LAWLESS POACHING. 101 



have been expected, for the Duke of Buccleuch 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 ferse 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 Duukeld, Perth, or Dundee might get 

 them clean. The spawning grounds of the Forth and 

 the 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 Eock 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 Berwick ; and even at this date, the intelli- 

 gent and moral population of Eoxburghshire, Selkirk- 

 shire, and Peebleshire sound, nay learned, as they 

 are on all doctrinal points, and familiar from their 



