THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
fc/lAi in-vv ly ^ 
 
 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF THE liATB 
 
 !#/ 
 
 SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 
 
 COMPMSI!<0 A KiEEiTlVE OF 
 
 ilj« fife, |w$o«al g.bb«daw8, anb gratfe 
 
 OP 
 
 % i;fo£eb Salmon. 
 
 EDITED BY A FISKEEMAN. 
 
 LONDON : 
 DAY & SON, LIMITED, 
 
 6. GATE STREET. LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C 
 
 1867. 
 
 ^pa 
 
 m 
 
LOITDOK 
 
 WYUAir AITD SON'S, PBINTEES, GKBAT QtrBElT 8TBKBT. 
 
 LINCOLN'S INN riELDS, W.C. 
 
&>lfi 
 
 PEEFAGE 
 
 rpHE following pages, embodying the result 
 -^ of long experience as a fisherman and 
 carefal observation as a lover of Nature, are 
 intended by the Author to convey, in the 
 simple and familiar form of personal narrative, 
 some knowledge of the natural history and 
 habits of that most interesting fish, the 
 Salmon, and some hints as to the mode of 
 capturing him with the artificial fly. 
 
 The Author is not vain enough to suppose 
 that he can teach the naturalist or practised 
 fisherman anything he did not know before ; 
 but he ventures to hope that, whilst to the 
 tyro some of the facts set, forth, and 
 some of the maxims insisted on, may prove 
 both novel and instructive, the incidents 
 recorded and the localities described may 
 awaken in the breast of both naturalist and 
 
VI PEEFACE. 
 
 fisherman pleasant reminiscences of pleasant 
 days passed in tliat most fascinating of pur- 
 suits — Salmon-Fishing. Possibly some of the 
 " dodges " recorded by Salmo Salar may 
 have been practised, successfully or otherwise, 
 upon themselves. The Writer has had experi- 
 ence of each and all. 
 
 The "Autobiography" originally appeared 
 in " Macmillan's Magazine." It has since been 
 to some extent remodelled and considerably 
 enlarged; and it is now, by kind permission, 
 with diffidence presented to the public. Should 
 it have the good fortune to meet with approval, 
 it is the intention of the Author to supplement 
 it by a sister sketch of the Hunting Field, 
 under the title of "A Fox's Tale." 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 
 
 THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I volunteer the story of my life, and commence it before 
 I was born. 
 
 '' I WAS born, or rather " 
 
 ''Bless my heart!" said I, somewhat startled, 
 " wlio are yoic ? How did you get here ? '' 
 
 No wonder I was surprised. I had just 
 quitted the Edinburgh station of the Caledonian 
 Railway, and, with the accustomed selfish libe- 
 rality of a young man, I had bribed the guard 
 to lock me up in a compartment to myself, in 
 spite of which I now found myself accosted, 
 without preface or apology, by a queer-looking 
 old gentleman, dressed in a straw-coloured 
 paletot, with a short pipe in his mouth, sitting, 
 with his legs tucked under him, on the opposite 
 
^ AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 
 
 seat to mine, as mucli at liis ease, apparently, 
 as if he had as much, right there as I, who had 
 paid two - and - sixpence for the privilege of 
 appropriating six seats to myself. 
 
 " Or rather " he proceeded. 
 
 " I really must beg, sir," I began ; but some- 
 how his manner overawed me, as it were, into 
 listening. I felt like the wedding-guest in the 
 presence of the Ancient Mariner. He went on 
 in the same tone, without noticing me, or even 
 taking his pipe out of his mouth. 
 
 " Or rather, I struggled into existence, for 
 the egg from which I sprang had lain, with 
 countless others, for well-nigh four months 
 previously in one of the tributary streams of 
 the Upper Tweed. My life, if life it could be 
 called, had hitherto been a dreamy, monotonous, 
 uneventful one, a gleam of sunshine quickening 
 my pulse and increasing the natural yearning I 
 felt for release and liberty, a passing cloud or a 
 chill wind driving me back to somnolency and 
 partial oblivion. But now the garish beams of 
 the late February sun had called me forth into 
 a new world, and I felt myself, with a proud 
 sense of independence, launched, free from 
 trammels and control, upon that wild waste of 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. d 
 
 waters, henceforth to comprise my habitation 
 and my home. 
 
 " Queer Httle mis-shapen creature that I was! 
 With head and eyes frightfully disproportioned 
 to my size, a Uttle tail, and almost invisible fins, 
 my appearance presented to the unpractised eye 
 rather that of the tadpole, the progeny of the 
 wide-mouthed waddling frog, than that of the 
 noble Salmon, the monarch of the waters. 
 
 " Still, Nature, careful of her worthiest off- 
 spring, had not neglected the means of preser- 
 vation during its helpless infancy. I found 
 myself furnished, beneath my embryo fins, with 
 a little sack of nutriment, which I felt would 
 sustain me for many days, until my growing 
 strength should enable me to seek the abundant 
 food which the surrounding waters contained, 
 and to escape the numerous enemies that sought 
 to make a prey of me. 
 
 '' I should say that, when I burst forth from 
 the bed of gravel in which I had so long been 
 buried, very many of my brethren accompanied 
 me, and, as we eyed each other's grotesque 
 forms with astonishment, not unmixed with 
 admiration, we, one and all, urged by the 
 promptings of Nature, scuttled away and hid 
 
 b2 
 
4 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 
 
 ourselves, each under some projecting pebble 
 or stone, over which the waters rushed harm- 
 lessly, so far as we were concerned, and in 
 which quiet haven, fed from the sack I have 
 before mentioned, we lay safe, happy, and in 
 full enjoyment of our new life, making obser- 
 vations on the, to us, wide world, which opened 
 to our view." 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 My infancy. — The perils that attended it. — My enemies. — 
 I moralise, and marvel for what end they were per- 
 mitted to exist. 
 
 '' LabglTc is the lot not only of man, but of 
 birds, beasts, and fishes. We must all work 
 for our living, and I for one have a natural 
 inclination to swim against the stream ; but I 
 own to looking back to this period of my life 
 as one of unmixed happiness. Fed without the 
 trouble of seeking, or even opening my mouth 
 to swallow, my food — sheltered by an over- 
 hanging stone, and lulled by the pleasant ripple 
 of the stream around me — I passed a dreamy, 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAB, ESQ. 5 
 
 happy existence, without care, or thought, or 
 trouble, and, as the sense of life quickened 
 within me, it brought with it only a deeper 
 sense of enjoyment. ' Where ignorance is bliss, 
 'tis folly to be wise,' and I may be thankful 
 now that I remained so long in blissful igno- 
 rance of the dangers which surrounded me. 
 The power of reflection was not given to me, 
 and, although I saw numbers of my brothers 
 and sisters daily destroyed before my eyes, it 
 never occurred to me as possible that a similar 
 fate might await me. My ignorance, however, 
 was my protection ; careless of what was pass- 
 ing aroitnd me, I lay under my stone, motion- 
 less and fearless, and thus escaped danger until 
 Nature had given me the means of avoiding it. 
 " "When I look back on the number of our 
 enemies, I can only wonder that even one out 
 of our numerous progeny is left to tell the tale. 
 Even the insect tribe was in arms against us ; 
 I have seen a huge water-beetle seize an embryo 
 samlet by the throat, and carry it off to devour 
 at his leisure. And the larvaB of sundry insects 
 fed upon us whilst we were in the egg, or 
 newly hatched. More especially that of the 
 dragon-fly — goggle-eyed, mis-shapen, repulsive. 
 
b AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 
 
 its hideous face furnished with a pair of un- 
 naturally elongated eyebrows, and its mouth 
 with sharpest teeth, they would destroy, in the 
 course of a few days, thousands upon thousands 
 of eggs. There was a little brown-coated bird.* 
 with a white waistcoat, the neatest, pleasantest- 
 looking creature imaginable, who would walh\ 
 deliberately into the stream, and, setting at 
 defiance all laws of gravity, peck away at 
 marine insects, floating morsels of spawn, and 
 I greatly fear, though I never actually witnessed 
 the atrocity, little samlets like myself. There 
 was a company of black-headed gulls, $ who, 
 with loud laughing cry, perpetually hovered 
 over the stream, and, though their professed 
 object was to feed upon the March brown fly 
 which, dead or alive, in countless myriads lined 
 the shore, or covered the face of the waters, 
 never let slip an opportunity of snapping up 
 some little brother or sister that had carelessly 
 left its place of refuge. Then the kingfisher, 
 with rufous breast and glorious mantle of blue, 
 
 * The Water Ouzel — Cinclus Aquaticus. 
 t Waterton doubts this, but I have seen the operation, 
 times and oft. — Ed. 
 
