked ruefully at the
torrents : one alone appeared something like being
practicable ; and it was one that, in the mean
state of the river, was nothing but a dry channel.
Whether our small craft could shoot down it with-
out foundering or not was by no means evident
to the eye, though a practised one, of the ex-
plorer. He was, however, somewhat encouraged
by two fishermen who were mending their nets.
They thought, they said, that we " might possibly
descend in safety, if we managed our boats well."
Charlie looked, and sighed, and looked again : the
thing was evidently not in harmony with his
ideas ; for he could not swim himself, and he
doubted whether his boat would either, when it
arrived at the bottom of the fall. However, I
decided that I would try the thing alone ; and if
it should prove a failure, the example was not, of
course, to be followed. So I brought my little
boat some way above the cataract, with her head
A VENTURESOME VOYAGE 167
up the stream, and by rowing against it let her
fall by degrees stern foremost, by which means I
had a clear view before me, and could therefore
steer to a nicety. She went down most agree-
ably, though in nearly a vertical position, but
pitched upon a rock below the fall ; but before any
harm happened, 1 swung her off by inclining my
body to and fro. My fisherman followed success-
fully ; and having passed the wide-spreading Linn,
the channel of the Tay became more contracted,
and we resumed our former pace, shooting down
the rapids like an arrow, and by occasional swift
snatches of the oars avoiding the breakers around
us. So we passed amongst the hanging woods
and impending rocks of this romantic river, till we
arrived at Stanley, where groups of people were
assembled on the hill-top, who shouted to us with
all their might, and made signs and gestures, the
meaning of which I could not comprehend, but
they seemed to be warning us of some impending
danger : I could not catch the import of their
words, as the sound was but faintly heard amidst
the din of the waves. So I did not perplex my-
self with attending to them, but thought it wisest
to trust to my own discretion, which fortunately
carried the boats safely to their place of destina-
tion. I learned afterwards, that seeing our boats
were mere insignificant cockle-shells borne down
by the flood with great impetuosity, they were
fearful that we should be carried down the mill-
dam, and come in contact with the machinery.
But a better fate awaited us than such a Quixotic
one ; and after a little rough work, in which we
168 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
shipped a reasonable quantity of water, we at
length approached the vast bleaching grounds of
Perth, where the river swept swift and ample in
an even channel under a wooded bank studded
with villas; we then darted through the middle
arch of the beautiful bridge in the town, and
hauled up our boats on a wharf below it.
CHAPTER VII
" Whate'er Lorraine light touched with softening hue,
Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew."
Exploring one morning the upper parts of the
river, with my trout rod in my hand, I came to a
little meadow in a vale where the stream played in
mazes beneath hanging coppices. In this seques-
tered spot, I espied a gentle angler — I may say
particularly gentle. His mode of fishing appeared
so novel, that I was induced to pry a little into it ;
so I ventured to approach him, and asked what
sport he had been having.
" Oh, glorious, glorious, — perfectly enchanting !
All Paradise is around me ! "
I took notice, however, that although he held
his rod pretty much in the usual piscatorial position
of altitude, his fly was by no means on the water,
but lay very comfortably dry upon the furzes on the
bank side, and that, whatever his hand might
pretend to be doing, his mind was not at that
moment particularly bent upon a capture. Whilst
he stood entranced, I took the liberty of lifting up
the lid of his basket, in which I descried nothing
but a pair of gloves — not a fish reposed in it. It
170 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
was clean, new, and Cockney-like, and I ventured
to give him a hint to this effect.
" Well now, I declare, sir, that is very singular ;
because I certainly caught two trout, and put them
into my creel. But I dare say you are a little
absent, and did not notice them ; I am somewhat
absent myself occasionally."
He examined the basket, and found only gloves
by themselves — gloves.
" Where can I have put them ? "
" Indeed I can't guess, sir."
He then began to shuffle about and examine his
waistcoat pockets and those of his pantaloons, nay,
actually his fob.
" Perhaps, sir, you did not find quite room
enough in your fob, and put them into your coat
pocket for fear they should soil the basket."
" Bless me ! so I did ; and here they are, truly.
I see now how it is ; in a hurry, and whilst I was
wrapt in admiration of the scenery, I put the gloves
where the fish should have been, and vice versa —
nothing could be more natural."
This he said with a simplicity worthy of the
golden age. But he declared that although he was
not at that moment very intent on the sport, he did
like fishing exceedingly. " Because," said he, " it
requires no parade of attendance, like other field
sports ; it leads to the most beautiful spots ; and I
take up my rod and my painting box at any hour I
please, and saunter over the flowery meads, in a
state of tranquil enjoyment, amidst all the most
pleasing images of rural life."
I observed there was considerable excitement in
ART VERSUS SPORT 171
fishing occasionally, as well as tranquillity. " For
instance, now," said I, "there is a sea trout in that
run of water that will make your heart dance, if you
should happen to hook him ; I saw him put his
head up at the cheek of the current, and he had a
wilful look, and is likely to make most pernicious
runs when hooked ; for these sort of fish are very
active and strong. If you will give me leave, I
will change your trout fly for a larger one, and
instruct you how to proceed, as from the nature of
your tackle I conclude you are not accustomed to
fish of this description. There now — go a little
higher up the stream ; throw above him, and bring
the fly gently round ; and if he comes at it, do not
strike him too hard, or you will break your slender
tackle. If you get hold of him, we shall see how
he is to be managed ; he will put your tranquillity
to the test, I promise you."
He grasped the rod, and held it aloft ; then,
after a considerable pause, " He is exactly in the
right spot," said he. " Precisely," I replied.
" What a rich red tone of colour he has, — how
well it tells in the shadow ! He will come in
capitally."
" He is not red, I assure you, but clear as silver,
and I wish he may come in capitally."
" Bless me ! he looks red to me, and I must
take him immediately ; he is exactly the thing I
wanted."
So saying, to my amazement, he dropped the
rod, and pulled out a sketch book, in which he
began painting a red cow in water colours that was
reposing under a hawthorn bush on the opposite
172 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
bank, just beyond the stream where the fish was
lying, and which had been the real object of his
remarks. When he had done with the cow, how-
ever, I put the rod once more into his hands, and
reminded him of the fish.
" Now throw a few yards above the spot where
you see the water boiling around that large blue
stone. Very well ; advance a step every time you
throw. Capital ! Now you are precisely at the
fish. Strike him gently if he rises. Well done ! —
by Paid Potter, you have him ! Hold up the top
of your rod, and keep an even steady pull upon
him."
" How can I keep a steady pull upon such a
wild animal ? Why he springs out of the water,
and whizzes about in it, like that firework called a
serpent."
" Be steady — be steady, or he will whiz you
about with a witness. Shorten your line ; get into
the water, and follow him."
" What a cruel speech ! Why I never learned
to swim. You are exceedingly inconsiderate
indeed, sir."
" Swim ! why the water on this channel is
scarcely over your ankles, and I will help you if
you should happen to stumble."
" Then we should both meet a watery grave
together. I have often read of such calamities."
" In with you — in with you, I say ! or he will
be off. There, I told you so ; he has broke your
line ; and, pray pardon me, but pretty work you
have made of it with your tranquillity."
"Well, as it seems to make you so uneasy, I
AN .ESTHETIC PHILOSOPHER 173
will go a little way into the water, though I shall
not enjoy it."
" Why, what is the use of wetting yourself, now
you have lost the fish ? "
"True, true — I did not sufficiently consider
that ; so now I will go back, and see if I can
improve my cow."
This was abundantly philosophical ; but in-
telligible enough to me, who being very much
addicted to painting myself, know how absorbing a
passion it is.
The cow was a good cow, drawn in a clean and
decisive manner, with a correct knowledge of the
anatomy of the animal. I praised accordingly,
and we began naturally enough to talk upon the
principles of landscape painting ; and as we both
agreed pretty well as to those principles, so we
both laid down the law with as much confidence
as if we were the lineal descendants of Zeuxis or
Apelles — a fashion, I must observe, most par-
ticularly prevalent at the present day. I fear it is
not worth while to notice our remarks. I will
write them down, however, at a venture ; and here
they follow.
" View-taking," said the cow limner, " I consider
as of a distinct character from landscape painting.
The interest of the first, as a work of art, in all
highly cultivated countries, must in a great measure
depend upon accidental causes. Trees in hedge-
rows, and most other positions, have been planted
or removed by the hand of man for profit or con-
venience, so that they are rarely found in the most
natural or effective situations ; other objects share
174 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
the same fate, and even the vivid verdure is pro-
duced by artificial means. Still it is right for the
view-taker to copy everything before him just as
it really presents itself. This may be desirable as
a remembrance, or an exact illustration of the
scenery of a country, and indeed occasionally, by
some happy accident, as a work of art ; it may also
have great interest as representing passages in
rural life. But it is obvious that, in a country
highly cultivated, a scene very accurately delineated
represents the materials only, and not the composi-
tion of nature, strictly so called.
" On the other hand, the landscape painter
should aim much higher ; he should get all his
materials from the most striking and characteristic
specimens in nature, and study such forms and
combinations as may make an interesting impression
on the mind. Trees, rocks, water, mountains, — all
his materials he should arrange upon the same
principle that an historical painter observes in
composing from living models. He should address
the imagination rather than the eye, and endeavour
to convey to his work some prevailing character,
which may awaken a corresponding sympathy and
interest in the contemplative beholder.
"As to colour and effect, every tinge of light
that is beautiful and striking, every varied appear-
ance that the change of the hour and the seasons
may bring forth, should be marked down and
coloured on the spot. This should be the un-
remitting practice of the artist, that his works may
bear the impress and truth of nature.
" Taking care to lay his emphasis upon those
A LECTURE ON LANDSCAPE 175
dominant objects that give beauty, character, or
sublimity to the landscape, he should keep all the
rest subordinate, though intelligible ; always bear-
ing in mind that the eye sees those objects only in
detail upon which it is immediately fixed. If, on
the other hand, he copies from nature every indi-
vidual thing before him exactly as he sees it, when
his eye rests upon that individual object alone, he
does not represent the scene such as he saw it in
nature at one general and comprehensive view, but
as it appeared to him by examining separate parts
one after the other, each part having a distinct
focus. If then he adopts this method of proceed-
ing, he will paint upon a false, though a very pre-
valent principle, and his picture cannot fail to have
an unpleasant and irritating effect.
" Infelix operis summa, quia ponere totum
Nestie^"
He paused a little to take breath, as well indeed
he might ; so I took the opportunity to lay down
the law also, and to remark that he must have
arrived at his conclusions from a study of the
paintings of those eminent masters whose works
are sealed with perfection, and sanctified by time, —
productions that elevate us above the level of
common thought, and carry us into the regions of
poetry and romance.
" In the pictures of Claude, by a happy treat-
ment of his subject you see more than the bare
materials of common nature. There the glow
of Italy lies radiant before you : the eye passes
from the flowery foreground, with its tall trees just
176 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
moved by the zephyr, and wanders from distance
to distance over clustering groves, and classical
ruins, amidst the quiet lapse of waters, and all the
pastoral beauty that poets have delighted to feign.
" Directly opposite to the blandishments of this
great master, but true to itself, is the genius of
Salvator Rosa. Little recked he of Arcadian
scenes. Mysterious and elevated in thought, he
delighted to stalk over the wilds of Calabria ; and
there, in regions desolate and dolorous, by the side
of some impending rock, amidst the din of torrents
plunging down to the horrid gulf below him, he
formed a style original, savage, and indomitable.
Nothing entered into his pictures that was
commonplace or mean. His figures were banditti,
forlorn travellers, or wrecked mariners. His trees
the monarch chestnut, forming impenetrable forests,
or blasted and riven by the thunderbolt. All his
forms were grand ; even his winged clouds had a
stern aspect, and partook of the general character.
Titian, Claude, Foussin, Salvator Rosa, — these, and
some others of the good old times, drew the poetry
and soul of landscape, and not its mere dead image
— and this is the triumph of art."
I fancy my new friend the artist paid very little
attention to my remarks, which I am not at all
surprised at ; for he began to soliloquise in an
absent manner about Poussin, whom he said I
should have placed between Claude and Rosa ; and
as he seemed to threaten rather a long encomium,
I pretended to see a fish rise, and glided away
quietly : for I thought enough had been said on
the subject of painting already. As I stole off,
THE GREY SCULL 177
however, I caught a few unconnected expressions ;
such as "dark groves and solitude — storms, —
tempests, — and alpine ridges." Then he grew
somewhat classical, and began to recite from
Virgil—
" Tot congesta manu praeruptis oppida saxis,
Fluminaque antiquos subterlabentia muros."
At this I walked faster and faster, till I got totally
out of hearing. Not through dislike of the subject
did I make my escape, for it was one after my own
heart ; but my rod was in my hand, and hoc age
has always been my maxim. Besides the day
began to alter, and a fine fresh breeze arose, which
came up the river ; clouds appeared over the
horizon, which kept gathering, and brought on
slight showers and passing shadows, with occasional
bursts of sunshine that glittered on the curl of the
water. Now, as far as my experience goes, this is
the best sort of weather for sport. The prejudice,
notwithstanding, I believe, runs in favour of a grey
day ; but such a one has often deluded my expecta-
tions : at which time I have found the fish dull and
sulky, when I was in hopes they would be up and
stirring. It is not meet that they should study
Zimmerman.
It was now the month of September, and I was
expecting to catch some of the grey scull that
come forward at that season. These fish are of a
goodly shape ; but though fresh from the sea, are
not quite so glossy in their scales, or so rich in
flavour, as your brown-backed salmon that comes
up early in the spring. They are altogether of a
N
178 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
greyer colour than that beautiful fish, and derive
their name from that circumstance.
So soon as I had changed my tackle, my en-
thusiastic companion came sauntering up to me.
I am not quite clear that he was fully sensible of
my presence, for his heart seemed still to be
amongst the Apennines with Poussin. I made
an attempt to dislodge him, and bring him down
to the level of my own ideas.
" You know," said I, " that Gaspar was a great
sportsman, though it is not probable that he ever
caught a salmon, which is a northern fish ; but if
you will condescend to transport yourself from
the banks of the Arno to those of the Tweed, and
to walk an hour or two with me, I think I can
promise that you shall see such a feat performed."
Stranger (abstractedly) :
" Fluminaque antiquos subterlabentia muros. 11
" Come now, sink Virgil and the artist a little ;
put your sketch-book in your pocket, and let us
see what can be done with the salmon. Your
quotations, my dear sir, with your permission, will
keep, as they have kept, for ages —
" Adde tot egregias urbes.
No, no ; there are no eminent cities or towns
here, only Melrose and Gattonside ; and if you
call these 'egregias urbes,' you are egregiously
mistaken."
He made no reply, but looked at me with a
smile that seemed directed at the simplicity and
absence of his own character.
THE ARTIST OUT OF PLACE 179
" Now," said I, "as you seem to have descended
from your stilts, which I beg to say are very
becoming, though somewhat out of season, I will
tell you how all people are not exactly of our way
of thinking, as to the triumph of art and these
classical illusions ; imagining, on the contrary, that
painting is a sleight of hand, and comes by intuition.
" I was lately sauntering with my painting-box
in the romantic glen beneath the towers
' Where RoslirTs chiefs uncoffined lie ;
Each baron, for a sable shroud,
Sheathed in his iron panoply. '
As I went along I traced the mazes of the river,
in some places brawling among the rocks, and at
others gliding silently through the mossy stones.
I was thus endeavouring to find out such points
of view as had most interest, and to investigate
the peculiar character in which the charm of the
scene consisted.
" Having at length settled all this to my satis-
faction, and marked in the outline of a scene with
a piece of white crayon, preparatory to colouring
it in oil, a very respectable-looking lady came sail-
ing up to me, and begged to look at my canvas.
The day being somewhat advanced, she asked me
how many sketches I had made that morning ;
and upon my telling her that the one she was
looking at was the first, she replied with very
perfect exultation that her daughters had not been
half an hour in the glen before they made nearly
a bookful of drawings ; but then, indeed, there
were very few people so gifted as her daughters.
180 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
I acquiesced in good faith ; for I really knew no
human beings that could do the same thing in the
same time, and perhaps I might add in the same
manner ; so I concluded that the talent of these
young ladies, like Madame Laffarge's genius for
pastry, was ' colossal.'
" ' Then they never learned,' continued the lady ;
'it was all pure genius. Indeed Maria showed a
singular facility for taking likenesses at three years
old. Sir Thomas Lawrence had admired them
very much.'
" I bowed, and did not doubt it. In a short
time the young ladies themselves, and very pretty
and sprightly ones they were, came tripping up.
" ' Oh, mamma, we have been here only an
hour, and have brought away all the scenery of
the glen ! '
" ' Only forty minutes, upon honour, Maria.'
" ' There, sir, you see my daughters do not
throw away their time like some people.'
