VARIOUS MODES OF CURING IT. 161 



but as regards the protection of salmon spawn, 

 confers an acknowledged benefit. I confess quite 

 freely that the trout, immediately before and during 

 close-time are, with very few exceptions, rank and 

 uneatable, but that is a matter with which the sport 

 of capturing them has nothing at all to do. A kelted 

 'salmon frequently affords better sport than a clean 

 fish, and I have seldom met with the angler, who, 

 on account of its being out of condition, despised run- 

 ning one. 



I shall now, having thus at some length prefaced the 

 subject of this chapter, proceed to more relevant matter, 

 and in doing so, I propose bringing first of all under 

 consideration the mode or modes of preparing salmon- 

 roe as a bait for angling with. There are two or three 

 ways of doing this peculiar to Tweedside. It is either 

 cured entire, that is, as it is taken from the fish in the 

 form of what is provincially termed the waim, or it is 

 reduced into a paste, or else it is converted to single 

 particles, termed beads. 



The first object of the curer is to obtain what is 

 reckoned an available supply of roe. Much of the in- 

 gredient met with under that name is next thing to 

 useless, the seed or ova being too small in the particle, 

 or else, through an injury done to the fish from which 

 it is taken, largely transfused with blood. In either 

 case, and under other circumstances readily recognis- 

 able, it ought to be rejected. The roe best adapted for 

 curing is found in what is called the baggit fish or ripe 

 spawner, that is a salmon on the eve of depositing its 

 ova. It is most readily obtained on Tweedside at the 

 commencement of the open season, although often to 

 be procured, in a state of sufficient maturity, in the 

 month of October. The beads or pellets should, unless 