 + The Laughing Gull — Larus Bidihundus. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 7 
 
 would dart down like a plummet from his roost, 
 and seize unerringly any little truant wliicli 
 passed within his ken. The appetite of this 
 bird was miraculous ; I never saw him satisfied. 
 He would sit for hours on a projecting bough, 
 his body almost perpendicular, his head thrown 
 back between his shoulders; eyeing with an 
 abstracted air the heavens above or the rocks 
 around him, he seemed intent only upon ex- 
 hibiting the glorious lustre of his plumage, and 
 the brilliant colours with which his azure back 
 was shaded; but let a careless samlet stray 
 beneath him, and in a twinkling his nonchalant 
 attitude was abandoned. With a turn so quick 
 that the eye could scarce follow it, his tail took 
 the place of his head, and, falling rather than 
 flying, he would seize his victim, toss him once 
 into the air, catch him as he fell, head foremost, 
 and swallow him in a second. This manoeuvre 
 he would repeat from morning till night ; such 
 a greedy insatiable little wretch I never saw ! 
 A huge, melancholy heron, too, would station 
 herself knee-deep, near at hand. She was held 
 in terrible awe by me in later days, but at this 
 time I think she despised such ' small deer ' as 
 we were; I have seen her, though, kill a rat with 
 
8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 a single stroke of her powerful beak, transfix a 
 frog, or swallow an eel in spite of his writhings 
 and struggles, and not unfrequently, to my 
 infinite delight, kill, and carry off to her distant 
 nest, those most hated and destructive foes to 
 our race, our cousins the yellow and bull trout. 
 Yes ! our own blood relations are our direst 
 foes, and I have witnessed the destruction, by 
 a hungry old kelt, of fifty of his own progeny 
 for breakfast. 
 
 " Artificially bred samlets, confined in large 
 ponds, and daily stuffed with food, escape most 
 of these perils ; but, I think, the system is 
 carried too far. Protected from all danger, the 
 young fry are ignorant of its appearance, and 
 they lose the natural instinct which would 
 otherwise prompt them to avoid it. They are 
 like home-bred boys, who, having been brought 
 up under the surveillance of parents and tutors, 
 only sent forth into the world at an age when 
 other lads, less carefully attended, are fully 
 capable of taking care of themselves, become 
 the easy prey to the sharks and cormorants, 
 and cold blooded, slimy eels, in the shape of 
 usurers and others, whose vocation it is to prey 
 upon them. The grand loss to my race is in 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 9 
 
 the first stage, that of the egg; save these, 
 protect these, hatch these, and leave Nature to 
 do the rest. The nursing ponds, the migra- 
 tory restrictions, the chopped bullock's liver, 
 and the two years' attendance are useless, and 
 worse than useless, expenses. 
 
 '' I increased gradually in size ; my form de- 
 veloped ; the little sack I have alluded to was 
 absorbed, and, with a new-born appetite, I 
 felt was given the power of supplying it. I 
 began to make excursions from my place of 
 refuge, seizing with avidity the minute insects 
 which swarmed in the waters around me, and 
 even rising at times to the surface and seizing 
 some unconscious midge-fly or pre-occupied 
 gnat, that had alighted to drop her eggs on 
 the water. If danger arose, we (for in these 
 excursions I was joined by numberless fry of 
 my own standing) at once rushed for shelter 
 beneath the stones, or sought it in the shallows 
 where our enemies, the great trouts, could not 
 follow us. I remember on one occasion, though 
 it was somewhat later than the period of which 
 I am now treating, how I saved myself, by a 
 desperate manoeuvre, from the jaws of a hungry 
 trout. The savage brute singled me out from 
 
10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 among all the rest of the shoal, and, hunting 
 me round and round until I was well nigh ex- 
 hausted, was on the point of making me his 
 prey, when a bold and happy idea occurred to 
 me : springing out of the water, six inches or 
 more upon the dry shingle, I lay gasping and 
 half dead with fear, but out of reach of my 
 enemy. The refraction of the water enabled 
 me to see him, though he could not see me ; 
 he beat up and down the spot at which I had 
 disappeared, with much the air of a retriever 
 puppy, when the squirrel he has chased for the 
 first time takes refuge in a tree. His search 
 being in vain, he retired, and I had just strength 
 left to squatter into the water again, and soon re- 
 gained my accustomed haunt beneath the stone.* 
 " There seems something very shocking, and 
 contrary to the benevolent design of Nature, 
 that animals so helpless and calculated to enjoy 
 life as we were, should be exposed to these 
 incessant attacks. Why are we not allowed to 
 enjoy life in peace and happiness without fear 
 or danger ?" 
 
 * This anecdote was related to me by a lady who wit- 
 nessed the occurrence, and in whose power of observation, 
 as well as veracity, implicit reliance may be placed. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 11 
 
 I broke in here upon the old gentleman's 
 narrative. " Why, sir, did you not tell me 
 me just now that your great enjoyment was to 
 devour all the little insects on or beneath the 
 surface of the water that came within your 
 reach ?" 
 
 *' What, sir," said he, testily, "has that to 
 do with the matter ? Those miserable animated 
 atoms were, doubtless, created expressly to 
 feed us beings of a nobler order. If you com- 
 pare a wretched gnat, or a miserable " 
 
 I assured the choleric old gentleman I had 
 no such intention, and begged him to proceed 
 with his interesting narrative. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Having donned my silvery coat, I go forth into the 
 " wide, wide world." — I pass a modest but candid 
 opinion on my own appearance and attributes. 
 
 " Time rolled its ceaseless course ; days melted 
 into weeks, and weeks into months ; upwards 
 
12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 of a year* had passed since I — a small, helpless, 
 mis-shapen embryo — had hidden myself under 
 some casual pebble or fragment of a rock. I 
 I was then scarce an inch in length, my body 
 marked with transverse bluish-grey lines, the 
 ' badge of all our tribe,' and my head and eyes 
 altogether out of proportion to my body. I 
 was now some four inches long, trim, well- 
 shaped, and vigorous. Although haunting the 
 waters in which I had first breathed the breath 
 of life, I had long since extended my rambles, 
 and, in company with my brethren, sought the 
 more rapid streams. We rejoiced in our new- 
 born strength to stem the torrent, and vied 
 with one another, whilst poised as hawks in 
 mid-air, in seizing the small insects which were 
 borne along the stream above us. Although 
 there was a sameness in this life, it was not 
 monotonous. We had become sufficiently cog- 
 nizant of the dangers around us, but, with the 
 buoyancy of youth, we felt more pride in our 
 cleverness in escaping them than gratitude for 
 
 * My friend S. S. must know best, and it is not for me 
 to contradict him ; but I must say, that for a year old and 
 upwards, he exhibited at this period a very juvenile appear- 
 ance. — Ed. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 13 
 
 the escape. Then the changes in the mighty 
 river herself were subjects of perpetual interest. 
 Sometimes stealing along in a quiet, deep chan- 
 nel but a few yards wide, worn through the 
 rock, or between it and the green bank opposite, 
 the spectator would wonder whence the broad 
 expanse of shingle or barren sand had its 
 origin. Little would he wonder, if, after a 
 week's rain, he sought the same spot, when 
 Tweed was coming down in her might, and 
 every tributary stream, transformed for the 
 nonce into a river, swelled the mighty flood. 
 Then, timber trees, sawn wood, dead animals, 
 farming implements, even haystacks, would 
 come floating down, and the very channel of 
 the river would be diverted sometimes never to 
 return to its ancient course. Sad was the havoc 
 occasioned to the embryo spawn ; torn from its 
 bed, it would be carried down the stream, to be 
 devoured by the trout or the eel, or to perish 
 amid the waste of waters.* We felt on these 
 occasions pretty safe. Our principal enemies 
 
 * This most serious cause of destruction might be greatly 
 lessened by the removal of the spawn from beds exposed to 
 the force of the flood to selected spots unaffected by it, and 
 equally adapted for hatching. 
 
14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 were dispersed : the gulls sought worms in the 
 ploughed-up lands; the kingfisher and the 
 solitary heron flew away to the smaller streams, 
 where the less turbid water permitted them to 
 see their prey. The cold, slimy, cruel eel, alone 
 of all our enemies, was then to be dreaded. 
 Crawling along at the bottom of the water, his 
 flat wicked head pressed against the gravel, so 
 as to escape the force of the stream, the wily 
 beast would insinuate himself into every crevice 
 or corner where a small fish might have taken 
 shelter, or a drowned worm be lodged, and all 
 and either was prey to him. But, as I said, 
 these perils passed lightly over, and were for- 
 gotten as soon as passed ; ' we had health and 
 we had hope,' and, so that the day passed 
 pleasantly away, we had little care or thought 
 for the morrow. 
 
 " A change was, however, to be wrought 
 upon us. I had long observed in my com- 
 panions, and could not but be conscious within 
 myself, of a striking and beautiful alteration in 
 our external appearance. Without losing the 
 dark blue stripes, the distinctive marks of the 
 salmon tribe, they became gradually coated 
 over, as it were, with bright and silvery scales, 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 15 
 
 as though we had been subjected to the process 
 of electrotyping. I would not be thought vain, 
 but I look back, even now, with feelings of 
 pride and delight, at the image memory conjures 
 up of the beautiful appearance we presented. 
 Glancing through the water, we glittered like 
 fire-flies in the air. Our strength had increased 
 in the same ratio as our beauty, and, when I 
 say that our form was nearly as possible that 
 which I now present, I need hardly say it was 
 faultless." 
 
