i6o THE SALMON 



taken in a night — more than a hundred is the 

 number given in ' Guy Mannering,' a ' hundred 

 and twa ' in a portion of the evening described by 

 Scrope ; and in addition to this massacre no doubt 

 there were many others which got off the leister, 

 wounded, to perish miserably. The eels used to 

 follow the blood and eat the flesh out of the skin — 

 ' You will see the eels by dozens hanging thick on him 

 like sticks in a bundle of faggots ' ; and altogether 

 I sympathise with the feelings of the spectator 

 described by Scott, who did ' not relish being so 

 near the agonies of the expiring salmon as they 

 lay napping about in the boat, which they mois- 

 tened with their blood.' It seems to have been 

 a barbarous performance ; but autres temps, autres 

 maeurs, and it is only fair to add that I have heard 

 that so famous a rod fisher as the late Sir William 

 Scott of Ancrum said there was no sport like it. In 

 addition to these gregarious raids, many fish perished 

 on the spawning beds by the leisters of individual 

 poachers — such as Tom Purdie, Sir Walter's attend- 

 ant, who was great with the ' clodding ' or throwing 

 leister, and whose murder of a 'muckle kipper of 

 40 lb. on a big redd ' is narrated in detail. All this 

 is of course unlawful now ; but I am afraid that it is 

 still a common enough method of poaching on the 



