254 ON SALMON-FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



for, in truth, leistering salmon is at the best a barbarous 

 and questionable amusement, entitled, under rare cir- 

 cumstances, to the name of sport, and in most cases no 

 more deserving that dignified appellation than if it were 

 the slaughter of a flock of diseased sheep, pent up 

 within fence or inclosure.* 



* I find a number of anglers at one with me in opinion upon this 

 subject ; and all who have witnessed night-leistering on Tweed, during 

 the autumnal or winter months, will acknowledge that even the romantic 

 character which torch-light and scenery invest it with, fails as an apology 

 for the ignoble, wasteful, and injurious nature of the occupation. In 

 nine cases out of ten, it is pursued, either during the spawning season 

 itself, or when the fish are heavy with roe when they are red or foul, 

 having lain a considerable time in the river, and moreover, when they 

 have lost all power of escape or are cut off from exercising it, both by the 

 lowness of water and by the circumstance of their being hemmed in, at 

 the head and foot of the pool or place of action, by nets and other con- 

 trivances stretched from bank to bank. 



It can scarcely be credited, but I relate a fact known to many on Tweed- 

 side, that about four or five years ago, upwards of three hundred breeding 

 fish, salmon and grilses, were slaughtered in the course of a single night, 

 from one boat, out of a stretch of water not far from Melrose, two leistrs 

 only being employed ; and of this number I allude to the fish scarcely 

 one was actually fit to be used as food, while by far the greater part of 

 them were female salmon, on the eve of depositing their ova. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Kelso upwards of ninety have frequently been butchered 

 with this implement during a single night, from one boat, all of them fish 

 in the same rank and unhealthy condition above described. In Sep- 

 tember, 1846, according to the most moderate calculation, no fewer than 

 four thousand spawning fish, consisting chiefly of full-grown salmon, and 

 comprehending the principal breeding stock of the season those fish 

 which, from their forward state, promised the earliest and most vigorous 

 supply of fry, were slaughtered in Tweed, with the consent and under the 

 auspices of the upper holders of fishings, in the manner I speak of. 

 Need it be said, that the injury done to the salmon-fishings in general by 

 this malpractice on the part of two or three lesser proprietors, is incalcu- 

 lable, and when linked with the doings of poachers during closetime, to 

 which it unquestionably gives encouragement, and the system pursued on 

 Tweed of capturing and destroying the kelts and baggits, it must operate 

 most prejudicially against every plan devised to further the breeding of 

 this highly-prized article of food. 