 " Really, sir !" I interposed, " for a gentleman 
 who disclaims vanity " 
 
 " Sir ! I assert that the form of a salmon, 
 fresh run from the sea, is faultless. Could the 
 vigour he displays, could the strength he pos- 
 sesses, be lodged in any form short of faultless? 
 Could he ascend the cataract — could he stem 
 
 the roaring torrent — could he " The old 
 
 gentleman was getting into such a state of 
 ebullition that I hastily checked him with a 
 torrent of profuse apologies, not unmixed, I fear 
 with a soupcon of flapdoodle, the stufi* which 
 Mr. O'Brien informed Peter Simple they feed 
 fools on. Somewhat pacified, he proceeded : — 
 
 '' With my increasing vigour, a strange feel- 
 
16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 
 
 ing of restlessness came over me, a longing 
 desire to wander forth, into some unknown 
 world of waters. The wide river seemed all 
 too narrow to contain me ; and one glorious 
 May morning, when the heavy rains which had 
 fallen on the mountains ' doon ivast ' liad swelled 
 the river some foot or two, the migratory im- 
 pulse became irresistible, and, accompanied by 
 thousands of my companions, actuated by the 
 same impulse, I dashed away down stream, 
 seeking ' fresh fields and pastures new.' 
 
 "When the jDrisoner of Chillon looked out 
 over his dungeon wall upon the waters of Lake 
 Leman, the fish ' were joyous one and all,' but 
 never in that still water so joyous as we — 
 escaping, as it seemed to us now, from a hated 
 monotonous existence, though Heaven knows 
 we had been happy enough in it for many a 
 month — felt, as we dashed along the rolling, 
 rapid waters of fair Tweed. On I on ! we w^ent, 
 through Boldside Water, and the rapid stream 
 below^ it, through Carry Wheel, and that long, 
 glorious reach of the Pavilion Water, which 
 stretches from the railway to Melrose Bridge, 
 through the Wyrlies and the Elm Wheel, and 
 the still, broad waters that lave the meadows 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 17 
 
 above Melrose. We leapt out of the water, we 
 raced through the water, we dashed at the flies 
 which settled on the surface ; we would have 
 shouted, but that speech was denied us ; and, 
 exulting in the pride of form and beauty and 
 strength, felt as though fate had no power over 
 us. Alas ! pride goeth before a fall." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I encounter my first great peril, escape therefrom, and, 
 proceeding on the journey of life, seek the " vast 
 unknown." 
 
 " As thus buoyant, elated, and self-confident, 
 I proceeded onwards, I observed a boat, with 
 a young man in it, anchored in strange fashion 
 a little on one side of the main stream down 
 which I was passing. The anchor consisted, 
 in fact, of another individual, older than the 
 occupant of the boat, who, standing in the 
 water as deep as his somewhat long legs would 
 allow, leaned his weight upon the stern of the 
 boat, and so held it fast in its position. I 
 
 c 
 
18 AUTOBIOGEAPHY (3F 
 
 passed them carelessly, and wlien but a few 
 yards in advance, my attention was attracted 
 to a small, struggling, brown fly, which had 
 apparently just dropped into the water. Rush- 
 ing towards it, and rising suddenly to the sur- 
 face, I greedily seized, and was preparing to 
 swallow, the delicate morsel ; but scarcely did 
 it touch my lips when a slight but smart sensa- 
 tion, as of a thorn pricking my mouth, was felt 
 by me, and I found myself dragged by some 
 invisible but irresistible force against the 
 stream, until, half choked, I approached the 
 boat, into which, by the aid of a light net, I 
 was instantly lifted. I found myself clasped 
 by a dreadfully warm hand, and held, in spite 
 of my struggles, firmly until the hook, attached 
 to the treacherous fly I had seized, was ex- 
 tracted, not untenderlj^, from my wounded jaw. 
 I was already more than half dead, limp, faint, 
 and bleeding. 
 
 " ' It's just a wee parr beastie,' said the 
 elder of the two, preparing to slip me into the 
 water. 
 
 " ' It's of no use putting it back,' said the 
 other ; ' parr or not, it's dead.' 
 
 '' ' It may dee and be dom'd ; I wash my 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 19 
 
 hands of it/ was the reply with which my pro- 
 fane friend placed me in the water, carefully 
 enough. I felt sick and helpless ; without 
 power to sustain my proper position, I floated, 
 with my back downwards, until I rested against 
 some long floating grass, a few yards from the 
 boat, to which the eddy of the stream had 
 carried me. Although too weak to move, I 
 retained my senses, and heard the younger 
 man say to his companion — 
 
 " ' Why, John, what made you throw that 
 poor little dead beast into the water again ?' 
 
 " ' 'Deed,' was the reply, ' yon beastie's just 
 a smolt, an' there's a fine for killing sich like.' 
 
 '' ^ But you killed a parr just now ?' 
 
 " ' Ay.' 
 
 '' ' But you call this a parr ?' 
 
 '* ' 'Deed, an' it's the fau't of those who gie 
 the same name to twa different fishes.' 
 
 " ' What do you mean ?' 
 
 '' ' A' mean that there's a wee fish ye killed 
 just noo ca'ed " the parr," an' it's a fish of 
 itself,* an' has melt an' roe as every ither fish 
 
 * I have opened hundreds of the Bum Parr, Salmo 
 Salmulus, male and female. I have seen them on their 
 spawning-beds, and taken them out of burns where salmon 
 
20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 has, an' ye'll find it in rivers an' burns, an' 
 abune waterfalls, an' in mountain tarns, where 
 no saumon ever yet was seen or could get, an' 
 it's streekit an' barred all the same as the young 
 saumon-parr ; and it's just the confusion of 
 ca'ing the twa by the ae name that's raised a' 
 the fash that's made about the '' edentity," 
 as they ca' it, of the parr with the young 
 saumon.' 
 
 " * Then you believe that the parr is not the 
 young of the salmon ? ' 
 
 " ' If ye ca' the young saumon the parr, the 
 parr is the young saumon ; but there's anither 
 parr that has a better right to the name, an" 
 it's a pity that twa fish should be bund to hae 
 but ae name betwixt them.' 
 
 '' At this point of the conversation, feeling 
 myself somewhat recovered from the effects of 
 my immersion in the uncongenial air, I strug- 
 
 never yet ascended, nor could by possibility ascend. I 
 liave baited hooks with the tough little beggars, and re- 
 leased them alive after they had towed a trimmer for six 
 hours about a loch ; the salmon parr being as soft as a pat 
 of butter, and endowed with about as much power of 
 sustaining hardships. Doubtless the young salmon is tli« 
 parr, but the parr is not alioays the young salmon. — Ed. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 21 
 
 gled from my resting-place, and, after one or 
 two abortive attempts at swimming, which, re- 
 sulted in a circular, aimless movement, I found 
 myself carried oiit of ear- shot down stream. 
 By the time that I had quite recovered myself, 
 and, with the careless and elastic spirit of 
 youth, had already forgotten the severe lesson 
 I had experienced, I found myself on the brink 
 of a precipice, over which, to what unknown 
 depths I could not guess, the great river was 
 hurried in ceaseless flow. This was the cauld, 
 or dam, that by the supernatural agency of the 
 wondrous wizard, Michael Scott, ' bridled the 
 Tweed with a curb of stone,' just above the 
 beautiful old abbey of Melrose. Pausing for a 
 second to collect my energies, instinctively I 
 turned my head up-stream, and, swimming 
 with all my power against it, allowed myself to 
 be carried over the rock, and down into the 
 foaming water below. The shock was much 
 less in reality than in anticipation ; I speedily 
 recovered my senses, and, blithe and free, re- 
 sumed my downward course. I may mention 
 here, that this manoeuvre of swimming tail 
 first was constantly practised by us whenever 
 the force of the stream was too great to allow 
 
22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 of our progressing in the ordinary way. Our 
 movements were eccentric but graceful ; dart- 
 ing at intervals ostensibly upwards, but always 
 yielding, and, like tlie snail in tlie problem, 
 descending ten feet for every one we ascended. 
 By yielding to the might of the river, we were 
 carried more safely and pleasantly on our 
 destined course. 
 