" I was not quite so sure of this ; but a look of
admiration on my part followed of course. The
young ladies then began to discourse on art, and
to ask what was my peculiar method of getting up
sketches.
" * Pray, sir,' said the accomplished Maria, ' do
you make your trees in twos, or in threes ? '
"As I did not comprehend the exact meaning
of these terms of art, she was pleased to illustrate
by favouring me with a sight of one of her recent
performances. The trees she particularly alluded
to, I found, were those which represented a distant
mass of wood. In executing a tree in such situa-
THE ANGLER SETS TO WORK 181
tions I was instructed that a sort of flourish should
be made, consisting of two segments of a circle,
just as birds are drawn in prints ; and this is
doing trees in twos — in threes, another segment
was added ; and thus the mystery was solved, —
the whole was executed in a running flourish with
admirable facility. I cannot conscientiously aver
that any one of the leaves of the sketch books of
these intelligent young ladies contained what
might be termed a drawing, but still there was
something about them that might put a person of
imagination very much in mind of drawings."
Thus, having beguiled the attention of Mr.
Tintern (for that was the stranger's name) from
the summits in which he had been soaring, I found
him quite ready to receive an impression of a more
humble kind, and he attended me in my walk,
nothing loth. I was very much gratified with his
company ; for, besides his talent and simplicity
of character, there was such an appearance of
benevolent feeling in much of his conversation,
which I have not thought it necessary to mention,
that no one could avoid being taken with him.
I commenced operations at the Carry-wheel,
which is nearly at the head of the Pavilion -water,
and had not made four casts before I hooked a fish.
He was evidently diminutive ; but, dwarf as he
was, he thought a good deal of himself, and was
prodigal of the little strength which nature had
given him. I thought him conceited, and so hauled
him on shore at once without any ceremony. He
proved to be a river trout of four pounds — a silly-
looking creature enough.
182 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Well, I went forward and caught a few gilses
and salmon in the upper Pavilion-water, not worth
mentioning, except as the sport had the effect of
rousing my new friend from his abstraction ; indeed
I met with nothing remarkable till I came to the
Kingswell Lees. Now every one knows that the
Kingswell Lees, in fisherman's phrase, fishes off land ;
so there I stood on terra dura amongst the rocks
that dip down to the water's edge. Having
executed one or two throws, there comes me a
voracious fish, and makes a startling dash at Meg-
with-the-muckle-mouth. Sharply did I strike the
caitiff; whereat he rolled round disdainful, making
a whirl in the water of prodigious circumference :
it was not exactly Charybdis, or the Maelstrom,
but rather more like the wave occasioned by the
sudden turning of a man-of-war's boat. Being
hooked, and having by this turn set his nose
peremptorily down the stream, he flashed and
whizzed away like a rocket. My situation partook
of the nature of a surprise. Being on a rocky
shore, and having a bad start, I lost ground at first
considerably ; but the reel sang out joyously, and
yielded a liberal length of line, that saved me from
the disgrace of being broke. I got on the best
pace I was able, and was on good ground just as
my line was nearly all run out. As the powerful
animal darted through Meg's Hole, I was just able
to step back and wind up a few yards of hue ; but
he still went a killing pace, and when he came near
Melrose Bridge he evinced a distressing preference
for passing through the farther arch, in which case
my line would have been cut by the pier. My
A TREMENDOUS RUN 183
heart sank with apprehension, for he was near the
opposite bank. Purdie, seeing this, with great
presence of mind took up some stones from the
channel, and threw them one by one between the
fish and the said opposite bank. This naturally
brought Master Salmo somewhat nearer ; but still
for a few moments we had a doubtful struggle for
it. At length, by lowering the head of the rod,
and thus not having so much of the ponderous
weight of the fish to encounter, I towed him a
little sideways ; and so advancing towards me with
propitious fin, he shot through the arch nearest me.
Deeply immersed, I dashed after him as best I
might ; and arriving on the other side of the bridge
I floundered out upon dry land, and continued the
chase. The salmon, " right orgillous and presump-
tive," still kept the strength of the stream, and,
abating nothing of his vigour, went swiftly down
the Whirls ; then through the Boat shiel, and over
the shallows, till he came to the throat of the Elm-
wheel, down which he darted amain. Owing to
the bad ground, the pace here became exceed-
ingly distressing. I contrived, however, to keep
company with my fish, still doubtful of the result,
till I came to the bottom of the long cast in
question, when he still showed fight, and sought
the shallows below. Unhappily the alders pre-
vented my following by land, and I was compelled
to take water again, which slackened my speed.
But the stream soon expanding, and the current
diminishing, my fish likewise travelled more slowly ;
so I gave a few sobs and recovered my wind a
little, gathered up my line, and tried to bring him
184 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
to terms. But he derided my efforts, and dashed
off for another burst, triumphant. Not far below
lay the rapids of the Saughterford : he would
soon gain them at the pace he was going, that was
certain ; — see, he is there already ! But I back
out again on dry land, nothing loth, and have a
fair race with him. Sore work it is. I am a
pretty fair runner, as has often been testified ; but
his velocity is surprising. On, on, — still on he
goes, ploughing up the water like a steamer.
" Away with you, Charlie ! Quick, quick, man —
quick, for your life ! Loosen the boat at the
Cauld Pool, where we shall soon be." And so
indeed we were, when I jumped into the said
craft, still having good hold of my fish.
The Tweed is here broad and deep, and the
salmon at length had become somewhat exhausted ;
he still kept in the strength of the stream, how-
ever, with his nose seawards, and hung heavily.
At last he comes near the surface of the water.
See how he shakes his tail and digs downwards,
seeking the deep profound — that he will never
gain. His motions become more short and feeble ;
he is evidently doomed, and his race well nigh
finished. Drawn into the bare water, and not
approving of the extended cleik, he makes another
swift rush, and repeats this effort each time that
he is towed to the shallows. At length he is
cleiked in earnest, and hauled to shore : he proves
one of the grey scull, newly run, and weighs some-
what above twenty pounds. The hook is not in
his mouth, but in the outside of it ; in which case
a fish being able to respire freely, always shows
VICTORY ! 185
extraordinary vigour, and generally sets his head
down the stream.
During the whole period of my experience in
fishing, though I have had some sharp encounters,
yet I never knew any sport equal to this. I am
out of breath even now whenever I think of it.
I will trouble any surveyor to measure the distance
from the Kingswell Lees, the starting spot, above
Melrose Bridge, to the end of the Cauld Pool,
the death place, by Melrose Church, and to tell
me how much less it is than a mile and three
quarters — I say, I will trouble him to do so ; and
let him be a lover of the angle, that he may rather
increase than diminish the distance, as in good
feeling and respect for the craft it behoves him to
do. I will likewise thank my contemporaries and
posterity to bear in mind that the distance about
to be measured by this able surveyor was run at
an eclipse pace, always allowing for some slight
abatement in speed pending our immersion.
Whilst I was taking a rest on the greensward,
the heated face of my excellent new friend
appeared through the alders. He could not, how-
ever, be fairly said to be in at the death ; the coup
de grace having been already given about five
minutes. He expressed the greatest astonishment
at the swiftness and result of the race, and at the
power of the fish, who had been able to distress
two full-grown men so completely. He owned he
was much excited, but thought fishing for salmon
would be too turbulent an amusement for him ;
though perhaps he might have kept it up with a
good pony, had the ground been passable by such
186 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
a beast. Poussin, Virgil, the Apennines, all were
forgotten ; and he began to enter warmly into the
spirit of the present, and was curious to know by
what particular tactics one can contrive to get the
better of such a large furious monster, as he ex-
pressed it, with such apparently inadequate means,
when a small sea trout broke him with all the ease
imaginable. As I now reckoned upon his atten-
tion, I told him, as follows — how to manage a large
salmon, and how a large salmon may manage us : —
"When you get hold of a monstrum korrendum,
ingens of a fish, say of some five and forty pounds,
you must anticipate a very long and severe battle.
If, therefore, you have a disposable gilly with you,
despatch him instantly for some skilful fisherman,
as well to assist you when you are exhausted with
fatigue, as to bring your dinner and supper ; not
forgetting a dark lantern, that you may not be
beaten bv the shades of night — a circumstance by
no means improbable. At the first onset you will
probably be obliged to keep your arms and rod
aloft, in order to steer clear of the rocks. This
action, with a heavy rod and large fish on your
line, is very distressing, if continued even for a
short time ; and it will be necessary to repeat it
often, if the channel is not very favourable ; and in
that case your muscles will ache insupportably, if
they at all resemble those of other men. The
easiest position, when it is safe to use it, is to place
the butt of your rod against the stomach as a rest.
and to bring the upper part of the arm and the
elbow in close contact with the sides, putting on at
the same time an air of determination.
DUNCAN GRANTS BIG FISH 187
"If your leviathan should be superlatively
boisterous, no one knows what may happen. For
instance, should you be in a boat, and he should
shoot away down the river, you must follow-
rapidly ; then, when he again turns upwards, what
a clever fellow your fisherman must be, to stop a
boat that has been going down a rapid stream at
the rate of eight miles an hour, and bring it round
all of a sudden in time to keep company with the
fish, who has taken an upward direction ! And
what a clever fellow a piscator must be, if he can
prevent twenty yards of his line, or more, from
hanging loose in the stream ! These sort of things
will happen, and they are ticklish concerns. All I
can do is to recommend caution and patience ; and
the better to encourage you in the exercise of these
virtues, I will recount what happened to Duncan
Grant in days of yore.
" First, you must understand that what is called
' preserving the river ' was formerly unknown, and
every one who chose to take a cast did so without
let or hindrance.
" In pursuance of this custom, in the month of
July, some thirty years ago, one Duncan Grant, a
shoemaker by profession, who was more addicted
to fishing than to his craft, went up the way from
the village of Aberlour, in the north, to take a cast
in some of the pools above Elchies-water. He
had no great choice of tackle, as may be conceived ;
nothing, in fact, but what was useful, and scant
supply of that.
" Duncan tried one or two pools without success,
till he arrived at a very deep and rapid stream,
188 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
facetiously termed the Mountebank : here he
paused, as if meditating whether he should throw
his line or not. ' She is very big,' said he to
himself, ' but I'll try her ; if I grip him he'll be
worth the handing.' He then fished it, a step and
a throw, about half way down, when a heavy splash
proclaimed that he had raised him, though he
missed the fly. Going back a few paces, he came
over him again, and hooked him. The first tug
verified to Duncan his prognostication, that if he
was there ' he would be worth the hauding ' ; but
his tackle had thirty plies of hair next the fly, and
he held fast, nothing daunted. Give and take
went on with dubious advantage, the fish occasion-
ally sulking. The thing at length became serious ;
and, after a succession of the same tactics, Duncan
found himself at the Boat of Aberlour, seven hours
after he had hooked his fish, the said fish fast under
a stone, and himself completely tired. He had
some thoughts of breaking his tackle and giving
the thing up ; but he finally hit upon an expedient
to rest himself, and at the same time to guard
against the surprise and consequence of a sudden
movement of the fish.
" He laid himself down comfortably on the
banks, the butt end of his rod in front ; and most
ingeniously drew out part of his line, which he
held in his teeth. ' If he rugs when I'm sleeping,'
said he, ' I think I'll find him noo ' ; and no doubt
it is probable that he would. Accordingly, after a
comfortable nap of three or four hours, Duncan
was awoke by a most unceremonious tug at his
jaws. In a moment he was on his feet, his rod
ROBERT KERSE'S BIG FISH 189
well up, and the fish swattering down the stream.
He followed as best he could, and was begiiminer
to think of the rock at Craigellachie, when he
found to his great relief that he could ' get a pull
on him.' He had now comparatively easy work ;
and exactly twelve hours after hooking him, he
cleiked him at the head of Lord Fife's water : he
weighed fifty-four pounds, Dutch, and had the tide
lice upon him."
Thus Duncan Grant has instructed us how to
manage a large salmon. Let us now see how a
large salmon may manage us.
In the year 1815, Robert Kerse hooked a clean
salmon of about forty pounds in the Makerstoun-
water, the largest, he says, he ever encountered :
sair work he had with him for some hours ; till at
last Rob, to use his own expression, was "clean
dune out." He landed the fish, however, in the
end, and laid him on the channel ; astonished, and
rejoicing at his prodigious size, he called out to a
man on the opposite bank of the river, who had
been watching him for some time :
" Hey, mon, sic a fish ! "
He then went for a stone to fell him with ; but
as soon as his back was turned, the fish began to
wamble towards the water, and Kerse turned, and
jumped upon it ; over they both tumbled, and
they, line, hook, and all went into the Tweed.
The fish was too much for Rob, having broke the
line, which got twisted round his leg, and made its
escape, to his great disappointment and loss, for at
the price clean salmon were then selling, he could
have got five pounds for it.
190 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Thus you see how a large fish may manage us.
I must tell you that the above-mentioned Robert
Kerse has long been a distinguished character on
the Tweed. At a secluded spot, where the woods
and rocks dip down to the margin of the river, and
where its current is opposed by a rocky barrier
through which it has worn its way in frightful
gorges, the gaunt figure of Auld Rob of the
Troughs has been seen any time these forty years.
He is very tall and bony, and when working his
boat with the canting pole amongst the rapids, or
looking down on the water from a jutting rock
with his leister aloft ready to strike, he cuts a most
formidable Salvatbr-Rosa-like appearance. Rob is
now highly seasoned with the saltness of time,
being nearer eighty than seventy years old ; drinks
whisky like water, his native element ; and to this
day runs after the hounds, when they come near,
like a boy of fifteen. He is a genuine lover of all
sports, and has begot numerous sons and daughters :
of the former four are gamekeepers and fishermen
on Tweed, Teviot, and Ettrick, to the Duke of
Buccleuch, Lord Lothian, and Lord Home. They
are remarkable as claiming a regular descent from
Saxon ancestors in the most remote times, and are
an active, athletic, clean-limbed race of men, keen
of eye, and swift of foot, of good pluck, and alto-
gether amphibious, loving the heather and moun-
tain flood better than the street and servants'
hall. Stalwart men would they have been in a
Border foray had they lived in the time of Johnny
Armstrong. Such and so great are the Kerses ; but
they will not go down to posterity like the Purdies,
KERSE AND THE OTTER 191
carent quia vote sacro : neither could the old river
god Rob himself contend with the otter so valiantly
as Charlie Purdie. Whether it was that he had a
sort of fellow-feeling for an animal that was amphi-
bious like himself, and followed the same profession,
or from what other cause I cannot say, but Rob
did not particularly shine in a fair stand-up otter
fight, as you shall hear.
In the latter end of September, 1839, Kerse had
set a cairn net at the Clippers, a little below
Makerstoun House, but on the bank of the river
opposite to it ; and on going to the cairn to
examine the net, he saw a young otter sitting on,
and entangled in it ; he threw more of the net
over it, whilst drawing it to the land, and when he
had caught hold of the tail, and was carrying it off,
a large otter, which he described "as a she ane,"
five feet in length, jumped out of the water, ran up
the bank after him, to use his own words, " like a
mad bear," and commenced a furious attack upon
him. Rob had nothing to defend himself with
but his hat ; and as he was holding the young one
with one hand, he found he was likely to have
the worst of it, and to be bitten by the one animal
or the other. So he threw the whelp to the old
one, saying, "Ay, ye she-devil, he may get her,
twae to ane is odds." They both swam away ; that
is, the two otters, not Kerse.
On looking after them he saw two other young
ones trying to make past the point of the cairn,
which, owing to the strength of the current, they
seemed unable to effect : Kerse thought he would
try the thing again, so he laid hold of one of them,
192 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
and pulled it out also by the tail ; scarce had he
done this, and had begun to take to his heels, ere
out again jumped the old one, and attacked him ;
but this time Rob had provided himself with a
large stone, and hit the old beast on the back, when
he again set off, and carried the young one with
him, which was afterwards given to Lord John
Scott. During the whole contest, says Rob, " the
auld beast keepit squealing, and makin' a noise
something like a horse, when he gies a snore."
How Charles Purdie contended with an otter,
will be seen hereafter.
CHAPTER VIII
" Of Scotland well, the friers of Faill,
The limmery lang hes lastit ;
The monks o 1 Metros' made guid kaill
On Fridays when they fastit."
Spec. Godly Songs, page 87.
In rambling by Tweedside one never loses sight of
the Eildon Hills within many miles of Melrose,
which, together with the river and abbey, are the
dominant features of the country.
Of the legend touching them there are two
versions ; the poetical one given us in The Lay of
the Last Minstrel,
" And, warrior, I could say to thee
The words that clove Eildon Hills in three, 1 '
comes, as all the world knows, from a very high
authority ; and, besides being extremely probable
in itself, has good classical conformity to the
magician in Ariosto, who produced marvellous
visions in the air which astounded the beholder ;
but he having a glass given him by a more
powerful enchanter, which enabled him to see
things in their true semblance, saw only the
magician sitting on a cloud, reading his book ;
o
194 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
thus in both these cases wonderful things were
done by cabalistical words, which art is called
Glamour.
