RAKE-HOOKS. 253 



any salmon that he may discover lying, and then with 

 a sudden jerk draws the hook into him if he can, and 

 gets him to the land if he is able. 



Clean fish are sometimes taken in this manner, and 

 most fishermen are provided with the tackle. In a very 

 low water in the summer, when fly-fishing might have 

 been said to be over, I once hooked a good salmon in 

 the Quarry stream above Melrose Bridge. As a fish 

 was at that time a great rarity, I was particularly 

 cautious in leading him ; nevertheless, with all my 

 care, the hook, not having a firm hold, came away from 

 him after I had played him a considerable time. 



Purdie saw him lying in rather an exhausted state 

 in the same stream, which was shallow, and, without 

 saying anything to me, to my great surprise, seized 

 hold of my casting line and broke off the lower end of 

 it ; opened my book ; took a pair of rake-hooks from 

 it ; tied them on to the line, and, at the second throw, 

 tucked them into the salmon ; put the rod into my 

 hands, and I killed the fish after all. 



All this to the Southern ear sounds like poaching of 

 the most flagitious description ; but a salmon is a fish 

 of passage, and if you do not get him to-day he will 

 be gone to-morrow. The Tweed used to let for above 

 £12,000 a year ; judge, then, in what a wholesale 

 manner these fish are caught by long nets and other 

 sweeping modes ; yet in what profusion they continue 

 to be found ! You may just as well think of preserving 

 herrings or mackeral as these delicious creatures ; and 

 there would be no objection to your taking 3378 

 salmon at one haul, if fortune would so favour you, as 