 '' Passing the noble ruins of Dryburgh Abbey 
 — scarce, if at all, inferior to those of Melrose 
 — I speedily reached another cauld or dam, 
 and, passing it with equal ease and less fear 
 than the former, swam along by woody Maker- 
 stoun through one of the narrow channels 
 called the ' Clippers,' by the magnificent castle 
 of Floors, and, tarrying but to taste the sweet 
 waters of the Teviot, on through Kelso Bridge 
 and Sprouston Dubs, through the Edenmouth 
 and Carham Waters to Coldstream Bridge. In 
 this neighbourhood I escaped, by pure good 
 fortune, a danger that I afterwards learnt 
 proved fatal to thousands — nay, tens of thou- 
 sands — of my young companions. The stream 
 had apparently divided, and, whilst I followed 
 the course of the right-hand one, the greater 
 number passed down the wider but less rapid 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 23 
 
 left-hand division. Here they speedily encoun- 
 tered a terrific mill-wheel, and, dashing on one 
 side, they found their progress stopped by a 
 small net, which being passed under them, 
 they were landed Hterally by bushels. My 
 informant, who escaped by passing under the 
 mill-wheel at the imminent risk of being 
 crushed to atoms, assured me that the bodies 
 of our betrayed brethren were used as manure ! 
 And, degrading as the suggestion is, it seems 
 not impossible, for the numbers taken could 
 not be sold or used for food. The water- 
 bailiffs, a useless crew, who, at the time the 
 river chiefly requires protection, usurp the 
 places of the private keepers — connive at or 
 refuse to notice this wholesale destruction, aiid 
 content themselves by seizing and bringing be- 
 fore the magistrate the wretched urchins who, 
 with a long stick and a long string, a school- 
 boy at one end and the most distant approxi- 
 mation to the semblance of a fly at the other, 
 fill their breeches' pocket with smolts, and run 
 home to boil them for ' daddy's supper.' 
 Doubtless many thousands are destroyed in 
 this way, but what is that when our prolific 
 nature is considered ? Every female of our 
 
24' AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 wondrous race lays, on an average, eiglit thou- 
 sand eggs ! And, so long as we liave only our 
 natural enemies to contend witli, the rivers we 
 affect will be stocked to repletion in spite of all 
 the schoolboys birched betwixt Peebles and 
 Berwick." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The goal is reached. — The " Treasures of the Deep." — I 
 become surfeited with pleasure, and long to re- visit the 
 scenes of my youth. 
 
 "Yog think then, sir," said I, " that the 
 water-bailiffs are useless ? " 
 
 "By no means," said he, in a more argu- 
 mentative and less dictatorial tone than he had 
 hitherto used ; " but they should be supple- 
 mental to, and not in the place of, the ' fisher- 
 men' or private keepers. These men know 
 every pool, and rock, and haunt of a fish, 
 spawning or otherwise, on their respective 
 waters. They are directly interested in the 
 increase of the fish, and they generally know 
 and are not connected with the poachers. Yet 
 on a certain day, as a rule, the keepers, one or 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 25 
 
 more of whom are attaclied to each water, are 
 fundi officiis, and their places supphed by 
 water-baihffs, to one of whom is frequently en- 
 trusted three or four miles of river, and who is 
 somehow invariably at the farthest part of the 
 beat, whilst his kinsmen, and possibly former 
 comrades, are stopping the ascending or ' leis- 
 tering ' the spawning fish." 
 
 I have always doubted in my own mind 
 whether the above lucubrations emanated in 
 reality from my strange companion, or whether 
 they were not in fact the embodiment of my 
 own dreamy notions : for, truth to say, my 
 friend had become somewhat prosy, and an 
 " exposition of sleep " had come over me. I 
 roused myself, however, and listened with 
 marked attention as he proceeded in his natural 
 tone : — 
 
 '' At last, then, we had attained the goal of 
 our hopes, the unknown object of our yearning 
 aspirations ; and never were wishful anticipa- 
 tions — offspring of the promptings of Nature — 
 more abundantly satisfied. Not only did the 
 novel element in which we found ourselves — 
 for so unlike was it to that which we had 
 hitherto inhabited, it might properly be so 
 
26 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 
 
 called — brace and invigorate our frames, ren- 
 dering us keenly sensible of the delightful 
 sensation of wandering at will, through what 
 seemed to us boundless space ; but the waters 
 absolutely teemed with hfe, — marine insects 
 and molluscs, shrimps and prawns, young crabs 
 and lobsters, sea-worms, embryo creatures of 
 lower organization in millions, all destined 
 doubtless for our sustenance and delectation, 
 and for the gratifying (satisfying seemed out of 
 the question) our appetite, which ' grew with 
 what it fed on.' And we grew too ; how could 
 we otherwise, consuming as we did almost our 
 own weight daily of the most nutritious and 
 palatable food ? 
 
 '' I have heard wonder expressed that so 
 small a fish as the smolt should, in a few short 
 months, increase from the weight of three or 
 four ounces to that of frequently twice as many 
 pounds. But where is the wonder ? My 
 mother, who was murdered on the spawning 
 beds before half her eggs had been deposited, 
 weighed twent}^ pounds ; the noble kipper, her 
 companion, half as much again. What would be 
 the weight at more than two years old of a dog, 
 offspring of parents such sizes ? And was ever 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 27 
 
 puppy fed as we were fed ? No ! Folates 
 creantur fortibiis. Large animals and large 
 fishes produce large offspring, and when I left 
 the sea and again ascended my native Tweed in 
 July, I weighed nearly seven pounds.* But I 
 anticipate. 
 
 " Although the world of waters was all 
 before us where to choose, we never of our 
 own accord wandered far away from the land. 
 Coasting along we hugged the shore, and 
 thereby not only secured a greater abundance 
 of food, but escaped many dangers to which 
 those who were driven by accident or fear away 
 into the unknown depths of remoter waters 
 were exposed. True, danger even in the humble 
 path we had chosen for ourselves met us in 
 
 * A suggestion offers itself here, which I put forward 
 with great diffidence. Instead of putting back the under- 
 sized fish, the necessity for which is now so strougly advo- 
 cated, suppose the angler were occasionally to return those 
 monsters of the deep whose capture and dimensions we 
 occasionally find recorded in the Field and other papers 
 devoted to sporting matters. Would not the probable 
 result be an increase in the size of the fish 1 After all, 
 small fry are pleasant eating, and exist in such numbers that 
 the effect of rod-fishing upon them is absolutely inappreci- 
 able. 
 
28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 every turn. Dog-fish and cod-fisli, and por- 
 poises, and seals, and otters preyed upon ns 
 remorselessly, but the numbers of the four first, 
 at least, were greatly increased as we increased 
 our distance from the shore ; besides which, we" 
 lost those landmarks which gave us confidence 
 that we should one day be enabled to retrace 
 our steps, and saved us from the bewildering 
 sensation of being utterly lost. Few fish, once 
 driven out to sea, ever returned to our com- 
 pany; they were devoured, or perished from 
 want of proper food, or, if haply they reached 
 some unknown shore, wandered listlessly and 
 helplessly along it, seeking a stream or river 
 suitable to their wants, and, finding none, 
 perished miserably. 
 
 '' Great indeed is the wickedness and heavy 
 the responsibility of that greedy, selfish class — 
 thank Heaven ! now at last a limited one — 
 which, having acquired in some incomprehen- 
 sible manner the legal right of privately 
 destroying what ought to have been the most 
 cherished, as it is the most valuable, public 
 property, planted those accursed engines, the 
 stake-nets, along the coast and in the tideways 
 known as the highways most frequented by our 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 29 
 
 persecuted race. Nor is the fatal result that of 
 chance only. As the shoal of salmon and grilse 
 feel their way along shore, they run against the 
 guide-net, stretching far away into the sea. 
 Turning to avoid the danger seaward, they are 
 exposed to the attacks of ravenous hakes and 
 dog-fish, approaching in size to sharks ; these, 
 with the seals, watch the entrance to the nets 
 in murderous numbers, having learnt by ex- 
 perience the rich banquet afforded by the 
 terrified fugitives. 
 
 '' However, these and many other dangers, 
 which in the course of twelve months left 
 scarcely^ one in five hundred of my original 
 companions alive, affected such of us as escaped 
 no more than the unknown perils of our child- 
 hood. ' Heaven from all creatures hides the 
 book of fate.' My life was passed in one con- 
 tinued dream of sensual enjoyment. 
 
 " But all such pleasures, even to the brute 
 creation, are of short duration. I had for some 
 little time become aware of a feeling of satiety, 
 a desire for change ; and it was, I think, about 
 the middle of June that this feeling heightened 
 into an impulse, strong as that which, in May of 
 the previous year, had driven me down into the 
 
o 
 
 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 
 
 sea. As to Lord Lovel, ' a longing wish, came 
 over my mind ' to revisit my early haunts, and 
 to taste again that sweet fresh water I had so 
 gladly left. Besides, whilst wandering through 
 the waving groves of sea-weed in search of my 
 prey, certain sea-lice had detached themselves 
 from their sapless stems, to browse upon my 
 ' fair pasture.' They swarmed upon my gills, 
 and other parts of my body, to my great annoy- 
 ance. Instinct told me that these creatures 
 could not exist in fresh water ; so, in company 
 with a few stragglers, the remnants of my early 
 companions, and many elder fish, I turned my 
 head, and resolutely commenced my homeward 
 journey." 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I return. — My reception. — My second great peril. 
 
 " Although the time spent in the sea was 
 really considerable, and the experience acquired 
 appeared to our youthful imaginations illimit- 
 able, the actual distance passed in our wander- 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 31 
 
 ings was not great, and a few days found 
 us at the broad estuary into whicli fair Tweed 
 empties lierself. 
 