Now as to the Eildons, I do not exactly see
what motive the wizard could have in cleaving
them in three ; I therefore rather lean to the story,
which is still current in the country, especially as
it is very circumstantial, and most agreeable to
sober reason. It runs as follows : —
Old Michael Scott the wizard, whose fame as a
powerful magician had spread over most part of
Europe 1 (the same alluded to as having cleft the
Eildon Hills in three), was at continual feud with
the holy monks of Old Melrose, and constantly
playing his cantrips on them : they on their part
were assiduous in using exorcisms, and such means
as put Michael Scott's power in some danger ; so
the wizard resolved that they should not have the
light of the sun during vespers, but that they
should either abstain from them altogether, or be
put to the expense of oil or candles.
To effect his purpose he summoned a spirit or
imp, or something very like a real devil, who was
subject to his bidding, and for whom he was
obliged to find constant employment.
Him he commanded to place a mountain to the
west of the monastery, so as to intercept from it the
rays of the setting sun. The imp being ingenious,
and strong withal, looked around him, and found
his affair in the Cheviot Hills. Thither he hied,
and with an iron shovel, he took away from them
1 " Quel' altro Michele Scoto fu, chi veramente
Delle magiche Frodi seppe il Gioco." — Dante.
MICHAEL SCOTT 195
at one scoop a quantity sufficient to form one of
the hills, which he deposited where he was com-
manded, and in two more journeys formed the
other two hills, just as we see them now, only that
they were bare of verdure. In his passage a part
fell out of the shovel, which is now called Rubers-
law, which slovenly slip accounts for the inequality
in point of size of the Eildons. At this slip
Michael was exceeding wrath, and pursued his imp
towards Tweedside to punish him. The imp had
a good start, and Michael lay rather out of his
ground : when the evil spirit came to Old Melrose,
he saw a brave company of monks in the haugh,
who had made a kettle qfjish, 1 and were carousing
with goodly flagons of ale. It is said Thomas the
Rhymer of Ercildoune was with them, and that
the prior, who threw a long line, had been very
successful with it that morning, having had good
sport in the Gateheugh streams, and caught two
clean fish in the Holy-wheel, now called the Hally-
wheel, a stream which he himself tabooed upon the
same principle that the Italians write " Rispetto "
on the walls, namely, to keep off intruders.
At the sight of so many pious men, the little
imp skulked behind a tree, and Michael himself
was taken aback, and ran cunning, making a cross
cut over the peninsula, in order to come in upon
the imp below ; the latter being hardly pressed,
made for the river, well knowing that his task-
master was not only a bad boatman, but that no
1 It is still a custom to make parties and dress the salmon on the
spot immediately after their capture, which is called having a kettle
offish.
196 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
enchantment could subsist in a running stream.
Arrived there he formed the scoop of his shovel
into an iron boat, in which he sat and launched
himself, using the handle as a rudder, round which
he twisted his tail that he might steer with the
greater nicety — tali auxilio. Michael, forgetting,
in the heat of his wrath, his impotence of enchant-
ment in a river, got into a fisherman's boat above
Dryburgh, and gave chase. Now this boat being
more buoyant than the imp's iron one, he gained
fast upon him, and just got hold of his tail in a
long reach above Mertoun, called ever after from
that event the Doup Roads. As to whether the
said usual appendage to a devil was greased or not,
tradition has left us in ignorance ; but it eluded
the grip, and the imp shot down a cauld, through
so rapid a gorge, that the warlock hesitated to
follow.
And now a new scene presented itself; a third
boat came sweeping under the scaurs in their rear,
and joined the chase, its crew consisting of Thomas
the Rhymer, and two zealous fathers, who pursued
the wizard with bell, book, and candle ; and they
would have ran into him a little below Craigover,
but that he shot ashore ; and then being on dry
land, threw up by his art a bay behind him to
obstruct their passage, and thus jocky x them ; but
Thomas of Ercildoune, who was also a powerful
magician, opened a passage on the south side of
the river, and the monks only received a slight
check. In the meantime Michael launched again ;
1 This spot still goes by the name of Jocky Bay, and is a good
salmon cast.
THE WITCH OF MAKERSTOUN 197
but the devil beat them all hollow at Little-Dean
stream, which, being swift, rocky, and shallow,
suited his style of navigation admirably. Now
there was, and still is, a witch dwelling on the
craigs near Makerstoun, at the Corbie's Nest, who,
by a deception in magic called glamour, assumes
the semblance of a crow. She was a sort of ally
of Michael Scott, and flew forth, croaking her
hoarsest and best upon the occasion. How far her
power extended, and what she did, I have never
heard ; but certain it is that the wizard landed, that
his magic might have effect, and, with or without her
assistance, endeavoured to " bridle the Tweed with
a curb of stone ; " but his left foot insensibly touch-
ing the running stream, the work was imperfect
and disunited, so that the whole volume of the
river gushed through the rocks in gorges with such
appalling violence, that neither he of Ercildoune or
the Frati thought it prudent to follow. 1
Michael now, seeing the pursuit after his
familiar was vain on the water, remained ashore,
and summoned another spirit, who was subservient
to him, in the shape of a coal-black horse, and
springing on him, said, as was his custom, " Mount,
Diabolus, and fly " ; but he was scarcely firm in his
seat, before the little devil got down to sea, where
he sunk his boat, and vanished to the bad place
from whence he came. There is still a dangerous
sandbank over the spot where this curious iron
1 These rocks are called the troughs, or in Scotch, trows, and are
under the beautiful grounds of Makerstoun. A very active gentleman,
who resides a few miles higher up the river, has in very low water
leaped from rock to rock, and thus crossed the Tweed without wetting
his feet.
198 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
boat is deposited ; and, as the mode of dissipating
shoals and blowing up sunken vessels is now well
known, I trust some effort will be made, either by
government or a joint-stock company, to recover
this valuable curiosity.
Thus terminated a race, singular for the skill
that was displayed under embarrassing circum-
stances, and wonderful as to the persons and
powers that were engaged in it.
" When next these wights go forth to sail,
May I be there to see ! "
CHAPTER IX
" Dinna let the Sherra' ken
Donald Caird is come again. " — Scott.
If I were to write an account of half the poaching
tricks that are common to all Salmon rivers, I
should produce a book, the dimensions of which
would terrify the public, even in this pen-compiling
age.
In times when water bailiffs in Tweed had very
small salaries, they themselves were by no means
scrupulous about the observance of close time, but
partook of the good things of the river in all
seasons, lawful or unlawful. There is a man now,
I believe, living at Selkirk, who in times of yore
used certain little freedoms with the Tweed Act,
which did not become the virtue of his office. As
a water bailiff he was sworn to tell of all he saw ;
and indeed, as he said, it could not be expected
that he should tell of what he did not see.
When his dinner was served up during close
time, his wife usually brought to the table in the
first place a platter of potatoes and a napkin ;
she then bound the latter over his eyes that noth-
ing might offend his sight. This being done, the
illegal salmon was brought in smoking hot, and he
200 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
fell to, blindfolded as he was, like a conscientious
water bailiff — if you know what that is ; nor was
the napkin taken from his eyes till the fins and
bones were removed from the room, and every
visible evidence of a salmon having been there had
completely vanished : thus he saw no illegal act
committed, and went to give in his annual report
at Cornhill with his idea of a clear conscience.
This was going too near the wind, or rather the
water ; but what would you have ? — the man was
literal, and a great eater of salmon from his youth.
People who are not water bailiffs have not
always so delicate a conscience. Let us examine
the style and bearing of such marauders as have
fallen under our notice.
In the first place, there is your man with a pout
net, which resembles a landing net, only that it is
very considerably larger, and is in shape only half
of a circle ; with this he scoops out foul salmon
during floods, when, from weakness, they are unable
to stem the current, and get close under the banks.
This he transacts very snugly, under pretence of
taking trouts ; so indeed he does, and welcome too,
if he would stop there ; but this he is perfectly
averse from.
Next in consequence comes your Triton, who
walks the waters with a long implement in his
hands, namely a leister, alias a waster ; with this
weapon, "quocunque nomine gaudet," the said
deity, quick of eye and ready of hand, forks out the
poor fish that are spawning on the streams ; and
this in close time. Vile, vile Triton !
Then comes your lawless band of black fishers,
BLACK FISHERS 201
so called from their masks of black crape with
which they disguise themselves : these men come
forth in the darkness of the night to burn for
salmon. When the winds are hushed, you may
sometimes hear the dipping of oars and the
clanking of a boat chain, and see at a distance a
small light, like a glow-worm. In a little while
the light blazes forth, and up rise a set of Othellos
who are about to take a private benefit. These
minions of the night are generally men of a
desperate character, and it is not easy to collect
water bailiffs sufficient in number or willing to
encounter them ; but if water bailiffs would fight,
how very picturesque the attack would be ! The
rapids — the blazing — the leisters — the combatants
driven headlong into the river. Why, the battle
of Constantine and Maxentius, and the affair of the
bridge, as seen in the famous fresco, would be
nothing to it. The only thing I should apprehend
would be, that the bailiffs would eventually sport
Marc Antony and run.
In contradistinction to these illuminati comes
your plausible poacher, a sort of river sneak. This
man sallies forth with apparent innocence of
purpose ; he switches the water with a trout-rod,
and ambulates the shore with a small basket at his
back, indicative of humble pretensions ; but has a
pocket in his jacket that extends the whole breadth
of the skirts. He is trouting, forsooth ; but ever
and anon, as he comes to a salmon-cast, he changes
his fly, and has a go at the nobler animal. If he
hooks a salmon, he looks on each side with the tail
of his eye to guard against a surprise ; and if he
202 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
sees any danger of discovery from the advance of
the foeman, he breaks his line, leaves the fly in the
fish's mouth, and substitutes a trout one ; — said
fish swims away, and does not appear in evidence.
I once came upon one of these innocents, who
had hold of a salmon with his trout-rod in a cast
a little above Melrose bridge, called the Quarry
Stream. He did not see me, for I was in the
copsewood on the summit of the bank immediately
behind him. I could have pounced upon him at
once, I and my fisherman. Did I do so ? I tell
you, no. He would have broken his line as above,
and have lost the fish ; and I wanted a salmon, for
it is a delicate animal, and was particularly scarce
at that time.
So I desired Charlie to lie down amongst the
bushes, and not to stir till the fish was fairly
landed, and was in the capacious pocket, which has
already been described. Then I counselled him to
give chase, and harry the possessor. Judging,
however, that if the man crossed the river at the
ford a little below, which he was very likely to do,
that he would have so much law of Charlie before
he could descend the steep brae, that he might
escape, I drew back cautiously, got into the road
out of sight, and passed over Melrose bridge,
taking care to bend my body so as to keep it out
of sight behind the parapet ; I then lay concealed
amongst the firs in the opposite bank. Thus we
had Master Sneak between us. I was at some
distance from the scene of action to be sure, and
somewhat in the rear, as I could advance no
further under cover ; but I had the upper ground,
HUNTING A POACHER 203
and was tolerably swift of foot in those days, which
gave me confidence. I took out my pocket glass,
and eyed my man. He was no novice : but
worked his fish with great skill. At length he
drew him on the shore, and gave him a settler
with a rap of a stone on the back of his head ; he
then, honest man, pried around him with great
circumspection, and seeing no one, he took the
salmon by the tail, and, full of internal content-
ment, deposited it in his well -contrived pocket :
he then waded across to the south side of the river,
with an intention, as it seemed, of revisiting his
household gods and having a broil.
Charlie now arose from his lair, and scrambled
down the steep. The alarm was given, but he of
the salmon had a good start, with the river
between him and his pursuer. So he stopped for
a moment on the haugh to make out what was
going forward on all sides, much after the fashion
of an old hare, who runs a certain distance when
she apprehends anything personal, then rests for a
moment or two, and shifts her ears in order to
collect the news from all quarters of the compass.
Even so did our friend, and having satisfied himself
that he was a favoured object of attraction, he was
coy and took to flight incontinently ; I now sprang
up from the firs, the game being fairly afoot, and
kept the upper ground. The pursuit became close
and hot, but as the fugitive, like Johnny Gilpin,
carried weight, I soon closed with him.
" You seem in a hurry, my good friend ; your
business must be pressing. What makes you run
so ?
204 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
" Did ye no see that bogle there by the quarry
stream, that garred me rin this gait ; haud on for
yer lives, sirs, for if he overtakes us, we are deid
men."
" Why the truth is, Sandy, that I do not choose
to haud on at present, because I came forth in quest
of a bonny salmon, and cannot go home without
one ; could you not help me to such a thing ? "
At this Sandy took a pinch of snuff from his
mull, and seeing my eyes fixed upon the length and
protuberance of his pocket, answered quaintly
enough —
" Ay, that can I, and right glad am I to do ye
a favour ; ye shall no want for a salmon whilst I
have one."
So saying, he pulled forth a ten pounder, which
occupied all the lower regions of his jacket. " How
the beast got here," said he, as he extracted him
gradually, " I dinna ken, but I am thinking that he
must have louped intill my pocket, as I war wading
the river."
" Nothing more likely, and I will admit him to
have done so for once, but, mark me, I will not
admit of any salmon doing so in future without my
permission in writing. You have been trouting, it
seems ; pray what sort of a fly do you use ? "
" Whiles I use a wee ane, and whiles a muckle
flie, — ane for rough and deep water, and the ither
for shallow streams. That is the way to trout,
both in loch and river."
" True ! I see you have some bonny little flies
in your hat ; take it off carefully, Purdie — you
understand me — and let me admire them."
THE POACHERS 1 SPOIL 205
Charlie advances, and taking off the man's hat
with great care so as to keep the crown undermost,
he pulls out from the inside six well-tied salmon
flies of the most approved colours, which he trans-
ferred to his own pocket. I actually saw Meg-
with-the-muckle-mouth amongst them.
" Ay, ye are as welcome to the flees as ye are
to the sawmont, and I am proud to do ye a good
turn at ony gait."
"Well now, bear in mind, that I will never
permit you to throw a fly wee or muckle in the
Pavilion-water again ; and if you darken the shores
with your presence a second time, I will have you
up at Melrose."
" I'm thinking I shall tak' your advice, for ye
seem a sensible chiel. Will ye accept of a pinch of
snuff?"
" Good morning, good morning ; get home to
Selkirk as quick as ye can ; we know ye well for a
souter of that town. Run, run, the bogle is after
you!
"Run, ay that will I, and the deil tak' the
hindmost," said he, and off he went at his best
pace ; leaving this blessing and the salmon to
solace us.
Perhaps I shall best give a general idea of what
was going on formerly in close time by a recitation
of the confessions of my departed friend Thomas
Purdie ; and let it be borne in mind in his behalf,
that at the time of his cantrips salmon were not
valuable, and, consequently, little cared for, so no
great harm was done ; but it is clear from his own
showing that Tom in his early days was a sort of
206
SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
Donald Caird, for he had no right to be " bleezing
up," where he did.
For the better understanding of his narrative, I
shall give a description of the clodding, or throw-
ing leister, or waster, as he was used to term it, the
instrument with which he performed his sleights.
It differs materially from the one in common use ;
a description of which latter will be given hereafter.
This throwing leister is used chiefly on the
upper parts of the Tweed, and its tributary streams,
where the water is not deep. The spear has five
prongs of unequal, but regularly graduated, length.
Those which are nearest the fisherman, and which
come to the ground first in throwing being the
shortest. The entire iron frame of the spear is
double the weight of that in common use. An
iron hoop is bound round the top of the pole, as a
counterbalancing weight ; and the pole itself has a
TOM PURDIE'S MUCKLE FISH 207
slight curve, the convex part being the outermost
in throwing : a rope made of goats' hair, called
" the lyams," is fastened to the top bar of the spear
just above the shortest prong ; this rope is about
twelve yards long, and is tied to the arm of the
thrower. The spear is cast like a javelin ; and, if
thrown by a skilful hand, the top of the shaft, after
it has pierced the fish, falls beyond the vertical
point towards the opposite bank of the river ; then
the fish is pulled to land by means of the aforesaid
rope or lyams, so that there is little chance of his
escaping in his struggles for freedom.
The accompanying engraving represents the iron
of the clodding waster ; that in general use will be
given hereafter.
Now for Tom Purdie. I should miss the nice
points of his character were I to deprive him of
his own peculiar way of communicating his feats,
though it is but too true that when he got upon a
favourite subject he was most inhumanly elastic.
