RAKE HOOKS. 233 



discover lying, and then with a sudden jerk draws the 

 hook into him if he can, and gets him to the land if he 

 is able. 



Clean fish are sometimes taken in this manner, and 

 most fishermen are provided with the tackle. In a very- 

 low water in the summer, when fly-fishing might have 

 been said to be over, I once hooked a good salmon in 

 the Quarry stream above Melrose Bridge. As a fish 

 was at that time a great rarity, I was particularly 

 cautious in leading him ; nevertheless, with all my care, 

 the hook, not having a firm hold, came away from him 

 after I had played him a considerable time. 



Purdie saw him lying in rather an exhausted state 

 in the same stream, which was shallow, and, without 

 saying any thing to me, to my great surprise, seized 

 hold of my casting line and broke off the lower end of 

 it ; opened my book ; took a pah* of rake-hooks from it ; 

 tied them on to the line, and, at the second throw, 

 tucked them into the salmon ; put the rod into my hands, 

 and I kiUed the fish after all. 



All this to the Southern ear sounds like poaching of 

 the most flagitious description ; but a salmon is a fish of 

 passage, and if you do not get him to-day he wuU be 

 gone to-morrow. The Tweed used to let for above 

 12,000/. a year ; judge, then, in what a wholesale manner 

 these fish are caught by long nets and other sweeping 

 modes ; yet in what i^rofusion they continue to be 

 found ! You may just as well think of preserving 

 herrings or mackerel as these delicious creatures ; and 

 there would be no objection to your taking 3378 salmon 

 at one haul, if fortune would so favour you, as Com- 