 Here, after tarrying a short time to ac- 
 custom our palates to the change from salt to 
 fresh water, and impelled by the sweet taste of 
 an unusual flow of the latter, we ran at once 
 into the mouth of the river, prepared to ascend 
 with the flowing tide of that night. Little 
 indeed did we calculate upon the destructive 
 power of men, whose living was our death. We 
 had collected, as I said, by hundreds, still in 
 the sea, but close to the mouth of the river. 
 Suddenly a boat, manned by two stout rowers, 
 put off", and, whilst they rowed quickly round 
 us, the third paid off" an immense net of appa- 
 rently endless length, and deep enough to 
 sweep the bottom. So rapidly was this effected, 
 that, notwithstanding a strong feeling of immi- 
 nent danger, we found ourselves surrounded, 
 and, the two ends of the net being joined on 
 the shore, entrapped and confined within a 
 circle becoming, as it was hauled in, gradually 
 of smaller dimensions. In vain, swimming 
 wildly about and around, we sought some out- 
 let of escape — there was none; slowly, but 
 
32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 surely, the mighty circle lessened and still 
 
 lessened, until we found ourselves dragged to 
 
 the very shore, and there, heaped on one 
 
 another, we lay, a mass of helpless, struggling 
 
 fish, gasping, flapping, choking, suffocating, 
 
 rolling one over another, and exhausting our 
 
 little remaining strength in futile jumps, or vain 
 
 endeavours to hide ourselves beneath the 
 
 doomed mass of the victims. Already the dull, 
 
 heavy thud of the short club, used by the 
 
 fishermen to despatch those fish that came 
 
 readiest to hand, sounded in our ears ; already 
 
 hope had given way to despair, and I, like the 
 
 rest, felt with the hope the desire of life to 
 
 perish; when a cry arose among our captors 
 
 that the net was breaking ! Such indeed was 
 
 the fact ; the net had been pulled somewhat 
 
 too high upon the shore, and the vast weight 
 
 of more than three hundred fish, aided by the 
 
 struggles of some of the heaviest, broke the 
 
 meshes, and in a moment we were free ! Many 
 
 of my companions were nevertheless seized and 
 
 killed ; but by far the greater number, myself 
 
 included, rushed through the wide opening, and 
 
 dashed back again to the friendly sea we had 
 
 so lately left. What became of my companions 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 33 
 
 I know not, — many doubtless were lost, many- 
 devoured : for myself, I lingered sadly about 
 the spot, and should have in all probability 
 shared the latter fate, but that I was accosted 
 by a female of my own race, bright and beauti- 
 ful, but twice my size and age. She told me 
 she was seeking the spawning-beds above, and 
 I, as youth ever does, felt an instinctive love 
 and veneration for one so much older and 
 grander than myself She told me of the 
 dangers she had escaped, almost by a miracle, 
 the year before ; how, after being twice all but 
 taken in the drag-nets, from which I had just 
 escaped, she had entered the river; how for 
 some miles as she ascended, when her back or 
 that of her larger companion was seen above 
 the surface of the shallow water, there had 
 been a cry of ' Fash ! Fash ! * and then a net 
 had been hastily dragged across her path, whilst 
 another was stretched below to prevent her 
 return ; how men with loud shouts or splash- 
 ings of the water had driven the devoted fish 
 into the toils before them; how at each pro- 
 jecting rock, forming still water where the 
 struggling fish might rest, a net was placed ; * 
 
 * These nets are now prohibited by law. 
 n 
 
34 AUTOBIOGRAPHI OF 
 
 how the deep pools affording a more permanent 
 harbour were dragged ; and how, when at last 
 the shallow spawning-beds were attained, many 
 of her race were ' gaffed ' for the sake of the 
 spawn within them. Such was the fate of the 
 baggit from which I sprang, some particulars 
 of which I learnt in after-times. I may as well 
 relate them now." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Baillie's misadventure in search of " Saumon Roe." — 
 Mode of fishing with that prohibited bait. 
 
 " I WAS lying listlessly one day in summer thirty 
 feet beneath the surface, beyond the influence 
 of the rapid stream above, in the fathomless 
 pool called The Pot, some half-mile below 
 Merton Bridge, a boat, kept in its place by two 
 light oars, floating above me, when the frag- 
 ments of a conversation reached my ears, 
 which by degrees absorbed my attention. A 
 river-keeper was detailing to his employer the 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 35 
 
 circumstances connected with the capturing of 
 a poacher. 
 
 " ' Ay, sir,' he said, ' but that saumon-roe is 
 a sair temptation ; mony a guid mon has been 
 beguiled bj it. A' ken ane, a baiUie ; a' took 
 him mysel'.' 
 
 " ' How came that ? Tell us all about it,' 
 was the reply. 
 
 " * A' was watching, mebbe six months syne, 
 up in the Pavilion Water ; the fish were thrang- 
 ing sair upon the spawning-beds, and weel 
 a' kent they were thrang on the bank abune 
 the Whirlies. A' was hidden in the wee brae 
 just abune the brig, and a' hadna' been there 
 mebbe twa hour, when a' see a mon come 
 daintily alang. Looking carefully this way an' 
 that, an' seeing naebody, he just out wi' the 
 gafi*, an', screwing it on to the end of his walk- 
 ing-stick, stepped lightly into the water. It 
 wouldna' be mickle abune his knee, an' the 
 back fin o' mair than ae great fish was plain to 
 be seen on the bank before him. 'Deed, but he 
 wasted little time in selection, an' varra little 
 ceremony he treated 'em with. In a second 
 the gafi* was in a puir half-spawned beastie, 
 an', lugging her ashore, he started afi* het foot 
 
 r. 2 
 
36 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 
 
 towards Melrose. A' up an' after him, an' for 
 a weiglity mon lie made mickle running. When 
 he saw me he dropped the fish, but no' stopping 
 to pick it up, a' just kept on under the railway 
 brig, down the meadows, by Ailwand Foot, 
 under Melrose Brig, an' there, as he was creep- 
 ing up the steep bank, a' grippit hold of him 
 ahint ; a' grippit hard, an' he turned and said, 
 " Sandy, lad ! dinna grip sae hard ; ye'U rive 
 ma breeks." ''Ay, Baillie," said I, ''is that 
 you ? How cam' ye to do it ? " And he said 
 quite solemn-like, " Sandy ! " he said, " It was 
 neether the need nor the greed, but joost the 
 saumon-roe ! ^' "Ech, Baillie," a' said, ''a' 
 wadna' have believed it of ye, but it will be 
 dear saumon-roe to ye." And sae it proved, 
 for he was fined five pund, and ither harm cam' 
 of it.' 
 
 '' ' And served him right,' said his companion; 
 ' a man ought to be hanged who kills a spawn- 
 ing fish on its bed. Why ! the very Jews under 
 divine command spared the sitting bird, the 
 nursing mother ; and what is the value of a 
 flavourless bird laying half-a-dozen eggs at 
 most, to that of the noble salmon which lays 
 eight thousand ! ' 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 37 
 
 a < »■ 
 
 'Deed, ye speak true, sir,' said the other 
 voice ; ^ an' its aye a strange thing to me, that 
 ony ca'ing themselves sportsmen can conde- 
 scend to fish wi' roe. It's just no sport ava, an' 
 the best trouts that are killed, though the 
 biggest in the haill river, are no worth the 
 killing.' 
 
 '' * Indeed, I believe you ; but I never saw 
 the operation of fishing with roe. How is it 
 performed ? ' 
 
 *' ' Aweel, ye require neither rod, nor line, 
 nor gut, nor reel, nor onything but just a 
 strong stick — a stake out of the hedge is about 
 as guid as anither — an' a bit of cord, no matter 
 how thick, an' a heuk with a bittock of lead to 
 sink her, an' a lump of roe as muckle mebbe as 
 a marley is put intil it ; an' ye tak' the highest 
 flood and the darkest water, an' ye stan' on 
 the bank, an' the spent trout that have spawned, 
 ye ken, seek the still waters close in shore, an' 
 they're varra empty and hungry belike, an', 
 when ye feel they swallow the roe, ye just fling 
 'em ower your head ; an' a' the best trout in 
 Tweed are caught that way.' 
 
 '' ' By Jove ! ' said his companion, ' your 
 fi^iend, the baiUie, deserved a ducking for his 
 
38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 snobbishness, as well as a fine for bis wicked- 
 ness ! I wisb I bad tbe power, and I'd make 
 it felony to fisb witb salmon-roe." 
 
 " Sinking down to tbe quiet deptbs below, 
 and pondering upon wbat I bad beard, I fully 
 concurred in tbe sentence last uttered, on 
 general as well as selfish grounds."* 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The ascent of the river. — I find again to my cost that 
 ** all is not gold that glitters," and afford a practical 
 illustration of '^ the biter bitten." — My third great 
 peril. 
 
 " Dangers, fears, and perils forgotten, tbe next 
 morning found my companion and myself again 
 
 * There are those who think that the common trout, on 
 account of the injury he does to the salmon-roe, should be, 
 if possible, annihilated. I differ ; but, with that object in 
 view, no more efficient instrument exists than angling in 
 spring with roe. After all, trout only eat that portion of 
 spawn which, from two females in succession occupying the 
 same spawning-bed or other causes, has been dislodged and 
 floats down the stream, and which under any circumstances 
 must be lost. The insidious attacks of the dragon-fly larvss 
 are a million times more destructive, and, what is worse, 
 impossible to be guarded against. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 39 
 
 at the mouth of the river. The scarce-ebbing 
 tide brought with it the smell and taste of a 
 freshet, the result of the last night's rain, and 
 we stemmed the retreating tide more boldly as 
 we felt the assurance of good swimming- water 
 above. 
 