TOM PURDIES MUCKLE FISH
" While I was with Mr. Anderson, and shepherd
at West Bold, one Sunday," says Tom, " I didna
go up to Traquair to the kirk, but took a walk by
the river side ; there were a vast o' fish in the
water, and I saw ane or twae great roeners turning,
a sure sign there were mickle kippers too. I had
dandered down to near the burn-fit, and had a pair
of good stilts aye lying there. My first wife was
then a lass, and lived at Caberston ; and the stilts
were ready to cross the water at an orra time. I
208 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
took a thought that I would like to see what was
steering on Caberston throat ; and sae I lap on the
stilts and went through at the rack ; and when I
was on the other side, I thought I might as weel
tak a keek at the throat. I keepit weel off the
water-side, until I was doon aneth where the fish
began to work. I kend by a clour in the water a
gey bit afore me, that there was a big redd there,
and drew cannily forrit. 'Odd, sir ! my verra heart
lap to my mouth when I gat the glisk o' something
mair like a red stirk than ought else muve off the
redd, and hallans down the water and make for the
south side. I fand my hair creep on my head. I
minded it was the Sabbath, and I should not hae
been there. It might be a delusion o' the enemy,
if it wasna the deil himser. I stude and consider'd.
I had never seen the deil i' daylight, and forbye
there was just then a great brown rowaner slade off
the redd after him. If it was the deil, what could
he be doin' wi' the rowaner ? The water was breast
deep at the least ; it might be a fish after a', and I
had heard the auld folk speak o' vera muckle anes.
I lookit up the brae to the toon. Peggy ablins
hadna likit my hankering about the throat on sic a
day, and she had slippit in to the house, and didna
come out again. Sae when I saw it was sae, I held
up the water side for my stilts, keepin', for aw that,
an ee to the redds. Heaven forgie me ! 1 neuer
saw sic a water o' fish ! If it wasna the deil I had
seen, I was sure he wasna far off. I saw eneugh
to temp a better man than me ; and I began to
think I had better be at hame reading a chapter o'
the gude book, if no a leaf or twae o' the Fourfold
THE GREAT KIPPER 209
State; sae I took the stilts and cam' through
again by the rack, and wan hame just a wee
thought afore the master and the mistress, honest
woman ! cam' hame thrae the kirk. I haflins wist
I had been there too ; — but yet I was only lookin'
at the warks o' the creation, and couldna say I had
dune ony great wrang ; an' if I hadna seen Peggy
come out o' the byre at Caberston, I ablins hadna
stillit the water after a'. But I fand I couldna
read a styme ; for, do as I might, I couldna get
the appearance that I had seen out o' my mind ;
and yet whan I consider'd about the mickle rowaner,
that I was sure eneugh was a yeithly thing, I
couldna help believing that it was, after a', a fish
I had seen ; but I never saw sic another.
" Weel, a' the time the master was at the readin',
I couldna keep the glisk o' the awsome mickle fish
out o' my head, and whan we raise thrae the
prayers, I poppit the shouther o' the nowtherd
callant, and said quietly, ' Sandy, if I raise ye about
twal o'clock ye needna wonder ; sleep as fast as ye
can till than, and tak' nae notice to Jamie when ye
rise.' I had aft ta'en this lad wi' me afore to haud
the light ; for he was a stout loon o' his age, and
could haud a light weel enough ; having a natural
cast rather bye common for a kin -kind o' mischief and
ploys, and, I believe, was sound asleep in five minutes.
"As for mysel', I need hardly say I never
steekit an ee. I kend fu' weel that if we warna
at Queedside by the first o' the Monanday morning,
the hempies out o' twae or three o' the touns o'
the north side o' the water wad be bleezin' up afore
us ; and some devilrie cam' o'er the cock that sat
210 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
on the Byre balks aside us, for he never missed to
skirl every ten minutes thrae the time I lay doon ;
sae I was as often grapin' the hands o' my watch,
which I had gotten in a coup thrae Geordie
Matheson three weeks afore.
"At last, when I had a gude guess it was
drawin' near to twal o'clock, and nae fear o'
breaking the Sabbath, I gat up and shook Sandy
by the shouther, who was out o' bed in a jiffie.
We went to the barn, and tied up twae prime
heather lights, thrae a bunch or twae, which I had
gae'd the miller lad dry on the kiln ten days afore.
They may talk o' ruffi-es and birk bark baith ; but
gie me a gude heather light, weel dried on the
kiln, for a throat o' the Queed. However, I got
the lights on my back, San die carried a weel dried
bairdie, and I took in my hand my clodding waster.
I had gi'en the Runchies o' Yarrowford seven
white shillings for her ; but nane could make a
waster wi' the Runches, 1 nor track an otter either ;
they had clean the best terriers in the hale country-
side ; and they had an art o' their ain in tempering
the taes o' a waster that they took to the grave wi'
them. I could hae thrawn mine off the head o' a
scaur ; and if she had stracken a whinstane rock she
wad hae been nae mair blunted than gif I had
thrawn her on a haystack.
1 The Runches (Runcimans) of Yarrowford were two celebrated
smiths, probably brought to Selkirkshire by Murray of Philiphaugh.
They were famous for a peculiar art in tempering' edge tools. Their
otter hounds and terriers also were capital. Singular stories were told
of their sagacity. Rob Runchy, as a forlorn hope, once threw his
clodding leister at a drowning man floating down the Yarrow in a high
flood, and hauled him out with the lyams unharmed.
LIGHTING UP 211
" On our way to the water, I was nae little
fashed wi' the unsonsie callant blowing up the
bairdie every now and than, to mak' sure that it
wasna out, and I had ance or twice to shake him
by the neck ; for I wasna sure that the Gabber-
ston folk, who were aye devilish yaap when there
war mony fish in the water, mightna be lying at
the side o' the throat ready to blaAv up when it past
twal o'clock ; and gude truly, if they had gotten a
blink o' our bairdie, they wad hae ta'en that instead
o' the hour. At any rate there was little use in
warning aw the north side o' the water that Tarn
Purdie was ga'n oot to the fishing ; and, to tell the
truth, the Sabbath day was little mair than o'er.
" But some had clippit the wings o' the Sabbath
closer than us after a' ; I saw the twinkle o' a coal
every now and than comin' doon Caberston peat-
road ; and I weel kend it was just the Sandersons
o' Priesthope bent for the same place wi' oursels.
It was ill bein' afore them on a Monanday morning
wi' fair play, when the water was in good trim.
Faith I lost nae time when I saw the twinkle o'
their peat-coal (there was nae strae for bairdies at
Priesthope) in tying the lights on the callant's
back and thrawing him and the clod-waster on my
shouther, and stilting the water as I had done in
the daylight. I kent fu' weel the place where the
big redd was, and blew up about thirty step below,
sae that the light might be at the best when we
cam' foment it. Sandy held the light weel ; his
een were glenting in his head wi' eagerness ; and
just when we cam' to the tail o' the redd, I saw the
muckle kipper lyin' like a flain wedder. I had, as I
212 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
thought, the advantage on my side, for the brae
was three or four feet aboon the water, and I
strack him with a' my pith. Whither the mid
grain had straken him on the back fin, I took nae
time then to consider ; but the fourteen pund waster
stottit off his back as if he had been a bag o' wool.
"A cauld sweet cam' owre me, an' I believe
every hair on my body crap. I was dead sure it
was the deil himseT that had been permitted to
throw himsel' in my way for breaking the Sabbath !
For I had begun to tie up the lights as soon as I
shook up the callant ; an' it was hardly twal
o'clock. I pu'd the burnin' light out o' his hand,
and dash'd it in the Queed, threw him on my back
as fast as I could, an' was hardly able to stilt the
water again for vera dread.
" I needna say we were soon in our beds ; and
I took the callant in aside me, for he was to the
full as feard, poor fellow, as I was, — an' mair. For
when I got time, an' turn'd calm eneugh to
consider, I began to see it couldna weel be auld
Clutie, for I could mind o' seein' the verra een, an'
gib an' teeth and the gapin' mouth o' the kipper.
And by and by, I cam' to be certain sure it was
neither mair nor less than the big monster I had
seen i' daylight. Sae wi' that settlement there
cam' the question, How could I get another
chance ? aweel, I lay still till just afore sky-
break, which I kend baith by my watch, and the
cock that had been through the night as quiet as
the kye aneath him. I waken'd Sandy wi' muckle
ado this time, and he had nae grit broo' o' the
business : but, however, be that as it may, we tied
THE STROKE 213
up another light an' set off again. But there was
still a hankering i' the callant's mind anent gaen
back to the same place, where he had gotten sic a
fleg. He was like a colt that has been scar'd wi' a
gray stane, an's no willing to venture back to see
that it's nae bogle. ' But is ye sure, Tarn, it wasna
the deil ? ' ' Deil a bit o' Satan it was, Sandie, ma
man,' says I, ' for I saw him afore you ; and the
deil darena show himsel' in daylight on sic a day.'
Weel, we gat through the Queed again, and
kindled up the auld place. When we cam' up to
the muckle redd, the fient a hait was there but
twae or three rowangatherers whidden about ; sae
we cam' up the water-side, for the light was only at
the best, when, gonshens ! there was the great
brute o' a kipper, that, when he had gotten a glint
o' the light had minded the dunt he got on the
back, an' was glidin' up the side o' the water within
three step o' the channel. I scraucht to Sandie to
haud up the light, and keepin' clear o' the back fin
this time, I strack him atween the back fin an' the
gills, at the same time shakin' the lyams off my
arm. Peace be here ! if he didna stem the throat
four feet deep wi' the waster sticking straight up
in his back as if he never fand it, wi' the lyams
about him ! I durstna draw however. I had nae
fear o' their breaking, for they were spun o' the
hair o' the grey auld buck that gaed for mony years
on the Plora craig 1 ; but had I pu'd at the lyams,
the kipper behooved to turn, an' he might ha' taen
1 I know not the derivation of lyams ; the word is only used, as far
as I know, to denote a small twisted rope usually made of goats' hair,
for the sake of elasticity, and fastened to the bow of the clodding
214 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
doon the throat tap water, an I wad ha' lost my
waster an' lyams, or pu'd it out o' his back. That
I had nae mind to dae.
" I never was feard for drownin' in my life ; at
ony rate never in the Queed. I strack into the
water breast deep, an' wonder sin syne how I keepit
my feet ; but I had on a pair o' gude clouted shoon.
The kipper tired o' the trade o' gaun against the
strength o' the throat, an' tralin' the lyams, turned
down the deep side of the water 'atween me an' the
brae. I got haud o' the shaft o' the waster, but to
try to grund him was needless, sae I keepit down
the shank, an' that made the force o' the water
raise the fish to the tap, an' I push'd him to the
side, following as I best could, an' pressed him to
the brae, when I lifted him out. Wi' the help o'
Sandie (who had, when he saw the blood, gotten
rid o' his fear o' the deil) I carried him to the head
o' the rack, and when I got him on my back, my
certie I was a massy man ! I was aye vext I
didna' weigh him, but my belief was he was forty
gude pounds, Dutch weight. As I waded the
water wi' him, leadin' Sandie by the hand, his neb
was aboon my head, an' his tail plash'd in the water
on my heels.
" My father was than miller o' Bold JMiln, an' I
took him down to be reisted in the kiln ; but we
were a' sae thrang wi' talkin' about his size, that
we forgot to lay him on the broads, and that, as I
was sayin', vexes me to this day."
leister : it is coiled on the left arm at the other end in such a manner
as to go freely off when the leister is thrown. Jamieson in his
dictionary derives the word from the French lien.
GLOSSARY 215
Clour — a heaving up of the water.
Ha II a ns — slanting.
Throe — from.
Haflins — partly.
Styme — none at all, in the least.
Poppit — tapped.
Steekit — closed.
Hempies — scamps — rogues.
Balks — cross beams.
Skirl — crow.
Coup— a swap.
Ruffies — old pieces of tarred sacking.
Bairdie — a straw rope to keep the light in.
Yuap — alert.
Flain — flayed.
Broo — liking.
Rowangatherers — meaning trout.
Massy — proud.
Meal stone — containing 1(3 pounds.
Reisted — dried.
Broads — scales.
Lyams — rope of goats' hair used with the throwing leister.
CHAPTER X
" And doun the stream, like Levin's gleam,
The fleggit salmond flew ;
The ottar yaap his pray let drap,
And to his hiddils drew."
Border Minstrelsy.
Whilst the Pavilion 1 was getting ready for my
reception, I took up my quarters at an inn at
Melrose, and, at my instigation, Mr. Tintern came
there also, and thus we soon got intimate. The
river had been falling in for some time, and was
now too low for fly-fishing ; and as the sky had
lately been pretty clear, and as the evening promised
a calm and sunny day for the morrow, I promised
to show him the manner in which we speared
salmon by the light of the sun, should the weather
prove as good as I anticipated.
My expectations for the time, at least, were
fulfilled ; for on waking I found the whole expanse
of heaven serene and glowing ; not a cloud to be
1 Having often mentioned the Pavilion water, I should have
explained before that it belongs to Lord Somerville ; and I have thus
called it from the name of his house, which I rented for some years,
and which is about two miles up the river from Melrose. The chief
scene of my operations, however, was some miles lower down the river
from Dryburgh, as far as Makerstoun.
MR. TINTERN AGAIN 217
seen, not a breath of air to ruffle the water ; so I
sent to awaken my companion. Breakfast was
prepared, but no Mr. Tintern. A little while after
1 heard a languid voice say, " Want some hot
water." A quarter of an hour elapsed, when I
heard the same words again ; after about a similar
interval of time I heard, " Want a stocking " ; and
then, after a long pause, " Want a stocking " again.
I was out of all patience ; so I went up to entreat
the man of wants to use more expedition, as we
were losing a very fine morning.
I did not find him in his room, but sitting down
half dressed on the upper stair near it, looking at
his sketch-book. He had not shaved, as his hint
for hot water, having been uttered in a mild tone,
had not been taken. He did not so much care
about shaving, he said, but he could not go out
with only one stocking on, and he could not find
the other, and unluckily he had sent his dirty ones
to be washed. It certainly was true that one of his
legs was bare ; and, after a fruitless hunt, we had
nothing left for it but to send into the town and
buy a fresh pair. After they arrived, however, he
discovered that there was no particular necessity
for such a step, as he had favoured one leg at the
expense of the other, by putting both stockings on it.
I had already breakfasted, and my impatience
increased ; so it was agreed that my friend should
take my host's little pony, and join me above
Melrose Bridge. When I got to the spot, Tom
Purdie, who was usually very forward on these
occasions, had not arrived ; but I descried Mr.
Tintern at a distance, not upon the innkeeper's
218 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
pony, but walking down hill ; and I went to meet
him, that he might not miss us at the river. I came
up to him precisely at the turnpike by Newton,
and overheard the following little dialogue between
him and the turnpike woman : —
" Here's twopence for you, good woman."
" What for do ye gie me this ? "
" Why, for my horse, to be sure."
" And whaur may your horse be ? "
" Where ? why here, behind me, my good dame."
" It must be a gey piece ahint then, I'm think-
ing, for I canna see the beast."
At this he began to pull the bridle rein which
he had in his hand ; and, upon finding it very
particularly obedient, he looked round and found,
true enough, that the pony whom he fancied he
had been leading down hill, and was at the end of
the said bridle, had slipped out his head, and
trotted back the way he came. At this incident,
he seemed almost as much amused as we were ;
though I thought I saw a lurking appearance of
distress in his countenance, too, as having further
to walk than he had bargained for.
Let us now see what the fishermen were doing.
Charles Purdie and Thomas Jamieson, whilst sit-
ting on a rock by the water-side, at length descried
Tom Purdie making up to them with his leister.
" Well, Tom," said Jamieson, " I never knew ye
keep ahint afore, when there was any wark for the
leister. What makes ye so late, mon ? "
" Why, I cudna get awa' frae Abbotsford ;
there was a gentleman wi' Sir Walter ; but wha he
was 1 dunna ken, but I think he was English. Sir
SIR WALTER AND HIS DOGS 219
Walter gaed out to tak' a walk, and cried to me to
follow him. When we war joost gaen up near to
the turn before we cum' to the Boor, 1 Pepper and
Finnet were hunting the woods, and Maida was
gaen ahint us ; and, to my great astonishment,
when I lukit a wee piece among the trees, Di, who
was wi' me, war standing, and pit out her muckle
tail like the handle of a cleik. Or ever I wishes,
out gets a dirty beast of a hare, and bangs right on
to the walk afore us. Sir Walter and the other
man war gaen side by side ; or ever I kent, Maida
pit his muckle nose past me, when Pepper barkit,
and set up his great lugs ; and as the gentleman
walked rather wide at the knee, he saw the hare
through atween his legs, and made a great brush all
at aince, and lifted him off his feet. The gentle-
man, thinking he was going to fa, cotched a firm
grip o' Maida's rough hair as he sat strid' legs on
his back. Maida wanted to follow Pepper, and rin
awa wi' him aboot thirty yards, when he coupit
him off, and he fell owr' the brae among the bushes
on the under side o' the walk ; and Sir Walter gie
a laugh ; and I cudna behave mysel' ava', for I was
nearly fawd doon wi' laughing too. Hey, mon, I
never was so takken by the face in aw my life ;
and when the gentleman got up, his breeks were
riven at the knee ; and when he cam' out from
among the bushes, he lookit sae soor, that Sir
Walter turned round and flate on me for laughing ;
but if I was to dee for it, I cudna help it ; and Sir
Walter turned his back to the gentleman and
laughed himsel', joost as bad as me ; but the gentle-
1 A mosshouse or rustic seat.
220 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
man never laughed a bit. Aweel, we turned to
gang hame again, and a' the way doon the walk
the gentleman he keepit looking at Maida, and
when he got to Abbotsford, he ordered his carriage
and gied awa'."
