126 SALMONIA. [FIFTH DAY. 



HAL. I fear I shall tire you by attempting any 

 details on this subject, for they are so many, that I 

 ought to take a map in my hands ; but I will say a 

 few words on those in which I have had good sport. 

 First, the Tweed : of this, as you will understand 

 from what I mentioned before, I fear I must now say 

 "fuit." Yet still, for spring salmon fishing, it must 

 be a good river. The last great sport I had in that 

 river was in 1817, in the beginning of April. I 

 caught, in two or three hours, at Merton, four or five 

 large salmon, and as many in the evening at Kelso 

 and one of them weighed 251bs. But this kind of 

 fishing cannot be compared to the summer fishing : 

 the fish play with much less energy, and in general are 

 in bad season ; and the fly used for fishing is almost 

 like a bird four or five times larger than the summer 

 fly, and the coarsest tackle may be employed. I have 

 heard, that Lord Home has sometimes taken thirty 

 fish in a day, in spring fishing. About, and above 

 Melrose, I have taken, in a morning in July, two or 

 three grilses ; and in September the same number. 

 I have known eighteen taken earlier, by an excellent 

 salmon fisher, at Merton ; and the late Lord 

 Somerville often took six or seven fish in a day's 

 angling. The same "fuit " I must apply to most of 

 the Scotch rivers. Of the Tay I have already spoken. 

 In the Dee I have never caught salmon, though I 