 '* It was Saturday morning ; from that day 
 to Monday the river is free ; so for thirty hours 
 at least our persecutors were restrained from 
 crying ' Havoc ' upon our devoted race. No 
 net, no boat, stopped our way ; we swam 
 joyously up stream, and by noon that day had 
 passed the well-remembered Norham Bridge. 
 Here we met a little crowd of frightened fish, 
 returning to the sea, dismayed and disheartened, 
 as well they might be. This sparse band, scarce 
 half a score in number, were all that remained 
 of some five hundred noble fish who had at- 
 tempted the passage but the day before. They 
 had escaped the long sea-nets, and the more 
 deadly drags used in the river ; they had been 
 hunted in the shallows, and pelted in the streams, 
 and when they might fairly hope for rest and 
 safety, they had found themselves debarred 
 from the goal they sought, by a long, deep, 
 heavy net fastened right across the stream, 
 
40 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 
 
 sunk a little below the water, and intended to 
 keep the fish from passing upwards during the 
 short period from Saturday to Monday, when 
 net-fishing ostensibly ceases, until they could 
 legally be dragged out of the pool on Monday 
 morning. They urged us to return,* and seek 
 the comparative safety of the sea, swarming as 
 it did with our natural enemies, in preference 
 to placing ourselves within the power of those 
 short-sighted, unprincipled scoundrels who dis- 
 grace the name of fisherman ! Had I been 
 unsupported, my natural timidity, enhanced by 
 the remembrance of the dangers I had gone 
 through, would have induced me to accompany 
 them, but my more experienced and bolder 
 companion overruled their counsel. She told 
 them how, by swimming on the surface of the 
 water, instead of the bed of the river, on wliich 
 to escape the force of the stream our course 
 had hitherto been held, we should escape the 
 danger, and how essential it was to our health, 
 and the preservation of our race, that the upper 
 
 * Kunning fish, especially grilse, are frequently turned 
 back by meeting others which, having been scared by the 
 nets, are again returning to the sea, thus affording a double 
 chance of capture to their vigilant enemies. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 41 
 
 waters, where alone fitting spawning-beds conld 
 be found, should be reached ; she pointed out 
 how even yet the sea-lice clung to our gills and 
 bodies, and promised us that twenty-four hours' 
 sojourn in the fresh water would relieve us from 
 each one : finally, taunting us with the timidity 
 evidenced by going back after daring so much 
 and advancing so far, she succeeded in persuad- 
 ing us to risk all chances and follow her lead. 
 For myself, I dashed recklessly after her over 
 the net of which we had already taken stock, 
 as we advanced towards it. Many of our com- 
 panions followed, and a few hours brought us, 
 without further let or hindrance, to the Cauld 
 Pool, below the well-remembered ruins of Dry- 
 burgh Abbey, where all that is mortal of the 
 great poet and novelist of Scotland lies interred. 
 Here, taking advantage of the comparatively 
 still water behind a large submerged rock, we 
 rested motionless and silent, and though ' we, 
 like mortals, never sleep,' enjoyed that perfect 
 rest which cessation from labour, and the total 
 oblivion from cares and troubles, ever bring 
 with them. 
 
 '' This, and a portion of the following day. 
 were thus serenely spent. The sea-lice which 
 
42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 had clung to our scales, unable to exist in the 
 fresh water, had dropped off, and no care or 
 trouble was present. A restless feeling had, 
 indeed, arisen within me, and I was on the 
 point of suggesting to my companions a move- 
 ment higher and still higher np the stream, 
 when my attention was attracted by what 
 appeared to me a familiar object — a shrimp or 
 prawn, or some other small object of the ocean 
 so lately quitted, and which had furnished me 
 with many a bountiful meal. It floated gently 
 over my head, not over bright in colour, but 
 showy, and its hues, which were dispersed uni- 
 formly over its body, blended together, and 
 formed one harmonious whole. Its movements 
 were short and rapid, such as are those of the 
 insects — ' Crustaceas,' I think, is the proper 
 term — I have referred to, and it seemed to be 
 striving, with doubtful result, to stem the 
 somewhat rapid stream. "What induced me I 
 cannot say : I was not hungry ; indeed, I had 
 felt no desire to eat since I entered the fresh 
 water ; I was hardly in the mood for play, for 
 I felt that the serious business of life was 
 before me ; but, impelled by some unaccountable 
 impulse, I rose from my resting-place, and 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 43 
 
 attempted toseize it in my mouth. The motion 
 was rapid, but still too slow to be effectual ; 
 the creature vanished ere mj lips could close 
 on it. Whilst turning slowly round to seek 
 my former station — somewhat sulkily, too, for 
 the object I had failed to attain had, in con- 
 sequence, acquired a value it had not previously 
 possessed — I heard a voice say, — 
 
 " ' Ay, but that was a bonny grilse ! Ay, 
 but it was a grand rise he made, too ! Ye 
 were ower quick in striking.' 
 
 " ' I think I was,' was the reply, ' but we'll 
 try again.' 
 
 " ^ Bide a wee, sir ; bide a wee ; give him 
 time to return to his old station before you 
 show him the flee again.' 
 
 '' Utterly unconscious of the meaning of 
 these words, and in no respect connecting them 
 with myself or my doings, I saw with some 
 surprise, not unmixed with pleasure, the 
 little jerking figure again passing within three 
 feet of my nose. There was a band of silver 
 round its throat that excited my cupidity, 
 and I was, moreover, somewhat nettled 
 at the failure of my previous attempt to 
 seize it. Without a moment's pause, I dashed 
 
44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 at it, and, seizing the bright wings between mj 
 lips, was prepared, at least, to carry it down 
 with me, to be swallowed or not, as might 
 happen ; when, to my amazement and alarm, 
 ere I could as much as turn away after my 
 spring, the creature snatched itself from out 
 my very jaws, and vanished as it had previously 
 done. Sulky and annoyed, I sought again my 
 resting-place, and again I heard the same voice 
 which had before spoken, — 
 
 " ' Deed, sir, ye were just ower hasty again ; 
 ye dinna let the fash tak' a grip of the flee 
 before you snatch it out of his mouth.' 
 
 '''Never mind, Sandy; we'll try again.' 
 
 " ' A'm thinking I'll just change the flee ; 
 mebbe he's seen ower muckle of this ane.' 
 
 " Read from the light of after-experience, 
 these words were plain enough ; but, young 
 and inexperienced as I was, they conveyed no 
 meaning, no warning, and it can hardly be 
 wondered at that, tantalized as I had been, 
 no sooner did I see a creature similar in form 
 and habit to the other, but somewhat larger 
 and brighter, apparently striving to stem the 
 stream a little above me, than, again dashing 
 at it, I seized it firmly in my teeth, and, 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 45 
 
 turning round, wa^s going back to my lair, 
 when I felt a sharp, smarting pain, a convul- 
 sive shock shook my frame, and I found myself 
 madly struggling against some great, unknown, 
 invisible power, which controlled my will, and, 
 for a time at least, rendered me helpless, 
 almost hopeless. 
 
 " Willing to realize the worst, and anxious 
 to learn something certain respecting my con- 
 dition, I rushed upwards, and, jumping high 
 in the air, saw two men standing on the 
 bank, with whose movements, with reference 
 to my own position, I had no difficulty in 
 tracing the connexion. The one with a long 
 rod in his hand, the line from which restrained 
 and controlled me, stood motionless; whilst 
 the other, with a horrible hook attached to 
 the end of a stick in his hand, seemed to be 
 aiding and advising him. 
 
 " ' Canny, lad,' I heard him say ; ' canny, 
 noo ; he is but light heukit ; I ken by his 
 jumping. Canny, noo ; he's just a fresh-run 
 grilse, an' his mouth unco saft.' 
 
 " I had heard enough ; and by this time 
 my terror had somewhat abated, and my 
 natural energy returned in aid of the strength 
 
46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 with which I was gifted. JSTo longer coursing 
 about the pool with aimless rapidity, or wasting 
 my strength in fruitless jumps, I dropped back 
 gradually into the deep pool behind, and, 
 sinking to the bottom, lay motionless behind 
 the big rock I had so lately quitted. My 
 companion kept ever beside me, and, though 
 she could render no assistance, her presence 
 was an aid and consolation to me, and I felt 
 cooler and stronger for her sympathy. Aided 
 by the weight of water above ihe, I defied the 
 power still exercised by my persecutor to move 
 me. I felt but little pain, and, but for the 
 choking sensation occasioned by the interference 
 of the free passage of water through my gills, 
 little annoyance ; and it was only on observing 
 a huge stone thrown for the purpose of dis- 
 lodging me, descending directly upon my head, 
 that I started from my lair. Rushing wildly 
 away, my escape was brought about by the very 
 means intended for my destruction. Impeded 
 by the line, my movement was slow, and the 
 stone, barely missing me, fell upon the line itself, 
 released the hook from the slight hold it had in 
 my mouth, and I felt that I wsiS free ! Joyous, 
 exulting in my deliverance, I again sought the 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 47 
 
 surface, and, as I jumped two or three times 
 out of the water, I had the satisfaction of ob- 
 serving visible marks of disappointment and 
 regret on the countenances of my friends on 
 shore. The one stood with his rod straight 
 upwards, his Hne floating down the stream, 
 himself in the precise attitude in which he had 
 maintained that dead, strong pull against me, 
 which, by exhausting my strength, had so 
 nearly proved fatal ; the other was apparently 
 solacing himself with a pinch of snufi*, and the 
 only words I heard him utter were, — 
 
 " ^ Ay, but that was a bonny grilse ! Deil 
 tak' the stane ! ' " 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I foregather with a kelt, whose gallant struggle and 
 ultimate capture I witness. 
 