" Well, that was better sport than we are likely
to have to-day, Tom, for the cluds are beginning
to rise, and the wind is getting up ; more's the
pity, for it was the finest morning I ever saw, and
now we are late, and have lost twae hours. But
here comes the maister and the strange gentleman
with him, he that does not know a fish from a
cow, and who was broke by ane of thae whitlings."
The little party being now entirely assembled,
agreed that, as the day was beginning to alter, it was
a pity to disturb the water till they saw clearly how
it would turn out ; so the fishermen remained with
the boats and leisters at Craigover boat-hole ; and,
in the meantime, I, Harry Otter, thought I could
not do better than explain the operation of sunning
to my friend Mr. Tintern, as there was now some
chance of gaining his attention ; so we sat down,
and I commenced as follows : —
Sunning, as I have told you, is a mode of taking
salmon with a spear by sunlight ; and vast numbers
are captured in this manner, particularly in the
upper part of the Tweed, where fish are more easily
seen than in the lower, from the comparative
shallowness of the water in which they lie. 1
This sport does not begin till the river is quite
low and clean, and useless for the fly. To succeed
1 The use of the leister, whether by night or day, is now illegal.
—Ed.
"SUNNING" THE WATER 2 21
perfectly requires a bright and calm day. You
cannot see a fish lying even at a very moderate
depth when the surface of the water is ruffled by
the wind. As soon as the river is thus fairly in
order, take the first good day that occurs ; you
may not have many more ; and if you have, you
will not mend the matter by waiting too long, as
after a continuance of hot weather a green vegetable
substance rises from the bottom, which lessens the
transparency of the water.
If you have a man sufficiently clever with the
leister, let him stand in the water at the head of
the stream whilst you are trying below, that he
may strike the fish which endeavour to pass out of
it into another cast. If you have no such man,
and there are very few who can see a fish pass up
a rapid gorge, you may hang a net in the stream ;
but you must not bar the river by stretching it
quite across, as that is illegal. If you sun a large
pool where there is deep water, and various runs
and eddies in it, it is advisable to place nets in such
situations as are most favourable for fish to strike
into when they are disturbed by the boats, and the
other means in use for frightening them. The
pass being thus in part secured and all prepared,
the next thing is to rout about, and endeavour to
frighten the fish by every means in your power, so
that they may hide themselves under the rocks and
stones, or even lie, as they sometimes do, half
stupified beside them, when you may strike them
with the leister. To effect this, it is usual to begin
by rowing your boat or boats over the pool with
some white object hanging in the water from the
222 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
stern : the sculls of horses are in high repute for
this service ; and I dare say a stuffed otter would
be excellent, though I never tried it.
When you think you have created sufficient
terror by these means, you may look about for the
fish, and the sport begins. You may manage your
boat with the leister, as in burning by night, of
which hereafter : but you do not, as in that case,
necessarily work her broadside in front ; and one
artist is sufficient for the amusement, though more
may partake of it. If the leisterer knows the water
well, he puts the boat gently over the rocks and
stones, where the fish endeavour to conceal them-
selves. Sometimes they get under a large stone
and are entirely hidden ; generally they are partially
concealed under smaller stones, part of the body
and tail only being seen ; so that it requires some
dexterity to strike them properly, or indeed at all.
Some will lie under the shelf of a rock quite open
to the view ; in which case you must be careful,
when you strike, that a prong of the leister does
not rest upon the ledge of a rock above, instead of
on the salmon. Others I have seen lying fair and
open in the bare channel ; but these will not lie to
the leister so well as those in the situations I have
mentioned. If you do not strike a fish near the
centre of his body, you are never very sure of lifting
him. The late Staffa, before he came to his title,
was once sunning the Pavilion-water with John
Lord Somerville, and perceiving that the fisherman
in their boat had struck a salmon that was likely to
get off the spear when he might attempt to lift
him, in the true spirit of a Highlander, and without
DUBIOUS DODGES 223
saying a word to any one, plunged at once into
the Tweed with his clothes on, dived down to the
fish, and brought him into the boat with his hands.
" A Highlander can never pass a seal, a deer, or a
salmon, without having a trial of skill with him."
To take a fish whose tail alone is seen projecting
from the hiding place, provide yourself with a small
steel harpoon, the barbs of which shut into the
shaft when the point enters and makes the wound,
but which spread laterally when you pull it back ;
tie a line of small whip-cord to this weapon, and fix
the butt of the harpoon itself in the point of a rude
rod made for the purpose. You may then push it
into the tail of the fish, when the little spear will
come from the rod ; and you may pull out your
salmon with the line attached to it.
There are some very large stones in the Tweed,
sometimes two or three lying together, under which
salmon can totally conceal themselves ; but you
will easily discover if there are any underneath
them by the air-bubbles which they cast up to the
surface of the water when you poke with your
leister shaft. My method of taking these fish was
to throw a casting net over the stone or stones that
concealed them, and then to poke them out with
the pole of the leister. The net should be strong,
or they will swim clean through it, as if it were a
cobweb ; in throwing the net, you must cast above
the hiding stone, allowing for the current, which
will take it down some little distance before it sinks
to the bottom, according to the depth and strength
of the water. Of course this method may also
apply to fish partially concealed.
224 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
In sunning, as in burning, begin at the lower
part of the river that belongs to you, so that you
may again come across those fish that escape
upwards, and may not go beyond your water ; and
you will have a more successful day of it, if you
wait till your neighbour below has sunned his
water. If the river continues low for some time,
disturbed fish will be continually coming forward,
and you may go over your water two or three times
at different periods, till you have caught nearly
every fish that takes up his seat in it.
If a salmon gets off your leister wounded, being
weak, you may be sure he will go down the river ;
and the eels will come out instantly, if it be hot
weather, and follow the blood : if the fish is badly
wounded, although not dead, the said eels will soon
settle the matter, and eat out his flesh, leaving the
skin alone for speculators to make mermaids with. 1
You will see the eels by dozens hanging thick on
him like the sticks in a bundle of faggots ; but they
are too small to be taken with a salmon spear, and
do not resemble the fine silver eels in the Kennet
and some of our English streams, but are browner
in colour, and have large heads. The Scotch have
a strong antipathy to them, and never use them
for food. But they should be removed from the
river if possible, as they make great havoc in the
spawning beds.
This information having been briefly given, Mr.
1 Some people will remember an exhibition of this sort many years
ago in St. James's Street, in London. It was very ingeniously con-
structed, though far from alluring. It was placed under a glass, and
created some sensation amongst the naturalists, as mermaids ought
to do.
DUFFERS LUCK 225
Tintern went up the river with his fishing rod, as
the sky was not yet clear enough for the main sport :
after having absented himself for a considerable
time, he returned to the party with a fish, which,
being too large for his basket, he held with his
handkerchief, a corner of which he had passed
through the gills. This fish he lifted up before
Tom Purdie, with an air of success that I never
saw him assume before, saying, " Now, Mr. Purdie,
I have conquered a sea trout at last, and here he is!"
Tom was all aghast, for before the fish was laid
on the ground he thought he saw what he called
" a very nice new-swoomed gilse " ; but, upon a
closer inspection, his practised eye soon descried the
difference ; for it was a real river trout, of above
four pounds weight, and unusually bright in colour.
Tom turned him over and viewed the other side,
then turned him over again, and viewed both sides
with great seeming interest ; he then examined his
teeth and gills, and uttered a short groan ; pulling
out his snuff-box from his pocket, and having
solaced himself with a pinch, he took a still more
minute survey, looking alternately at the fish and
Mr. Tintern : at length, casting a reproachful glance
at the animal, he said pithily, " Od, and to be taen
by the like o' him ! "
The sky was now clear again, and the wind,
which had only been brought on by a few rising
clouds, had subsided. Mr. Tintern, however, being
too good-humoured to take Purdie's sarcasm to
heart, was so charmed with his success that he
would not join the leisterers, but preferred fishing
with the fly ; at the time he delicately hinted to
Q
226 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
me, that he thought there was something a little
sanguinary in the use of such a weapon, though he
owned that the invariable custom of knocking the
fish on the head immediately they were lifted made
their sufferings very short, and certainly, he thought,
not exceeding those of sheep and other animals in
the way they are commonly killed for the table.
He then seceded, and I promised to join him at
Melrose. We went over the Webbs, and Craigover
boat-hole, setting nets and using various devices to
make the fish conceal themselves, in the way that
has been mentioned above. Upon the whole, we
were tolerably successful ; but having already de-
scribed the process of sunning, and being of a com-
passionate disposition, I will trouble no one with
a relation of the particulars of our transactions,
especially as I mean to give a flaming description
of what is called " burning the water," towards the
end of these pages.
I went home from Mertoun by Melrose Abbey,
to take Mr. Tintern along with me, according to
agreement. As he was in the habit of fishing and
sketching alternately, I surmised he would establish
himself in the churchyard, and fall to work with
his crayons : nor was I deceived ; for when I came
to the wicket gate, I descried him very busy indeed ;
whilst a corpulent little gentleman in a snuff-
coloured coat, with a cane in his hand, was looking
over his shoulder. As I thought some amusing
contrast of character would take place, I listened to
what was going on ; in fact, the little man's gestures
were so grotesque that I was willing to enjoy them
as long as possible. He would stand still and look
TINTERN AT WORK 227
over the artist's paper with a scrutinising expres-
sion ; then he would draw back a little, and stamp
his cane on the ground with all the force and
dignity of a bailie. In the meantime our friend
was so absorbed in his work that he seemed wholly
unconscious of this person's presence, till he was
aroused by the little man himself, who said, in a
loud tone, and with an air of consummate con-
sequence, stamping a tombstone at the same time
with his staff of office, —
" Weel, friend, what may ye be doing here ? "
Tintern, looking back over his shoulder, said, in
his absent manner, — " I think he must have been
buried at the eastern end of the Abbey ; am I
right, my good sir ? "
"Ay, ay — I thought so, — I ken weel eneuch
what ye're after ; ye are ane o' thae chiels that
gang aboot to raise the dead bodies o' the departed
corpses ; — Od, that's a gude yane ! "
Tintern (still sketching, and speaking abstrac-
tedly), " I'd give something to see old Michael
Scott's tomb."
" Nae dout ye would ; but I'll tak' gude tent
to hae a sure hand or twae to watch yer howking
tricks the night."
So saying, " the little round fat oily man "
marched off with great dignity, muttering, " Od,
that's a gude yane ! disturbing the dead bodies o'
the corpses ! He shall gang afore the Sherra'."
It seems my unlucky friend was doomed to a
continued interruption of his studies ; for no sooner
had the man in office departed, than some old
women came and stood over him for a very con-
22S SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
siderable time, and occasionally interrupted his
view : one of them at length said pithily to her
companions. — ' Hech. sirs, this is idle wark ! lets
awa to the praatie-
Such interruptions, though trivial in themsel
are sometimes a little troublesome to a studious
man, and happy had it been for 3Ir. Tintern had he
met with no other : but in a short time afterwards
the churchyard was full of all the idle boys in the
town, who fairly hooted him, and compelled him
to leave the place, which he did under the best
protection I was able to afford him. He called
them "naughty boys." and they shouted amain.
" Cc rpse lifter ! corpse lifter ! " having been previ-
ously so instructed, as may readily be guessed.
This disagreeable attack annoyed Mr. Tintern
so seriously, that he resolved to leave Melrose the
next day. which I was sincerely sorry for. I could
not, however, change his resolution, as he seemed
to think that he was a marked man. and that
he should enjoy tranqiiillity no longer in that
country.
I got up early the following morning to bid him
farewell, and just in time to prevent his going into
the Glasgow coach instead of the London mail
He seemed sorry to part with me : and, as he was
getting into the carriage, he begged the mail-
coachman not to drive fast, or to whip his hor--
I felt a blank at his departure ; for he wa s
most agreeable and clever gentleman, and not the
entertaining for his eccentricities, which appeared
only from time to time, and interfered with no
ones humour.
CROSS-LINING 229
In the Tweed, and indeed in some other rive: s,
they have a method of fishing which is called
trolling in Scotland. 1 but cross angling in England,
where it is practised with the natural May-fly for
catching trout. In trolling for salmon, two men
stand opposite to one another on either side of the
stream, each with a rod in hand ; their lines are
joined together, and from the bow which this
junction creates about half-a-dozen flies are sus-
pended vertically. Of course there can be no
casting of the line : but the flies are hung in the
stream, and passed over it. the fishermen trailing
them, and acting in concert : thus, by means of
the number of flies, and the saving of time by not
having the line to throw, a great quantity of water
is gone over in a short space of time. But this
sweeping method has its drawbacks, and very serious
ones they are. Out of the number of fish that
offer, very few are taken : many get only a touch
of the hook, and escape, and are thus entirely lost
to the proprietor of the part of the river where this
occurs : for. generally speaking, fish so alarmed quit
the water the same night, and travel upwards. I
remember a singular instance of this occurred to
me in the Pavilion-water.
The river was very low and clear at the time :
so much so. that it was in good order for sunning,
and therefore in no state for fish to travel in. I
chanced, however, to hook a salmon with a fly.
which, after being played a little, got off the hook :
there was a cairn just above the spot where this
1 Tze tana i? - ^nd the practice (no - *- known as eross-foune)
is illegal. — Ei».
230 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
occurred, and I told my fisherman to set the net
belonging to it that night ; he did so with a very
bad grace, assuring me that it was perfectly use-
less ; or, as he was pleased to express himself, "just
perfect nonsense." Nevertheless the fish, having
started from his stream, was caught in it that
night.
John Crerar mentioned to me another instance
where a salmon, having broken a fisherman's line,
went down the Tay for a mile, and then up the
Tummel three miles, and was there caught the day
following by the same fisherman, who thus regained
his fly with two or three fathoms of line attached
to it.
On the other hand, I know of three well-
attested instances of salmon having been caught
almost immediately after they had broken the fisher-
man's line ; but I conclude these fish were touched
at first in a part that was scarcely sensitive. A
very curious circumstance of this sort occurred
in Islay, where a gentleman was broken by a
salmon, which he caught immediately afterwards ;
upon landing it, he found, to his amazement, that
he had not touched the fish itself the second time,
but that his hook was linked in the one left in his
mouth previously. This was a very delicate affair ;
for had not the pull upon the fish been moderate
and even, he must inevitably have escaped. As
for my own practice, I never recollect having risen
a fish a second time that had touched my hook
previously.
What I have said regarding the number of fish
lost or set down in trolling is so universally
IIARLING 231
acknowledged, that this style of angling is seldom
practised, except, indeed, in fishing for kelts in very
full waters, when no one can throw completely over
the casts without the use of a boat. In this state
of the river the flies are drawn down the stream ;
but when the water subsides, they are trailed up it.
It is practised also a day or two before close time,
when the loss of fish off the hook is immaterial, as
far as regards future sport.
In the Tay, and some other large rivers, there is
another method of fishing with a fly in full water,
which is called harling. Two rods are laid in the
bottom of a boat, and hang over the stern, with a
large fly attached to each line. The boatman then
rows against the stream to the right and left of the
river in a zigzag direction, but still letting the boat
fall gradually down the river, so that he passes over
no fish that have not previously seen the flies. The
rower judges his pace by the objects on the banks.
When fish rise they hook themselves. Those who
practise this method are generally fishermen who
have been working the previous night, and like it
because they have not the fatigue of holding or
throwing the rod. They fancy, also, that having
two flies, they have a double advantage ; but this
is a deception, because both flies follow each other
in the same direction. Without much fear of con-
tradiction, I pronounce this same harling to be a
most prodigiously stupid method of proceeding, and
little superior to setting night lines. I tried it
once in the Tay, but no more harling for me. To
do the Tweed folk justice, I never saw it practised
there ; and I can only recommend it to those
232 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
liberal persons who wish to drive the salmon from
their own waters to those of their neighbours
above.
What, alas ! becomes of the beautiful wielding
of the rod, thrown (albeit heavy, and difficult to
manage) with a grace and dexterity that indicates
no exertion, the fly not falling like a four-and-
twenty-pounder, but just kissing the surface of the
water, and moving to and fro in a manner so
seducing as to beguile the most wary salmon of
every atom of prudence !
