154 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



the other, that you were standing in a boat, and had 

 an unstable balance. Thus, you were tilted forward 

 in a way with which your will had nothing to do ; 

 so that had not I, even I, Harry Otter, laid hold of 

 the skirts of your coat, we should have been fishing 

 with the long net for you : as it was, the resistance 

 only threw you prostrate in the boat ; and I was 

 sorry to see you so much incommoded by the 

 water which had not been ladled out of it : inherit- 

 ing all the valour of your ancestors, you still grasped 

 the cleik, and, as I pushed the boat ashore, struggled 

 your very best, till you dragged your prey to firm 

 land. 



He was not a clean salmon, nor was he the cause 

 of cleanliness in others ; but, as you may remember, 

 exceeded twenty pounds. 



The success of a salmon fisher not only depends 

 upon the weather, but upon the state of the river as 

 it is affected by the rains ; so that one may be weeks, 

 and even months, on the spot, without the possi- 

 bility of taking a fish with the rod. The water may 

 be too low to admit of fish coming up, or it may 

 be too full in flood, with diurnal waxings ; so that 

 sportsmen who come from a distance, and have 

 not much time to spare, may be grievously dis- 

 appointed. In the upper part of the Tweed, real 

 good rod fishing lasts but a few days after a spate : 

 indeed, the water there is not properly supplied 

 with fish till there are two or three spates in 

 succession. 



The hills are now so well drained, that the flood 

 runs off rapidly ; and thus the river soon falls in, 