 " The Cauld Pool, so lately a pleasant haven of 
 rest, was no longer an abiding-place ' for me. 
 The dread and terror I had endured were asso- 
 ciated with every rock and stone about me ; 
 and, had I stayed there for a month to come, I 
 am certain that no gaud, however cunningly 
 
48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP 
 
 devised, would liave tempted me so much, as to . 
 look at it. The freshet, however, still con- 
 tinued; there was good swimming-water, and 
 that very night, my faithful companion by my 
 side, I ascended the heavy fall which descended 
 the ' cauld ' or dam, and proceeded onwards 
 towards those faintly but dearly remembered 
 scenes of my early youth, the waters of Upper 
 Tweed. 
 
 '' I may here correct a very common error as 
 to the manner in which we salmon ascend a 
 rapid. In many pictures, in many books, we 
 are represented as leaping over a rapid some 
 fifteen or twenty feet in height. This is simply 
 absurd. Excepting in the exuberance of spirits, 
 occasioned by escape from danger, the attempt 
 to escape that danger, or under the peculiar 
 influence caused by a change in the weight of 
 the atmosphere, we never jiimio : we sivim 
 upwards, and the effort carries us beyond the 
 surface high into the air; we sivim up a 
 rapid, and what appears like a jump is nothing 
 more than the abortive result of a misdirected 
 effort ; an attempt, in fact, to swim in a per- 
 pendicular direction up a stream, which descends 
 more or less horizontally. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 49 
 
 *' One or two failures occurred, but with little 
 difficulty we surmounted the obstacle, and, 
 passing rapidly onwards by the low green 
 meadows and woody banks above Melrose, we 
 made no further pause till we reached that long 
 extent of unrivalled water, where may still be 
 seen the foundations of the old bridge, the gate 
 of which, in the days when ' the Monastery ' 
 was still entire, was kept by the churlish Peter, 
 the bridgeward. Here, again, choosing our 
 station behind a projecting stone, we rested ; 
 and, whilst many of our companions passed 
 onwards, a considerable number, and those of 
 a large size, took up their position around us. 
 Indeed, the place was, in every respect, satis- 
 factory, and adapted to our requirements. 
 Shelving gradually from the southern side, the 
 for^ce of the stream increased proportionately 
 with its depth, so that, with the least trouble, 
 we could seek such depth and strength of 
 water as suited our tastes for the time : except- 
 ing a few large stones, behind which we usually 
 lay, the bottom of the stream was perfectly 
 level; and, as the river made a considerable 
 angle on the opposite side, beneath the steep, 
 wood-crowned bank, we could at any time bask 
 
 E 
 
50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 in the sun, or exchange its sultry beams for the 
 cool shadow beyond. 
 
 ^^ In addition to the companions of our voy- 
 age, and many others who had previously a- 
 scended with the same object — to deposit their 
 spawn on the gravelly beds, so common in the 
 upper waters — our pool contained a large num- 
 ber of kelts :* fish, that is, which during the 
 preceding winter and early spring had success- 
 fully deposited their spawn, and were now 
 sinking downwards by easy stages towards 
 that land, if I may use an Irishism, of plenty, 
 the sea. These kelts were the jolliest of fish ; 
 they seemed like married men escaped for a 
 short period from the cares of a family, and the 
 troubles of housekeeping. They ate minnows, 
 and parr, and the late samlets of the previous 
 
 * I constantly observe in that excellent paper, the Field, 
 pungent gibes directed against the slayer of the kelt. In 
 the same paper, too, I occasionally observe diatribes upon 
 battue-shooting, which is likened to slaying cocks and hens 
 in a farmyard. Now, I am no friend to over-preserving, 
 and fully admit that battue-shooting maybe carried too far ; 
 but the man who can stand at a cross-ride and toss five out 
 of six rocketing pheasants dead ten yards behind him, or 
 can kill a "weel mendit" kelt in Tweed, in the month of 
 May, take my word for it, is no muff ! 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 51 
 
 year, and water insects, and worms, and slugs, 
 and, in fact, whatever came uppermost. Though 
 thin and emaciated when they left the spawn- 
 ing beds, good cheer told upon them, and I 
 have rarely seen a handsomer specimen of our 
 race than a grand eighteen-pound kelt, with 
 whom I struck up a passing acquaintance as 
 we sheltered behind the same stone in the Brig 
 End Pool. He was, perhaps, a trifle longer in 
 proportion to his depth than a fresh-run fish ; 
 his back had a bluish tinge, and he was less 
 thick about the tail; but the scales beneath 
 were of silvery white ; he was altogether 
 well-proportioned and well-favoured; and his 
 strength was evidenced by the ease with which 
 he poised himself, like a bird in the air, even in 
 the rapid part of the stream. What fun it 
 must be, thought I, to be hungry ! as I saw 
 him dash playfully upwards at a gaudy-winged 
 butterfly which, after hovering a moment above 
 us, had dropped exhausted into the stream, 
 and was now, despite his struggles, manifestly 
 drowning. I had seen my friend the day 
 before, when the water was somewhat muddy, 
 absolutely gorge himself upon dead worms, and 
 other not over- delicate debris, that floated down 
 
52 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 
 
 tlie stream. The butterfly was more after mj 
 own taste, and, as lie rose at the painted flj, 
 he rose in my estimation. But what is this ? 
 Scarcely had he, with a sweep of his mighty 
 tail, reached the surface, when he descended 
 again, rushing by me in evident terror and 
 alarm, and seeking, with a rapid but rather 
 constrained motion, the dark depths below. 
 The facts of the case were apparent to me 
 instantly. My poor friend, in the buoyancy of 
 his spirits, had seized, more in playfulness than 
 in greed, the treacherous imitation of a fly, cast 
 by one of the deadliest foes to our race on 
 Tweed. No hope of release from a friendly 
 misdirected stone was here ; if a stone were 
 thrown by him it might startle, but never loose, 
 the fish ; and, confident in the strength of his 
 tackle and the delicacy of his touch, little did 
 the fisher heed the poor kelt's attempt at sulk- 
 ing. Not, as in my case, was the strain up- 
 wards, giving me the advantage of the whole 
 weight of water to increase the resistance, but 
 sideways the force was exerted, at an angle 
 which deprived the devoted fish of all help from 
 that source. Indeed, the run of the stream 
 was in the direction of the slow, strong, steady 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 53 
 
 pull, persistently kept up, and to which at first 
 slowly, but eventually with a rush, like that of 
 a hawk through the air, the kelt was constrained 
 to yield. Dashing up stream, with a velocity 
 still comparable to that of the bird, he sought 
 the rough pass above the railway bridge, where 
 haply he might cut the envious line against the 
 sharp edges of the rocks, or rub the cruel hook 
 from the jaw in which it was too securely fixed ; 
 but this was not allowed. The strong, pliant 
 rod was in no tvro's hand, and the maddest 
 efibrts of the fish were controlled by a power 
 which, though felt to be irresistible, could never 
 be measured or met by opposed strength. In 
 vain, rushing upwards, did the poor animal 
 dash three feet from the surface of the water 
 into the thin air, hoping in his descent to fall 
 upon the line, and so disengage the biting 
 hook ; in vain, I say, for rod, and eye, and line, 
 and hand seemed guided by one impulse alone, 
 and that derived from the struggling fish. As 
 he jumped, the hand yielded, the rod bent, the 
 strain of the line loosened, and. the quiet eye 
 twinkled with exultation, as, gaining nothing 
 by the exhausting eflbrt, the poor fish sought 
 again his native element. "Weakened and fail- 
 
54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ing, unable to drag the weighty line against 
 the rapid stream, the fish now turned his head 
 downwards, and with an imitation, rather than 
 the reality, of strength, dashed away at his 
 former pace. But swimming down stream, 
 with a hook in one's mouth, is a game that 
 cannot be long played. Breathing, as fishes 
 breathe, becomes impossible ; and with pain I 
 speedily beheld my poor acquaintance turn on 
 his back, and approach, with no will of his own, 
 the low shelving bank of shingle, where the 
 shallow water left half his huge body exposed. 
 A large net was passed under him, and whilst, 
 as being dragged ashore, the exulting ' whoo 
 whoop ! ' of his captor rang in my ears, I natu- 
 rally concluded that I had seen the last of my 
 gallant, handsome, ill-fated friend. Such, how- 
 ever, was not the case ; and the conversation 
 that reached me before he was returned to the 
 water, as to my great surprise he was, explained 
 the cause of his good fortune. 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 55 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " Thou rash intruding fool ! I took thee for thy betters.'* 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 " ' HuERAH ! hurrali ! A clean fish at last ! 
 And what a beauty ! What do you think of 
 that ? ' 
 
 " ' Hoot ! It's no fash ava ! It's just a kelt 
 beastie.' 
 
