POACHING 159 



barrels. There were ' three men in a boat ' ; one at 

 the head and one at the stern as boatmen and 

 leisterers, and the third in the centre to kill the fish 

 and trim the fire. A suitable evening was selected 

 when the water was low : half the country side assisted 

 as actors or spectators, and carts were brought to take 

 home the fish — a not unnecessary precaution, as 

 hundreds were massacred in the course of a single 

 evening. Our authority states, curiously enough, for the 

 benefit of the rod fisher, that salmon disturbed in the 

 night with boats and lights will draw up into the 

 streams above and take the fly all the better for this 

 disturbance the following morning. No doubt it must 

 have been a picturesque sight to see. ' The ruddy light 

 glared on the rough features and dark dresses of the 

 leisterers in cutting flames directly met by dark 

 shadows. Extending itself, it reddened the shelving 

 rocks above, and glanced upon the blasted arms of 

 the trees, slowly perishing in their struggle for exist- 

 ence among the stony crevices ; it glowed upon 

 the hanging wood, on fir, birch, broom, and 

 bracken, half veiled or half revealed, as they 

 were more or less prominent. The form of things 

 remote from the concentrated light was dark and 

 dubious ; even the trees on the summit of the brae 

 sank in obscurity.' Great numbers of fish were 



