96 THE SCOTTISH ANGLER. 



CHAPTER XI. 

 LEISTERING SALMON. 



AMONG the amusements of the lower orders in Scot- 

 Jand, that of spearing, or, as it is more popularly termed, 

 leistering the salmon, is by far the most exciting. It 

 is, we allow, a matter of no doubt, that this method 

 of destroying fish is greatly prejudicial to their increase ; 

 that by it vast numbers of salmon loaded with spawn 

 are annually slaughtered, at a time when they can be 

 turned to very little profit : but we are by no means 

 prepared, without very solid reasons, sweepingly to 

 condemn a practice permitted by immemorial usage, 

 and which obtains the character of a manly and vigor- 

 ous sport. 



We have too great a love for our national amuse- 

 ments, to wish them altogether deranged by the un- 

 seasonable interference of the law ; and with respect 

 to the use of the leister as a method of killing fish, we 

 would rather see it encouraged, within certain limits, 

 than tyrannically suppressed, which we know, in the 

 south of Scotland, it never can be, as long as exists the 

 old spirit of the Border. 



A short description of this national mode of salmon- 

 taking cannot fail to be interesting to our readers. We 

 shall accordingly attempt to sketch off* as graphically as 

 possible a leistering on one of our waters. The months 

 most suitable for this amusement in the southern dis- 

 tricts of Scotland, are those of October and November, 

 about and immediately after close time. 



On the subsiding of a heavy flood, which, during 