 " ' A kelt ! Why, now I look at it, it is a 
 kelt ; but it is a grand fish, and the sport it 
 showed first-rate.' 
 
 " ' And what for no' ? A fish that's fattened 
 in the river, wi' guid, wholesome food, is just 
 as strong as ony fattened in the sea, an' it 
 kens, mind ye, every hole, and stream, and 
 rock in the pool, an' it's no' sae frightened at 
 the bank's side as a fash fresh-run from the 
 sea, where there is no bound on ony side.' 
 
 '' ' And about the eating ? ' 
 
 " ' Weel, I'll no' say that the eating is sae 
 guid as a clean fresh-run saumon : 'deed, 
 there's naething in nature can beat that ; the 
 
56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 fash caught in the nets are no' to be compared 
 to it; but it's guid, wholesome food for a' that, 
 an' dainty eneuch. I was up to London ten 
 years syne to gie evidence, as they ca' it, 
 anent saumon and sich Hke, an' ech ! the 
 evidence I heard given ! There was ae lad swore 
 that his fish Avere bred in the sea, an' had no 
 necessity to come to the rivers at a' ! There 
 was anither swore that it was the Saturday's 
 slap that destroyed the fish, for it just allowed 
 those who would have returned to the sea, 
 there to spawn in safety, to gae up the river 
 to be kilt by the poacher ! I saw on the stalls 
 of the fishmongers, as ye ca' them, mony mair 
 kelts than clean fish; an', though they were a 
 thought paler in colour, an', I kenned weel, 
 varra inferior in taste, they seemed to sell 
 t'ane as well as the ither.' 
 
 '' ' Then you think kelts ought to be killed? ' 
 " ' Hoo,' not at a' ! But a kelt that is fit to 
 be kilt an' eaten should be kilt an' eaten. 
 What for no' ? Ye'U tak' mebbe twal or 
 aughteen fish in a morning, an', out of them 
 a', twa or four, mebbe, are weel mendit. A'd 
 gie them a tap on the head, an' they're just the 
 fish that gie the greatest sport, an' mony ane 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAE, ESQ. 57- 
 
 dees from exhaustion when putten back into 
 the river. The rest might swim away an' be 
 thankful, an', if some of them dee, what are 
 they after a' but single fish ? ' 
 
 *' Whilst speaking, my friend had carefully 
 disengaged the hook from the gasping fish, 
 and, with one hand below its body beneath the 
 water, and the other grasping its tail, had 
 launched him, as it were, into the deep pool. 
 As it felt itself loosed from restraint, a convul- 
 sive efi'ort of the tail drove the sickened, half- 
 alive beast some five feet diagonally across the 
 stream, and then it helplessly resigned itself to 
 the force of the water, floating unresistingly 
 down stream. Whether the good fish lived or 
 died I know not; but, if it died — and many 
 that have been hooked, and fought well, I 
 know have died — it were better that it should 
 have fiirnished food for human beings, than for 
 the foul-feeding carrion-crow, or the slimy 
 ravenous eel. 
 
 "Time passed on, and still found me a 
 denizen of Brig End Pool. Fish came and 
 went, and some tarried beside me, and some 
 passed upward. The kelts, one and all, 
 dropped down the stream by degrees, and by 
 
58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the end of May not one was left. In August, 
 I found myself surrounded either by fish of my 
 own standing which had passed months in the 
 water, or fresh-run salmon, the early kelts of 
 the preceding year which had now returned 
 from the salt water. 
 
 " During my sojourn in the pool, many and 
 many a lure passed over me, and many times I 
 felt half inclined to seize the tempting bait, but 
 I always restrained myself; every rock, and 
 ripple, and cliff, and stream, reminded me of 
 the struggles of my first friend the kelt, or 
 some other doomed fish, for many a gallant 
 struggle was I witness to, between the fisher- 
 man and the credulous fish, the victim of his 
 perfidious art. Of these some escaped, but 
 the majority were, after more or less resist- 
 ance, dragged ashore and killed. Of the 
 various wiles practised by those fortunates 
 who did escape, it may be interesting to make 
 some passing mention. One, I remember, a 
 grand fish of some eighteen pounds' weight, at 
 the first touch of the hook dashed with light- 
 ning speed down stream, turning neither to 
 the right nor to the left, running out a hundred 
 yards of line. The fisherman having neglected 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 59 
 
 to tie a knot at the end, there was nothing to 
 stop it, and the great fish sailed away sea- 
 wards, dragging in his wake two pounds' 
 worth of excellent tackle. No doubt a few 
 hours relieved him from the encumbrance, and 
 his would-be captor paid not too dearly for a 
 lesson he was unlikely to forget. One very 
 extraordinary escape I witnessed was precisely 
 analogous to my own when a smolt. The fish 
 was hooked from the north or high shore ; 
 terrified apparently beyond the influence of 
 instinct or reason, he dashed madly up the 
 shelving bank on the opposite side, and lay 
 gasping three feet beyond the shoal water. 
 Taken aback by this utterly unexpected ma- 
 noeuvre, the fisherman slackened his hold, and 
 the fish, with the same effort that restored him 
 to his native waters, shook the hook from out 
 of his mouth. I have seen fish escape by 
 running rapidly round a rock, obtaining either 
 for themselves a dead pull, and so wrenching 
 the barb from their jaws, or, leaving a dead 
 pull against the rock itself to the fisherman, 
 afford him an excellent opportunity of breaking 
 his tackle and releasing his prey. I have seen 
 a fish spring three feet out of the water, when 
 
60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 struck, and contrive in liis descent to fall on 
 the line, so as to break the hold of the hook. 
 I have seen many, when but slightly hooked, 
 by a violent and continuous effort shalce the 
 hook out of their mouths ; and I have seen 
 others, well hooked but too tightly held, break 
 the strong line like pack-thread, or straighten 
 the hook itself as though it were made of pin- 
 wire. But perhaps the most efficacious, and 
 to the fisherman annoying mode of escape, was 
 one not uncommonly practised by a clean-run 
 vigorous fish. Indeed, I must own that, 
 though the kelts showed more craft and 
 cunning, and brought to their aid great 
 physical power, the fresh-run fish, for a clean 
 rush and a stand-up fight, beat them hollow. 
 The dodge they practised was as follows : 
 swimming near the surface, and rushing down 
 stream some thirty or forty yards, they sud- 
 denly sought the bottom, and returned upon 
 their tracks with scarce diminished speed. The 
 weighty water bagging out the line, gave the 
 fisher, more especially if a tyro, the idea that 
 his intended victim's course was still down- 
 wards, and, paying out line rapidly, he enabled 
 the fish to bring such a weight of water upon 
 
THE LATE SALMO SALAR, ESQ. 61 
 
 it as eventually to necessitate its breakage. 
 The first intimation Piscator had of the escape 
 of his prey was the exulting bound of the 
 salmon some fifty yards above the spot which 
 in* his imagination was occupied by that 
 attached to his own line. This mode of 
 effecting an escape I have heard designated as 
 droivningy and certainly I have seen fishermen, 
 after the manoeuvre had been practised at 
 their expense, look as though drowning were 
 an enviable escape from their mortification. 
 Another most successful manoeuvre resorted 
 to by a hooked fish, especially if a long line 
 were thrown, was the running in of the salmon 
 right to the feet of the fishermen. In vain 
 the rod was held aloft, in vain the reel was 
 wound with reckless haste, in vain its holder 
 receded from the river bank ; the line ivould 
 become slack, and a shake and a scuffle at 
 once got rid of the hook, unless it had pene- 
 trated more than ordinarily deep, or had struck 
 upon some soft part of the fish's mouth. 
 Happily, however, for us, there are few such 
 parts in our mouths ; if fresh-run the palate 
 is soft, but the bone is hard beneath, and, if 
 we have been long in the water, it is hard 
 
62 . AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 tlirougliout ; whether or no, a regular, firm, 
 and equal strain must be kept on the hook, or 
 the fish escapes ; if the strain be too strong, 
 the rod, or the line, or the gut, or the hook, 
 or the hold in the mouth is broken ; if it 
 be slack, it is at once, and with ease, shaken 
 out. On the whole, I wish we had no worse 
 enemies than fishermen !"* 
 
 * I should think so ! In a water I once rented, I killed 
 during six weeks, at an expense of a hundred pounds, forty- 
 fish, and was considered to have had good sport. Out of 
 one pool on the same water, eighty fish have been taken at 
 a single haul of the net ! 
 
■y 
 
 
 '^>