FISHING WITH BAIT, MINNOW, AND PARR'S TAIL
When the water is too low for the fly, and quite
clear, then begins the bait or worm fishing in
Tweed. The tackle consists of a large hook at the
end of your line, and a smaller one above it, placed
like the lip-hook in minnow tackle. These are
threaded with worms. The manner of putting
them on will be better learnt from the fisherman
on the river side, than it can be explained in writing.
When the water is in right order, that is, low and
clear, as I have said above, and the weather fresh,
a clever fisherman may glean the river of almost
all the fish that are left in the streams. Tolerably
large shot being fixed towards the end of the line,
and the worms themselves being heavy, it requires
some dexterity to throw a good distance without
accidents. To obviate these, and to effect your
purpose, begin with a line of a moderate length,
and tuck out a few folds of the reel, holding them
fast with your hand when you bring your rod back,
THE IGNOBLE WORM 233
but letting them go just as you have discharged
your throw. Thus the line is short at first, but
the weight of the shot and worms carries out the
folds to the extent required. Having thus cast
beyond the run of the salmon, let the stream carry
round your bait easily, without any jerk on your
part whatever, or any further motion than humour-
ing it towards the shore. Contract the line as the
bait comes near you, by gathering it up in folds
with your left hand, and holding them fast against
the rod with the fingers of your right, letting them
go again at the proper time when you cast, in the
manner I have before described. Thus you may
throw a very long line without endangering its
safety by coming in contact with the ground or
any objects in your rear.
You may fish to any depth you please merely
by elevating and lowering the point of your rod,
according to the run of the water. When the
weather and water are quite fit for the sport, the
fish seizes the bait briskly, and returns with it to
its seat or elsewhere : you must give him the line
by pulling from the reel with your left hand, and
letting it run smoothly between the fingers of your
right. A check at this time may lose him ; but let
him alone a few seconds, and he will have gorged
the hook ; then strike and kill him as soon as you
can : he is safe enough. Fresh open weather is the
best for this sport ; but fish will sometimes take
well even in a frost.
Many excellent and credible fishermen have
informed me that they have had good sport with
the worm in northern rivers, and in those of Ireland,
234 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
when the water was thick. Their testimony I do
not doubt ; I only say fish are not caught with the
worm, or bait, as it is called, when the water is in
a foul state in Tweed. I remember a gentleman
applying to me for leave to take a day's salmon
fishing, which I granted. There had been rain
the day before, and a spate came down in the
morning. I thought this unlucky ; but he was of
the contrary opinion, and rejoiced in the change ;
" For," said he, " if I sit on the point of a cairn, I
shall catch every travelling fish that passes with a
worm, as I have often done in Ireland." This was
a new fight to Charles Purdie and myself. Worms
were given him in abundance ; an excellent cairn
selected for the sport ; and there my gentleman
sat the livelong day without having an offer. Old
Richard Wilson could have introduced him into the
landscape with effect, for he was picturesque and
well placed ; but as a fisherman, says Charlie, " he
is useless a'thegither." However, the cairn is a laud-
able monument of his patience and perseverance.
FISHING WITH MINNOW AND PARR's TAIL
Salmon do not take the minnow or the parrs
tail so well in the Tweed as they do in the Tay,
nor so well in the upper parts of Tweed as they do
in the lower. The minnow, in low water, is prefer-
able to the parr's tail ; and it should be worked in
the same manner as in trout fishing, only not quite
with so quick a motion. It is not necessary to use
more than two hooks ; namely, the large hook that
passes through the minnow, and the lip hook.
MINNOW FISHING 235
Shot should be put on the casting line about a foot
and a half from the bait — fewer or more according
to the strength of the stream.
What is called the parr's tail is a pretty liberal
allowance of the said little fish, consisting of a
diagonal cut from the shoulder to the anal fin ; so
that in fact you have all the firm part of the fish,
discarding the head and the stomach. In full
water I think this bait is preferable to the minnow ;
and it has the advantage of a much firmer hold of the
hook, not breaking like the soft parts of the minnow.
Clean salmon will take this bait whenever the
river is in order for the fly, or perhaps a little before
it is so, even when the water is slightly discoloured,
or, as the fishermen call it, drumly. But foul fish,
including kelts, never take it well in the upper
parts of the Tweed, unless the water is clear,
though they will take it in a drumly water in the
Tay ; nor can any sport be expected with it in very
warm weather.
The best state of the water, and the most con-
venient time, is between the fly and bait fishing ;
that is, when it is rather too low for the one, but
not low enough for the other. The best weather
is a fresh day, with wind to act upon the surface of
the deep pools. In summer the proper hour is
early in the morning. After a night's burning,
salmon take the minnow, small parr, or parr's tail,
particularly well in the streams.
The best way of casting the minnow is precisely
that which I have indicated in my instructions for
fishing with the worm.
As in a deer forest, however extensive, every
236 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
burn, rock, glen, moss, and mountain has its dis-
tinct appellation, so that you can describe with the
greatest accuracy where a hart has been slain, or
any signal event has happened ; so in a salmon river,
every stream and pool in which these delectable
fish lie is called by a name that either distinguishes
its character, or relates to some event or circum-
stance which tradition has not always preserved.
Some casts are called after the names of persons
who were drowned in them : there is one such,
yclept Meg's Hole, some little distance above the
Melrose bridge. I wonder who Meg was ; but
Charles Purdie, who is coming up the river, is right
sure to tell me some nonsense or another anent it,
so 1 will sound him.
" Well, Charlie, I see you have been putting all
the boats in place, so sit down upon the bank here
and rest yourself : pulling a boat up a strong stream
is hard work, and pulling several over is harder.
Now, tell me why the pool I fished the other day
is called Meg's Hole ; but stick to truth, mind, and
do not let me hear any of your foolish tales."
" Aweel, then, I'll tell ye the hale truth. Ye'll
hae heard o' Thomas the Rymer, him that in days
long gaen by lived at Erlston, 1 and was taen awa' by
the fairies, and is wi' them at this day ; we hae Sir
Walter's word for it. Black Meg of Darnwick lived
wi' this Thomas, who, ye ken, was an enchanter ;
and Meg learned some awfu' words of him, and
also power as a witch. Ae time she was seen
sitting upon ane of the towers, aboon the Elfin
glen, in the shape of a raven ; at anither, she came
1 Formerly Ercildonn.
BLACK MEG OF DARNWICK 237
doon to the Tweed at the gloamin' in the likeness
of a lang-craiged heron, flapping her mnekle wings,
and uttering dreidfu' shrieks ; and again she was a
cormorant, perched upon a blastit tree on the moor.
I have seen her mysel' mair than ance."
" Seen her, man ! why you said she lived with
Thomas the Rymer ; and it is some centuries since
he was taken away by the fairies."
" Aweel, aweel, that may be ; but as sure as
deid I aince saw her in her ain proper shape ; and
she had a long neb, and a muckle mouth, and a red
petticoat on, and she held a leister under her oxter,
as if she war gaen to the burning ; and wha kens
but she may live till this day ? for her deid body
was never found, nor the corpse-light * seen. There
are three towers on the muir a long way aboon the
Elfin glen ; ye'll hae seen them yoursel' ; and Meg
used to live in ane of these towers by turns : no
one kent in which she was, and nobody cared to
speer. At nightfall she would come doon the
glen to seek thae grey stanes 2 that the fairies cast
their cantrips with, and muckle scaith she wrought,
rotting the sheep of ae body, and takkin' the milk
from the kye of anither ; so the lads waylaid her
wi' flails, and pitchforks, and sic-like gear. They
1 When a dead body was lost, it was supposed that a light appeared
over it at night, to indicate its position.
2 These fairy stones, as they are called, are to be found in the Elfin
glen, where the Maid of Avenel is said to have appeared. This
romantic spot belongs to Lord Somerville, and is in the ornamental
grounds belonging to his house called the Pavilion. The stones are of
a grey colour, and of various curious shapes, sometimes closely re-
sembling articles in common use, such as tea-cups, saucers, &c. ;
they are supposed to contain some charm, and are constantly sought
for to this day by all sorts of people.
238 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
chased her a' the night in the glen, up and doon
the braes and thickets, and through the water ; but
they could never grip her, and they came back at
skreigh o' day wi' torn plaids and broken shins, all
covered wi' mire ; and some o' them had a sair
sickness afterwards, and repentit that they ever
meddled wi' her.' 1
" Oh, of course ; but what became of her at last,
Charlie?"
" Why, then, when she persistit in her foul ways,
some o' thae freebooters, who feared neither witch,
warlock, nor deil, made a raid into her country, and
pit a fire round each of the towers, 1 and made the
ane she was in too het to baud her, and out she ran
wi' awfu' yells, skelping owre the moor, and so
doon to the Elfin glen, where ane o' these same
reivers, who had a flaming firebrand in his hond,
wounded her ahint wi' it ; and the deidly night-
shade still grows in the place where her blood was
spilt. Then they drave her through the glen, and
so doon the brae above a deep pool in Tweed, and
pushed her in wi' a pole and a firebrand : so she cam'
to her end by wood, fire, and water.
" The pool was draggit in the mornin', but her
body was never found ; and many people watched
all night for a lang time, and the corpse-light never
appeared ; nor was her wraith ever seen, except by
mysel' and my feyther at Trequair, and Walter of
Darn wick, who saw it howking a grave wi' many
ither wicked spirits round it on the tap of Eildon
Hills.
"So the pool goes by the name of ' Meg's Hole '
1 The three towers are still standing in the place indicated.
THE LEISTER
239
to this day ; and when ye howkit the muckle
sawmont that ran ye doon to the Cauld pool, ye
ken that her spirit tried to drive him through the
farther arch of Melrose Bridge, but ye were owre
canny for it."
The earliest method of taking fish, previous to
the invention of either hooks or nets, was that used
by the Egyptians, by means of a spear resembling a
trident. A sculptured stone, excavated at Chester
in 1738, and engraved in Lyson's history of the
county as a Roman remain, represents a fisherman
with his spear and basket.
I will now describe the salmon spear at present in
use. It was formerly called waster ; but that term
is nearly out of use, except by the old fishermen,
and it is now better known by the name of leister.
240 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
It resembles a trident in its general appearance ;
but has five prongs, instead of three, made of very
stout iron : there is only one barb to each prong, as
two would tear the fish too much in extricating
them. This weapon is fastened to the end of a pole
more or less long, according to the depth of the
water in which it is intended to be used ; sixteen
feet is the general length, and it is not easy to see
or strike a fish at a greater depth ; but in sunning
I have sometimes tied a light rope to the top of the
pole, and gone deeper than this with success, but
then it was when the river was unusually clear.
The preceding woodcut represents the cleik and the
leister : the latter is rather narrower, and altogether
of a neater make than those in general use.
In burning, the boat is managed with this leister ;
but no one can make use of it in this way who
has not learnt to work it with a pole, — which art
is termed canting, and is, I believe, little under-
stood except in the Tweed : in the Tay and the
Annan they know nothing of the matter. Now
the pole is not used as in punting ; but the man
who manages the boat, instead of shifting his place,
stands up or sits down at the stern ; he keeps his
eye upon her head, and forces her straight up the
rapids, pressing the pole in the direction in which
he would steer with a rudder. This is in a great
measure effected with a twist of the body. If he
does not keep her straight in her course, the current
takes her at the side, whips her round in an instant,
and down she goes, the deuce knows where, head
foremost ; nor can you resume your position till
you again bring her head up the stream.
WORKING THE BOAT 241
In forcing your boat up very strong water, at
every fresh thrust you must catch up the pole and
put it in again very quickly ; for when you are not
pushing the boat will recede if the rapids are heavy,
and thus you may lose way. This, I think, can be
done better by sitting than standing, as you are
nearer your work. In this manner you may thrust
your little craft where no oars could take hold of
the water.
To perform this requires vast practice, and
accordingly it was a considerable time before I
mastered it completely, although I had been accus-
tomed to punting on the Isis in my younger days.
The rapids had it all their own way for months, or
more. As you use the canting pole, which is shod
with a heavy iron spike, so you must use the leister ;
only with more caution, lest you should injure the
prongs.
As a proof of the difficulty of this operation, I
will mention that I once put the canting pole into
the hands of an English gentleman, who was a
good rower, and, as he asserted, a good punter
also. We were sunning a strong stream called the
Carrywheel, and I had placed Charles Purdie at
its gorge, to leister such fish as might attempt to
pass up it from the fright given by the disturbance
below. In a few seconds the head of the boat, not
being held straight up the stream, went round like
a shot, and so down the river. My friend was
perfectly confused, and did not know what on
earth should be done ; so, as we were losing way
rapidly, I took the pole and brought her head up
again. Still he would not give in, and was deter-
R
242 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
mined to have another trial. Well, he pushed
here, and he pushed there, and with these strenuous
efforts succeeded in describing pretty accurately in
his course what ill Gothic architecture is called the
zigzag moulding, losing way, however, at every angle.
Not having taken any notice of the objects on
the banks, he did not precisely know whereabouts
he was ; but his exertions, simply as exertions, were
highly laudable. When he had permitted the boat
to fall down into easy water, he had some little
command over her, and of this he was right proud.
As time was precious, I resumed the command, and
put the boat up again with my leister. When we
came up to the fisherman, my novice said, with con-
siderable exultation, "Charlie, did you see me cant?"
" Hout tout, mon, you canna cant ava ; she was
aye ganging doon," was the uncourteous response.
Having described our method of managing the
boat, 1 will endeavour to explain the manner in
which we strike the salmon. The leister should
not be held firm in the grasp, but sent loosely
through the hands, as its own weight in falling
will be more effective than any force you can give
it with a thrust. 1 You may think otherwise, per-
haps. Well, then, take your own way ; hold the
weapon firmly and determinedly ; you are going to
1 The Droit lately contained the following : — " At the moment that
an omnibus was passing on Friday through the Rue Montmartre,
under a house, No. 63, that was undergoing repairs, a pole more
than thirty feet in length slipped from the scaffolding at the
fourth storey, and fell perpendicularly on the omnibus, passed right
through the body, and entered so deeply between the stones of the
pavement that the horses were stopped on the moment, the vehicle
being literally nailed to the ground ; by a providential chance none of
the passengers were injured ! ! !"
LEISTERING 243
do great things, you fancy. But what happens ?
The water proves deeper than you had calculated
upon, and, not touching the bottom with your
spear as a support, in you go, your head taking the
lead, and the rest of your members following the
playful example.
Strike your fish over the shoulders if you can,
and bring your boat in such a position as to make
the stroke as vertical as possible. When you have
fixed him, hold him to the ground a space ; then
run your hands down the pole, making the distance
between them and the fish as short as you con-
veniently can ; lift the animal with his head upper-
most, by which means he will come out lighter,
and such action as he may make with his tail will
assist you rather than himself.
If you do not bear in mind this instruction, and
choose to have a go at a salmon at a little distance
from you, as having a way of your own, I will tell
you what will probably happen from this freak
also. The stroke will drive back the boat, and
you and the fish will part company. You may
have struck him, perhaps, — not impossible that ;
but your intended victim twists off in a moment,
and says as plainly as a salmon can speak, levrd
rincommodo.
I should observe that in burning the water by
night there is no time to fix every fish to the
ground, and that they are then most usually lifted
quickly ; indeed, as the boat falls gradually down
the stream, it generally comes over them con-
veniently enough.
To these various methods of taking fish I must
244 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
add the destruction by means of rake-hooks. The
tackle is very simple : it consists of two strong-
hooks, about two or three inches long, tied back to
back, and fastened to twisted gut, on which are
put five or six large shot, at equal distances from
each other. The fisherman, with a strong rod,
throws the line, with these bare hooks attached to
it, about a foot beyond any salmon that he may
discover lying, and then with a sudden jerk draws
the hook into him if he can, and gets him to the
land if he is able. 1
Clean fish are sometimes taken in this manner,
and most fishermen are provided with the tackle.
In a very low water in the summer, when fly-fishing
might have been said to be over, I once hooked a
good salmon in the Quarry stream above Melrose
Bridge. As a fish was at that time a great rarity,
I was particularly cautious in leading him ; never-
theless, with all my care, the hook, not having a
firm hold, came away from him after I had played
him a considerable time.
Purdie saw him lying in rather an exhausted
state in the same stream, which was shallow, and,
without saying anything to me, to my great
surprise, seized hold of my casting line and broke
off the lower end of it ; opened my book ; took a
pair of rake -hooks from it ; tied them on to the
line, and, at the second throw, tucked them into
the salmon ; put the rod into my hands, and I
killed the fish after all.
1 This is another of these nefarious devices for persecuting salmon,
happily now illegal, but described by Scrope with perfect complacency.
—Ed.
