SALMON-ROE. 215 



sufficiently matured for curing ; but the roe, legally 

 obtained in this way, is not a hundredth part of 

 that taken illegally during 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 de- 

 populate 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, con- 

 sidered 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 



