APPLICATION 199 



close time. Moreover, the fact of salmon being 

 caught in this state in the open season proves that 

 the rivers are open too long, and that the law should 

 be altered in this respect also. 



At certain seasons roe is certainly a murderous 

 bait, and a practised roe-fisher might almost depopu- 

 late a stream ; but then it is only deadly in the fall 

 of the year, when trout are out of condition, or in 

 the spring before they come into it ; and killing trout 

 in such circumstances deserves no better name than 

 butchery. For some time roe was, and is still to the 

 north of the Forth, considered an infallible specific 

 for catching trout ; a reserve which is to be brought 

 to the attack when everything else fails. It is not, 

 however, looked upon with quite so much favour 

 now. Anglers have begun to find that the presence 

 of a pot of roe in their baskets when setting out by 

 no means ensures the presence of trout there on their 

 return ; and we have seen anglers, starting for a first 

 trial of this wonderful bait, sit down at a pool, and, 

 wrapping their plaids about them, remain there for 

 hours, no doubt expecting, according to the common 

 notion, that they would attract all the trout in the 

 neighbourhood, and quite astonished when they had 

 to return without a single one. The fact is, that the 

 wonderful properties of this bait are greatly exagge- 

 rated ; as a lure for trout during the season when 

 they are in condition it has no advantage, in any 

 state of water, over the lures which have been treated 

 of, and in clear water, during the day, it is almost 

 useless. Nor is the sport, if sport it can be called, 