LIBERAL MAXIMS 245
All this to the Southern ear sounds like
poaching of the most flagitious description ; but
a salmon is a fish of passage, and if you do not
get him to-day he will be gone to-morrow. The
Tweed used to let for above 12,000/. a year ;
judge, then, in what a wholesale manner these
fish are caught by long nets and other sweeping
modes ; yet in what profusion they continue to be
found ! You may just as well think of preserving
herrings or mackerel as these delicious creatures ;
and there would be no objection to your taking
3378 salmon at one haul, if fortune would so
favour you, as Commander Ross did at Boothia
Felix on the 26th of July 1831.
Keep close time strictly ; kill no spawning fish ;
tamper not with foul ones of any sort ; preserve
the fry ; send the black fishers to Iceland ; but
catch as many salmon as you can, recte si fiossis
(meaning with a rod), si non, quocunque modo —
that is, with a net or leister, and so forth.
CHAPTER XI
" Tis night, dread night, and weary Nature lies
So fast as if she never were to rise ;
Lean wolves forget to howl at night's pale noon ;
No wakeful dogs bark at the silent moon,
Nor bay the ghosts which glide in horror by
To view the caverns where their bodies lie ;
The ravens perch, and no presages give,
Nor to the windows of the dying cleave ;
In vaults the walking fires extinguish'cl lie ;
The stars, heaven's sentry, wink and seem to die. 1 '
Lee.
Before I describe what is called "burning the
water," I will make an observation that may be of
service to the rod fisher. It is, that salmon which
have been disturbed in the night with boats and
lights will draw into the streams above, and take
the fly all the better for this disturbance the follow-
ing morning ; and as burning always takes place
when the water is very low, they probably will
not be found far from the place of the nocturnal
operations.
Trout also will take better for having been
routed about, and for change of situation ; a re-
markable instance of which I witnessed a few years
ago at Castle Combe. A hole under some hatches
BURNING THE WATER 247
by a mill was emptied of its water, that the trout
might be caught and taken lower down the stream,
more out of the way of poachers. This was done
by means of buckets, and in doing it the water
became thick and white, and the fish partook of
the same colour. I sent thirty-five brace of these
fish, all similar in size, a considerable distance lower
down the stream, when they were put under a
bridge near my house. Many of them died. But
in three hours after the removal I caught eight of
the others with a fly without moving from the spot :
neither the size nor the colour of the fish could
possibly be mistaken.
THE BURNING
" Charlie, Charlie,'" cried Thomas Jamieson,
" there's fine sport going on the night ; our maister's
minded to burn the water, for she is low enough,
ye ken ; so ane o' us will hae to gang and split the
twa auld tar barrels for lights, an' the ither mun
slidder up to Abbotsford and tell your uncle Tarn
what's ganging forrat, and say that he has to meet
us at the Carrywheel at aight o'clock preceesely.
Charlie, ye'd best do the lights yoursel', and I'll
hae to win to Darnick, and get the wasters aw new
sharpened. Sandy and Rob will come nae doot,
and we should hae auld Wat too ; but if he has
been fou yestreen, he'll no be worth a bawbee."
"Ye needna fash yoursel' aboot the like o'
him, for he had a wee drap. I saw him the morn
riddling a cart fu' o' sand lyin' again the house end,
which he said he was making ready for biggin' ;
248 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
and as I was coming awa' auld Janet gie me a wag
wi' her finger, and I jist steppit in. 'What do
ye think ? ' says she ; ' the auld vagabun' was fou
yestreen, and he gaed out as he thought unseen
by ony ; a' watched him, and he hid his siller amang
the sand, for he aye thinks I grap his pouches for
it. After he was awa' I sliddered out, and fun' his
purse ; there war seeven shillings and a groat in it ;
so I gaed to auld Mary Butler's, and bought vet-
meal for the bairns' parritch wi' it, and ye see the
auld differ is riddling the sand, thinking to find his
purse. He'll no be worth a rigmaree the night for
fishing.' "
" Aweel, Charlie, Janet says true ; but wha mim
we hae to lead hame the fish ? Tarn Hardy or Rob
Colyard would mak' good fun. Tarn, he'll tell us
that lang story aboot the scramidge, and the muckle
fish he killed in Leader-water, that misured nine
inches atween the een ; and if we hae Rob, he'll get
a stick and be gaun through his braidsword exercise,
and tell us how he did wi' the twa Frenchmen on
the field of Waterloo ; so Rob may meet us wi' his
cart to tak' hame the fish, when we come to Brig-
end pool. We mun now tak' up the twa boats to
the Carry wheel, where they will bide our coming
at night ; — and look here, raon : when we are in a
sweet wi' pooing them up, we will tak' a wee drap
out o' this black bottle."
The boat in general use for burning at night is
larger than the rod-fishing boats, as more room and
steadiness is required. In the centre of it, close to
the side on which the leisterers strike the fish, is a
pole fixed vertically, with a frame at top of it formed
A NIGHT SCENE 249
of ribs of iron to contain the combustibles. Three
men are sufficient to man the boat ; one at the
head, another at the stern, as boatmen and leisterers,
and the third at the centre to kill the fish and trim
the fire. But it will contain more men, if necessary.
The remainder of the day having been spent in
making the arrangements, and the proper hour
being now come, Harry Otter and Charlie Purdie
went out from the Pavilion to meet the party, who
were to assemble at eight o'clock about a mile and
a half up the river. The night was most favour-
able, it being utterly dark, and not a sough of air
stirring. With caution and with difficulty they
felt their way step by step at the rocky base of the
Scaur, where it dips into the river, till they descried
the boat which was to take them across it at the
Brig-end pool. The clanking of the chain as it
was loosened and flung on the planks sounded
harshly in the silence of night ; the oars dipped
duly, and they were soon on the opposite side of
the river, by which means they cut off a great sweep
of the haugh, "a huge half moon, a monstrous
cantle out," and proceeded in a more direct line to
their mark. They went on in darkness through the
chilling dews, now and then stumbling into the
patches of furze which were scattered over the
haugh ; soon they begin to hear the rushing of the
waters through the gorge of the Carrywheel : now
it breaks full and loud upon the ear, for they are
arrived at the base of the wooded brae that over-
hangs the cast.
Two groups of men, but dimly seen, here await
their arrival ; one consists of spectators lying on the
250 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
ground with their plaids thrown athwart their
bodies, and the other of the heroes who were to
figure in the grand operation : these latter were
sitting on the boats, and on the masses of rock
beside them on the water edge.
All being now ready, a light was struck ; and
the spark being applied to rags steeped in pitch,
and to fragments of tar-barrels, they blazed up at
once amid the gloom, like the sudden flash from
the crater of a volcano. The ruddy light glared on
the rough features and dark dresses of the leisterers
in cutting flames directly met by black shadows, —
an effect which those will best understand who in
the Eternal City have seen the statues in the
Vatican by torch - light. Extending itself, it
reddened the shelving rocks above, and glanced
upon the blasted arms of the trees, slowly perishing
in their struggle for existence amongst the stony
crevices ; it glowed upon the hanging wood, on fir,
birch, broom, and bracken, half veiled, or half
revealed, as they were more or less prominent.
The form of things remote from the concentrated
light was dark and dubious ; even the trees on the
summit of the brae sank in obscurity.
The principals now sprang into the boats.
Harry Otter stood at the head, and Charlie
Purdie at the stern. These men regulated the
course of the craft with their leisters ; the auxilia-
ries were stationed between them, and the light
was in the centre by the boat side. The logs,
steeped as they were in pitch, crackled and burned
fiercely, sending up a column of black smoke. As
the rude forms of the men rose up in their dark attire,
BORDER RAIDERS 251
wielding their long leisters, with the streaks of light
that glared partially upon them, and surrounded
as they were by the shades of night, you might
almost have fancied yourself in the realms below,
with Pluto and his grim associates, embarked on
the Stygian lake. But as the sports began, and as
the Scotch accent prevailed, the illusion passed
away ; for no poet, that I am aware of, has made
the above swarthy and mysterious personages
express themselves in the language of Tweedside ;
nor could one fancy salmon in the Styx, though
they might well disport in the streams of the
happy fields beyond.
"Now, my lads," says the master, "take your
places. Tom, stand you next to me ; Sandy, go
on the other side of Tom ; and do you, Jamie,
keep in the middle, and take tent to cap the boats
well over the rapids. Rob, do you and Tom
Purdie keep good lights and fell the fish. Halloo,
Tom, you have smuggled a leister into the boat
for your own use."
" Ay, ay, that have I, joust for mine ain de ver-
sion, ye ken."
"Well, well, you may just keep it, for you are
a stout chiel, and it would be hard work to get it
from you ; besides, no one can use it more dexter-
ously than yourself. Now, then, we will push the
boat up the cheek of the stream till we come to
the head of it. That will do. Now shoot her
across the gorge, and down she goes merrily, broad-
side foremost, according to rule. Cap, Charlie,
cap, man ! we are drifting down like mad ; keep
back your end of the boat."
252 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
" Aweel, aweel, she gangs cannily now ; look,
uncle, a muckle fish before ye ; or ever ye kent, the
maister's leister gaed through him, and played auld
dife. That side, that side, Jamie ; — he's rinnin up
to get past. Od, ye have him ; and I hae anither,
and anither. Keep a gude light, Tom. Now let
us tak' up the boat to the head of the stream, or
ever we look the stanes, for there war a muckle fish
gaed by that none o' ye gomrells ever saw. There,
we are high eneuch now ; haud yer hand, and let
her faw doon again : hey, but I see him the noo
afore me ; — ou, what an awfu' beast ! "
So saying, Charlie drove his leister furiously at
him ; but whether one of the prongs struck against
the edge of the rock above him, which prevented
its descent to the bottom, or from whatever other
cause, the stroke was unsuccessful, and as he lifted
the barren weapon out of the water, there arose a
merry shout and guffaw from the spectators on the
shore.
" Cap ! cap ! " cried Charlie, " now haud yer
hand ; gie me up the boat ; — od, but I'll hae him
yet ; he's gone amangst thae hiding stanes."
So saying, Charlie brought the head of the boat
to the stream, pushed her higher up, and pulled
her ashore ; he then landed, and seizing a brand out
of the fire, put it into Jamieson's hand, who pre-
ceded his eager steps like a male Thais, or one of
the Eumenides in pantaloons. He now stood upon
a rock which hung over the river, and from that
eminence, and with the assistance of the firebrand,
examined the bottom of it carefully. His body
was bent over the water, and his ready leister held
WARM WORK o53
almost vertically ; as the light glared on his face
you might see the keen glistening of his eye. In
an instant he raised up his leister, and down he
sprang from the rock right into the river, and with
that wild bound nailed the salmon to the channel.
There was a struggle with his arms for a few
seconds ; he then passed his hands down the pole of
the weapon a little way, brought himself vertically
over the fish, and lifted him aloft cheered by shouts
of applause from his friends on the shore.
Two or three more fish were taken amongst the
stones at the tail of the cast, and the sport in the
Carrywheel being now ended, the fish were stowed
in the hold of the boat, the crew jumped ashore,
and a right hearty appeal was made to the whisky
bottle. It was first tendered to the veteran Tom
Purdie, to whom it was always observed to have a
natural gravitation, but to the astonishment of all,
he barely put his lips to the quaigh, and passed it
to his nephew.
"Why, uncle, mon, what the deil's come owre
ye ? I never kent ye refuse a drappie afore, no not
sin I war a callant ; I canna thole to see ye gang
that gait."
" Why, I'll tell ye what it is, Charlie. I got a
repreef from Sir Walter for being fou the ither
nicht."
" Eh, uncle, how was that ? "
" ' Why,' says Sir Walter, ' Tom,' says he, ' I sent
for ye on Monday, and ye were not at hame at
aight o'clock ; I doubt ye were fou, Tom : ' ' I'll
joust tell ye the hale truth,' says I ; ' I gaed round
by the men at wark at Rymer's Glen, and cam' in
254 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
by Tarfield ; then I went to Darnick, and had a
glass o' whisky wi' Sandy Trummel at Susy's, and
I war joust coming awa' when Rob steppit in, and
cried for half a mutchkin. I wasna for takkin' mair,
but the glasses were filled, and I did not like to be
beat wi' them, so I tuk mine.' 'And is that all
you had, Tom ? ' said Sir Walter. ' Aye, indeed
was it,' said I ; ' but, Heaven have a care o' me, I
never was the war of it, till I was ganging up by
Jemmy Mercer's by Coat's Green ; and when I cam
up by Kerr side I wanted to see Maister Laidlaw,
but I thocht I durstna gang in ; and how I got
hame I dinna ken, for I never mindet it na mair ;
but our wife war in a terrible bad key the morning,
because I war sair wanted last nicht.
" ' Well,' said the maister, ' ye mun never do the
like again, Tom.' We then ganged to the woods,
and thinned the trees ; and I laboured with the axe
at thae that Sir Walter marked.
"'Now Tom,' says he, 'you will go home with
me, for you have been working very hard, and a
glass of whisky will do you good ; ' and he cawed
to Nicholson to bring Tom a glass o' Glenlivet. I
tuk it doon ; and, mon, if ye'd found it — it beat a'
the whisky I ever tasted in my life. ' Well, Tom,'
said Sir Walter, ' how do ye feel after it ? Do ye
think another glass will do ye ony harm ? ' I said
naething, but I thocht I wad like anither, and
Nicholson poured out ain, and I tuk it. Then the
maister said, ' Tom, do ye feel onything the war
o' it ? ' ' Na, na,' said I, ' but it's terrible powerful
and three times as Strang as ony whisky I ever
drank in my life.' ' Then, Tom,' says Sir Walter,
THE BARLEY BREE 255
' never tell me that three glasses o' Susy's whisky
will fill ye fou, when ye have drank twa o' mine,
which you say is three times as strong, and you
feel all the better for it.' Hey, mon, I never was
so ta'en by the face in a' my life ! I didna ken
where to luk. The deil faw me if ever he cotch
me so again ! "
Tom Purdie's forbearance, however, was not of
an enduring quality ; his eyes glistened as he
followed the course of the bottle ; three times was
his arm extended to make a grap at it, and thrice
did he draw it back with modest confusion. At
length when all were served he could hold out no
longer, but elongating his dexter, he laid fast hold
of the bottle, and filling the quaigh to the brim,
" Here goes," said he, " to the lousy stranger."
After he had drunk, and mended his draught, he
kept the bottle in his own custody with a pretty
smart allowance in it, in the character of residuary
legatee. I had an account, however, to settle with
him ; for being the only stranger in company, I
fancied his toast meant a reflection upon my
cleanliness. What did he mean by the dirty and
degrading epithet ? This I demanded, advancing
with a warlike countenance, and leister in the rest ;
and had not Tom been in a very benign humour,
this book might never have been inflicted on the
public, for the man was well armed and resolute,
and might have leistered me according to art. But
putting on his sweetest smile, he assured me that
by the " lousy stranger " he meant a newly-run fish
with tide lice on it, " which," said he, " are far the
best, ye ken." This I well knew, though the
256 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
application did not occur to me at the moment.
And here, by the way I beg to observe, however
odd it may seem, that you may know the best clean
fish, by their having tide lice upon them.
"All hands to the boat again. Come, Rob,
give us a merry blaze ; never spare the tar barrel :
well done, Vulcan ! Now we have a splendid light
on the water, and can see well enough to read small
print at the bottom of it."
" Sandy Trummel, ye great bear, what gars ye
stamp and scream at that rate ? "
Sandy in fact not only stamped and screamed,
but swore that he was dreadfully brunt with the
pieces of charcoal and drops of flaming pitch which
insinuated themselves between his shirt and cape of
his jacket behind ; whereat Tom Purdie, who was
a considerate and humane man, took up the scoop
which was used for ladling out the boat, and fining
that capacious utensil with water to the extent
of its capacity, came behind the aggrieved, and
emptied the whole contents down his back. " And
now Sandy, mon," says he, " I hae made ye quite
comfortable, and ye owe me a gude turn." But,
who would have thought it ? The blood of the
Trummels was up ; and seizing a firebrand in a
style that did little honour to his gratitude, the
diluted one rushed forward intent on vengeance.
Grim looked Tom Purdie, and charging with his
leister, he held the foeman at bay. Who can say
what Homeric deeds might not have been done,
had not Charlie, first whispering to the master to
stand fast, given the boat a sudden whirl round
with the stroke of an oar, which laid Tom Purdie
AN INTERLUDE 257
flat upon his back at the bottom of the boat, and
canted Sandy Trummel fairly overboard ? He fell
in rather a picturesque attitude, for which I cannot
in candour give him much credit, as the affair
seemed to be quite involuntary and too sudden for
him to study effect. His right hand held the torch
aloft for a moment, Marmion fashion, which soon
fell and hissed in the current with a train of smoke
which trailed along the surface of the water.
Sandy's feet were actively employed in kicking
his best, by which means he agitated the water in
such a manner that, with the assistance of the
light, it made a very brilliant and imposing appear-
ance. The stream here being very shallow, he soon
began to emerge, and about two thirds of his fair
proportions rose up from the channel ; his mouth
seemed full of water and abuse ; he soon got rid of
the one ; but before he could vent the other, he
was anticipated by the boat's crew, who all shouted
out shame upon him for his awkwardness, and
for having nearly upset the boat in his fall, and
endangered the lives of several worthy individuals.
