110 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



poet for the picturesque leads the editor to condone 

 that which the modern angler would condemn as the 

 most arrant poaching : 



The angler is naturally jealous of whatever appears 

 to interfere with his own favourite pastime. But an 

 old spearman may be allowed to state, in favour of 

 the picturesque and manly sport of " burning the 

 water," that the salmon so killed have been too long 

 in the fresh water to rise at a fly ; nor can it be 

 otherwise, as the burning can only be practised when 

 the river is low and the pools very clear, and, conse- 

 quently, where there are no newly-run fish for the 

 amusement of the angler. 1 



Sir Walter Scott makes no comment here on the 

 use of the salmon roe. In Letter VI., however, of his 

 novel, Red Gauntlet, he mentions this bait and 

 apparently approves of its use, for he makes Darsie 

 Latimer say of little Benjie, "that he thought I 

 would like a fresh trout or twa for breakfast, and the 

 water being in such rare trim for the saumon raun, 

 he couldna help taking a cast," and in a footnote thus 

 explains the passage : " The bait made of salmon- 



1 It appears that Sir Walter Scott had once a narrow escape 

 from a ducking when engaged in this " manly sport." " Salmon 

 are likewise taken by what is termed leistering, or burning the 

 water. The practice consists in attracting the salmon by 

 means of a candle and lantern, or sometimes of lighted wisps 

 of straw, and in then endeavouring to strike them with a spear 

 or leister. This unhallowed practice is noticed in Mr Lock- 

 hart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, on one occasion when the great 

 bard was present. Mr Skeen, who accompanied the party, 

 relates how Sir Walter fell over the gunwale of the vessel, and 

 that, had it not been for his assistance, he would have made an 

 awkward dive of it." Elaine's Rural Sports. 



