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. 



