98 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



have been expected, for the Duke of Bncclench vigo- 

 rously interests himself in their protection. This, how- 

 ever, has only been of late years ; and indeed, instead 

 of wondering that the salmon should have decreased in 

 our rivers, the marvel seems to be that they have not 

 shared the fate of the larger fer^e of the dry land. It 

 is to be borne in mind, that notwithstanding the seve- 

 rity of the Scottish laws against killing breeding sal- 

 mon, they must have been almost entirely inoperative, 

 from the fact that the chief breeding- places were always 

 beyond the reach of the law. The inhabitants of Glen 

 Lyon or Glen Tilt were not likely to pay much respect 

 to the " Lawland laws" that forbade the taking of the 

 salmon in winter to give a relish to their oatmeal 

 bannocks, and afford an alternation of kipper with their 

 tough venison-hams. They would doubtless turn up 

 their nostrils in supreme contempt at the idea of re- 

 fraining from spearing the foul fish in order that the 

 burghers of Dunkeld, Perth, or Dundee, might get 

 them clean. The spawning-grounds of the Forth and 

 Teith were in the country of the Macgregors, and these 

 sharp-sighted children of the mist would always have 

 an old claymore blade, or perhaps even a weapon so 

 civilized as a leister, ready for the visitors from the 

 Bass Kock and Inchkeith. As to the Tweed, there 

 were, as we have seen, times — and these frequent ones 

 — when it was declared patriotic to kill every salmon 

 that could be got, so as to disappoint the English loons 

 who held Bermck ; and even at this date, the intelli- 

 gent and moral population of Roxburghshire, Selkirk- 

 shire, and Peebleshire — sound, nay learned, as they are 

 on all doctrinal points, and familiar from their childhood 