Thus a sort of balance was struck between faults
on both sides, and Tom Purdie himself assisted
him to regain the boat ; " and Sandy, mon," said he,
as he lifted him in, " I shall be always willing to do
ye the same good service when ye need it ; so yee'l
let me ken when the burning pick gets aboard ye
again."
They now passed over some bare streams where
no salmon would he ; the navigation amongst|the
rocks was somewhat intricate, there being barely
room for the width of the boat in some of the
258 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
rapids ; but Charles Purdie hit the thing off to a
nicety. They then burned the Glass-wheel Pot,
the Oak Tree, and the Noirs, in all of which they
got a few fish.
"Rob," said Charlie, "wail out some o' yer
sticks that they may be weel kinelt afore we get
into Brig-end Pule ; now, lads, ye mun cap well
here, for she will gang owre the stream wi' a
terrible flee ; od ! I see them glancing down the
pule as thick as herrin'; Sandy, mon, but ye're
dancing again ; what's come ower ye ? ye'll be want-
ing Tom Purdie's big ladle again, I'm thinkin'."
" The deil may hae Tarn Purdie and his muckle
ladle ; for as he nockit off a bit fish in the boat, he
dung yun o' the taes o' the waster intil ma leg, he
is aye sae camstearie."
" Ye canna blame me, Sandy, for the mischanter,
for ye are aye stammering among the fish like a
haveril as ye are, and hauf fou into the bargain.
Halloo, Sandy, ye'll no crack o' yer deeds the
nicht, for yer waster's aye clanking against the
stanes, whilst the maister is striking the fish afore
ye by dizens ; and see, muckle Tarn has lifted in
yun amaist as lang as himsel'."
"Come, come, lads," says the master, "hold
your clish-ma-clavers, for we are just going into
Brig-end Pool ; so keep back the boat as well as
you can, or we shall go fiery fast over the stream."
As the boat neared the pool, the men shouted
out, " Auld Michael ! auld Michael ! the charm for
auld Michael Scott : trim the boat, and take care
the muckle wizard doesna loup intill her." " Od,
lads ! " cries Tom Purdie, " pit yer best fut fore-
A BOAT-LOAD 259
most ; they are lying afore us like sacks, and will
be as thick as you can dab them up. Mind the
light, Sandy, and take care that kipper doesna
wallop out o' the boat. See what a muckle fish
Charlie has got ! "
In fact the men were making a great slaughter ;
and when they had gone over the pool two or three
times, had half filled the boat with the spoil ; so as
they found they were well laden, they called to
Rob Colyard to come forward with his cart and
take them home.
" Shove the boat to the shore ; Colyard, come
forrat wi' yer cart ; that'll do, mon ; aw honds to
wark, count the fish as ye pit them in ; Charlie,
how many hae ye coonted ? "
" There jest a hunder and twa, great and sma' —
whitling, bull-trout, saumonts, and a'thegither."
The men passed round the whisky bottle, and
we resumed our sport ; I, Harry Otter, stood as
before at the head of the boat, and the other men
in their allotted places ; we passed pretty swiftly
down the streams, broadside in front, striking many
fish, till we came near the Elfin Burn, when,
observing that the water-break in the centre of the
river, caused by a concealed rock, was more gentle
than usual, I thought the boat would strike, so I
called out to Charlie for caution.
" Hout, tout ! he mun let her gang ; there is
plenty of water to take her over."
Charlie Purdie was never more mistaken in his
life ; the stream drove us downward at a rapid race,
notwithstanding we in some measure moderated it
by capping our best with the leisters. Bang went
260 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
the boat's broadside right against the rock, to which
she stuck fast till the stream above poured into her
in the most effective possible style, and down she
went of course. The water, however, was by no
means deep ; but those fish, which we had taken
since the load went home, found their way again
into the river, and began to vanish down the
streams. Being deprived of life, they went pas-
sively along, followed by all the boat's crew, who
rushed about and charged with their leisters,
"hurry, hurry, splash, splash," till they fished out
most of them, the remainder being left to solace
the eels. This in common parlance would be called
a disaster ; a sort of shipwreck in miniature ; but
judging from the merriment it excited, it might be
deemed the best sport of the night.
Whilst these gambols were carrying on, and the
men were rolling about in the waters, after the
guise of sea calves, Charlie Purdie and I had got
the boat to the shore, and heaving her upon her
side, had poured the water out : " And now,
Purdie," said I, "whilst these clever fellows are
catching dead fish, do tell me what you all meant
by shouting out ' auld Michael ! ' and calling for the
charm at the Brig-end Pool ? "
"Why ye mun ken that Michael Scot, who
lived in bygane times, was a warlock, and I cud
tell ye mony wonderfu' cracks aboot him, for the
hale country rings wi' his foul deeds. Mony years
syne there was a brig at yon cast, but the spate ran
away a' foreby the middle pillar, which stud up in
the water as high as ever ; and as the fishermen o'
thae days were burning the Noi?~s, they saw a
MICHAEL SCOT AGAIN 261
muckle man sitting a tap o' the pillar, wi' a flaming
brand in the tae hand, and a lang leister in the tither ;
he had a hairy cap on his head, made, perhaps, o'
the fur o' the tod, or some sic like beastie, and a
long gown on, wi' a linnen dress aneath it, a' doon
to his knees, tied rund wi' a queer girdle, which
was written aboot wi' magic words, and a lang
whinger stuck intill it ; we hae Sir Walter's word
for it, ye ken. Aweel, the fishermen who war in
the boat were sair frightened, and in ganging doon
the water, got as far frae him as they cud, and, as
they thought, out o' reach o' him ; but he louped
frae the pillar intill the boat from an awfu' distance,
and doon she went so soon as he set fut or hoof in
her ; and a' the men war drowned, and left the
bonny banks o' the Tweed wi' all their sins on
their heads. Then the foul wizard, Michael Scot,
was seen by some folks on shore, to rise up and
loup on a muckle black horse, that came doon frae
the cluds, and he fleed awa on it till he became
inveesable. The folk at Darnick pu'd down the
pillar ; they did na lave ae stane on anither. Ay,
ay, ye may laugh and call this clish-ma-claver if
ye please, but it's true what I tell ye ; I have seen
auld Michael mysel'."
" Where, Charlie, where ? "
"Why, aince on Cowden -knows I seed his
wraith, and his torch a tap o' the hill, and his
muckle black horse feeding below on the moor, as
plain as I see ye the noo ; and though he is not in
life at this day, for he war killed by drinking the
kail made o' a breme sow, yet his spirit is abraid,
ye ken, and it war that which sent our boat to the
262 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
bottom, for ye hadna a fairy stane ; * but ye'll be
wiser, I'm thinkin, afore ye burn that cast again."
" Ay, that will I ; but courage, man ; all is set
to rights, so let us have the whisky, for with that
and the blazing brands we shall be warm both
within and without, and fear no wizards. But if
wizards ever visit rivers, I hope they will open a
slap in every cauld where there is no local Act, so
as to admit of the free run of fish ; for there are
many fine-looking streams that are ' bridled with a
curb of stone.' I do not wish to hurt the property
of mill-owners ; but how easy it would be in such
cases to accommodate all parties by making an
opening at every barrier, and a proper slope con-
structed with rolling stones at the back of it ; a
hatch to be put in at the opening, and drawn only
when there was a superfluity of water for the mill.
This plan would answer perfectly ; for in very low
water fish do not travel, and in a very high one,
when they do, the miller would suffer no loss."
" Well, I wadna say but ye are perfectly right,
and I am thinking that a river, like a road, should
be open for all passengers."
Most of the dead salmon having been at length
forked out of the river, we all got afloat again, and
passed down those rapids above Melrose Bridge,
called the Quarry Stream, Back Brae, and Kings-
well Lees, snatching out a fish occasionally in our
course ; then the flame soon gleamed upon the bridge,
struck upwards on the roof of the vast arch as we
shot through it, and revealed the dark pines below,
which shelved down to the margin of the river.
1 See note 2 at page 237.
AN OTTER 263
We were now in a salmon cast called the
Whirls, which runs deep and solemn, and we had
scarcely set our leisters in the rest, ere we found
that a fisherman had been to work before us, and
an excellent hand he was at the sport ; he had
neither light nor boat, and, being tolerably hungry,
I suppose, was devouring a twelve-pounder, all raw
as it was, in the dry channel of the river.
" See ! the otter, the otter ! he has got into the
water. Bring round the boat, — quick, quick. Now
keep her on the edge of the deep current, and we
shall leister him to a certainty." No such thing.
He had not yet made up his mind to be leistered ;
and, being of a solitary disposition, rather shunned
our society than otherwise ; so, instead of attempt-
ing to gain the main stream, he went insidiously
down the shallows, where no boat could swim. He
was thus out of the reach of being speared in the
usual manner ; but Charlie Purdie had a go at him
by flinging his leister from a distance —
" Nequicquam patrias tentasti lubricus artes,
Vane Ligur. 11
It was a complete failure. Charlie followed up the
thing, however, by leaping out of the boat ; nothing
could be fairer or more honourable, as he thus gave
the amphibious animal the advantage of element.
The men were all eager and in commotion ; so
what with boat and lights, to say nothing of the
dreadful tridents, the beast was fairly confused, and
almost surrounded. Purdie, who had sent away
his leister upon a vain errand, albeit unarmed,
continued the chase on foot, and at length gripped
264 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
the brute by the tail ; there was pulling and splash-
ing, till at last he held the otter up aloft triumph-
antly. Now as this position, though not precisely
vertical, did not happen to suit the brute's con-
venience, the subtle animal managed to twist
round, and to fix his teeth on the captor's arm.
This was rather disagreeable to Charlie, as the
teeth of the otter abound in practical experiments.
The posture of affairs then, you see, was as follows :
— The tenacious Purdie had hold of the vermin
with his dexter, and was loth to relinquish his
grip ; the foe, nothing behind in tenacity, fixed his
teeth in Charlie's sinister with equal perseverance ;
thus both his arms were fully occupied. Nothing
daunted, Charlie cried out with Spartan endurance,
" Hey, lad, but twae can play at that ! " So,
extending his jaws, he fixed his grinders in the
animal's throat and worried him exceedingly. In
fine, after a very ludicrous struggle, he shook off
my excellent namesake and flung him on the shore,
where he was despatched with the leisters before
he could regain the river. Thus ended " the battle
of Otterbourne " ; and thus ended, also, our sport
for the night ; for the beast, no doubt, had disturbed
that cast, which, together with the lower water, was
set apart for another night's amusement.
We now marched home with our spoil,
triumphant, — Sandy in front, with the blazing
beacon over his shoulder to light our steps, as has
been practised from time immemorial ; the others
with the fish and leisters. One of the spectators
began a concordia discors with his bagpipe, but bade
us adieu at Melrose Bridge, and the dulcet sounds
THE LAIRD O' COCKPEN 265
died away among the pine woods and furze brakes
of the Eildon Hills. Then it was that we had the
good fortune to meet my most humorous and
excellent friend Sir Adam Ferguson, who made
rare amends for the loss of our piper by singing the
following strains in his richest style, which, as they
are not very well known in the South, I venture to
subscribe.
" The Laird o' Cockpen, he's proud and he's great ;
His mind's ta'en up wi 1 the things 0"" the state ;
He wanted a wife his braw house to keep,
But favour wi 1 wooing was fashous to seek.
" Down by the dyke-side a leddie did dwell,
At the head o' his table he thocht she'd look well,
Macleish's ae dochter o' Claver's Ha' Lee,
A penniless lass, wi 1 a lang pedigree.
" His wig was well pouthered, and maist gude as new ;
His waistcoat was red, his coat it was blue ;
A ring on his finger, his sword and cockt hat,
And wha could refuse the laird wi' aw that ?
" He mounted his meer, he rode cannilie,
And rapt at the yett o' Clavers Ha' Lee ;
' Gae tell Mrs. Jean to come speedilie ben,
She's wanted to speak to the Laird o' Cockpen.'
" Mrs. Jean she was makin' the elder flower wine ;
' And what brings the laird at sic a like time ? '
She threw aff her apron, put on her silk gown,
Her mutch wi' red ribbons, and cam' awa' down.
" And whan she cam' in he bowed fu' low,
And soon his errand he let her to know ;
Amazed was the laird whan the leddie said naw,
But wi' a laigh courtsy she turned awa'.
266 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
" Dumfoundered he was, nae sicgh did he gie,
He mounted his meer, he rode cannilie ;
But said to himseF, as he gaed through the glen,
' She was daft to refuse the laird 0"" Cockpen ! ' "
It had been my intention to give an account of
the burning of the water from Melrose Bridge to
the Cauld Pool, and so on to Cow's Hole ; but the
description, if faithful, would be so similar to the
one already given, that it would be lamentably
tiresome, and I have been ultra -tedious already.
Besides, it must be considered that I have been out
of my bed most part of the night ; that I am to the
full as sleepy as any of my readers can possibly be ;
and, moreover, that my back is half frozen, whilst
my front is scorched with the firebrands.
Farewell ! then, dear brothers of the angle ; and
when you go forth to take your pleasure, either
in the mountain stream that struggles and roars
through the narrow pass, or in the majestic salmon
river that sweeps in lucid mazes through the vale,
may your sport be ample and your hearts light !
But should the fish prove more sagacious than
yourselves — a circumstance, excuse me, that is by
no means impossible — should they, alas — but fate
avert it ! — reject your hooked gifts, the course of
the river will always lead you to pleasant places.
In these we leave you to the quiet enjoyment of
the glorious works of the Creation, whether it may
be your pleasure to go forth when the spring sheds
its flowery fragrance, or in the more advanced
season, when the sere leaf is shed incessantly and
wafted on the surface of the swollen river.
APPENDIX
Royal Society of Edinburgh
January 9th, 1843. — The following communications were
read : —
1. " On the Growth of the Salmon," by Mr. John Young,
Sutherlandshire.
Mr. Young has here taken up the subject of the salmon's
growth where it was necessarily left off by Mr. Shaw. So far
as the earliest or fresh- water state of the fish is concerned, he
entirely agrees with the observer just named. He then states
the various opinions which prevail regarding the more or less
rapid growth of smolts and grilse, and shows, by tabular lists
(the result of frequently repeated experiments), that the in-
crease in their dimensions is extraordinary, so soon as they
descend into the salt water. So far back as the months of
April and May, 1837, he marked a number of descending
smolts, by making a peculiar perforation in the caudal fin by
means of small nipping-irons constructed for the purpose.
He recaptured a considerable number of them ascending the
rivers as grilse, in the course of the ensuing months of June
and July, weighing several pounds each, more or less, ac-
cording to the difference in the length of their sojourn in the
sea. Again in April and May, 1842, he marked a number of
descending smolts, by clipping off the little adipose fin upon
the back. In June and July he caught several of them re-
turning up the river, and bearing his peculiar mark, the adi-
pose fin being absent. Two or three specimens were exhibited
to the Society. One marked in April, and recaptured on the
30th of July, weighed three and a half pounds.
268 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED
As the season advances grilse increase in size, those being
the largest which abide the longest in the sea ; they spawn
in the rivers after their first ascent, and before they have
become adult salmon. / 6
Mr. Young also described various experiments instituted
with the view of showing the transition of grilse into salmon.
He marked many small grilse after they had spawned in
winter and were about to re-descend into the sea. He had
recaptured them in the course of the ensuing summer as
finely formed salmon, ranging in weight from nine to fourteen
pounds, the difference still depending on the length of their
sojourn in the sea. He has tried these experiments for many
seasons, but never twice with the same mark. A specimen
marked as a grilse of four pounds in January, 1842, and re-
captured as a salmon of nine pounds in July, was exhibited
to the Society ; it bore a peculiarly twisted piece of copper
wire in the upper lobe of the caudal fin. Those marked and
retaken in 1841 were marked with brass wire in the dorsal
fin. With these and other precautions, Mr. Young debarred
the possibility of any mistake as to the lapse of time. Both
grilse and salmon return uniformly to their native streams ;
at least it very rarely happens that a fish bearing a particular
mark is found except in a river where it was so marked.
Salmon in the perfect state, as to form and aspect, also in-
crease rapidly in their dimensions on again reaching the sea.
A spawned salmon weighing twelve pounds was marked on
the 4th of March, and was recaptured on its return from the
sea on the 10th of July, weighing eighteen pounds. 1
Mr. Young is of opinion that salmon rather diminish than
increase during their sojourn in rivers, and he illustrates this
and other points of his subject by numerous experiments and
observations.
1 Lord March reported in the Field, August 13, 1898, the capture
of marked salmon in the Spey a few days before weighing 24 lbs. , which
had been returned to the water in March previous weighing 14 lbs. — En.
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.
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