AND ANGLING SONGS. 279 



made at a strong pace for the head of the Grain, a rapid stream, 

 situated nearly a mile below the point at which it was hooked. 

 During its course hitherto it had only favoured us with one 

 surface demonstration, exposing a breadth of tail which led to 

 the belief that it was a fish of very uncommon dimensions. It 

 was by this time quite dark, and any further evolutions which 

 might have assisted us to pronounce upon its size, were undis- 

 tinguishable. After making a show of pressing further down 

 into the Grain stream, it suddenly wheeled round and made its 

 way up again, the boat in full chase, to Rosebank, where it lay 

 down for a short period, and gave opportunity to Sandy Smith, 

 who acted as attendant to the fisherman, to procure a lantern 

 from the toll-house. 



On being again started, it continued, notwithstanding the 

 strong pressure laid upon it by Mr. Meiklem, who was an expert 

 fisher, and was armed on this occasion with a powerful salmon- 

 rod, fitted next the hook with a triple-gut casting-line, to make 

 play for a long time, not certainly in furious style, but in the 

 form of strong pushes or runs, its snout evidently directed to- 

 wards the bottom of the river, and its pectoral and ventral fins 

 put into severe exercise. The winding up of the performance was 

 not accomplished until eight P.M., when it is customary at Kelso 

 to ring the bells of the Town-Hall, during the chiming of which, 

 the gaff-hook, by aid of the lantern, was brought to bear upon 

 the fish, which proved, after all, to be only a kipper-salmon of 

 seventeen pounds, the secret of its strength and protracted exer- 

 tions lying partly in its being provided with fins of uncommon 

 size, adapted to thick, muscular sockets, and partly also in the 

 circumstance of the night being dark, a condition which, it is 

 averred, encourages the salar to show spirit and resistance. 



