EXTENT OF KELT-KLILING. 15 



The extent^ however, to which kelt-killing had been 

 carried of late years on the Tweed, by both net and 

 rod, was simply atrocious. We believe it was no ex- 

 aggeration of the newspapers to state, at the opening 

 of the season in 1857, that " tons of kelts" had been 

 captured by net the first day ; and the mere summing 

 up of those enumerated by the Border papers as having 

 been taken by the rod for sport at the different " waters' 7 

 during the first week, would not give a less figure than 

 1000. One dealer in Kelso purchased 2000ft>s. of 

 these fish after the season had considerably advanced, 

 the market for them being principally Paris. The 

 large midland towns of England were for several years 

 privileged to buy them and eat them as " Tweed 

 salmon ;" but a tour made through these towns by the 

 Superintendent of Tweed Police blew up that market, 

 and probably caused the stream of supply to be turned 

 towards France. We defy even the cooks of the 

 Palais Koyal to make a kelt that - has been carried 

 from the Tweed to Paris wholesome or good, how- 

 ever much their craft may disguise its real character. 

 Kelts cannot, except perhaps as kippers, be eaten with 

 relish or even safety ; and when the Parisian gourmet 

 has flourished his napkin over his saumon d I'Ecosse, 

 he has not known that he was eating what even the 

 stomach of a Selkirkshire shepherd, the gastric juice of 

 which had been fortified by a preliminary mutchkin of 

 whisky, would revolt and " scunner" at. Tweed has 

 long been a standing anomaly in respect to kelt-killing. 

 On no other Scottish river were these fish allowed to 

 be taken by law; and, although there is perhaps a 

 little truth in the argument that Tweed kelts are much 



