314 BARBAROUS DESTRUCTION OF SALMON. 



spawning, she sets off, and leaves the place. The 

 male remains waiting for another female ; and if 

 none comes in twenty-four hours, he goes away in 

 search of another spawning place. In the spawn- 

 ing beds on the Tweed, (Mr. Scrope might have 

 said in all our rivers,) great injury is done with 

 the leister and rake hooks; and the fishermen 

 (poachers), who know how to profit by their 

 cruel slaughter, are in the habit of spearing the 

 male that first comes to the female, leaving the 

 latter as a decoy fish, and killing the other males 

 in succession as they arrive to consort with her. 

 By this barbarous and poaching practice all the 

 largest spawning fish are destroyed, to the great 

 destruction of the river." 



In angling for salmon, Mr. Scrope, than whom 

 no better authority can be found, as he has salmon- 

 fished for upwards of twenty years, recom- 

 mends a salmon-rod of eighteen or twenty feet 

 long according to the width of the river you fish in. 

 The longer the rod, the greater command you will 

 have over your fish ; for being enabled to keep 

 the line more perpendicular, you can lead him 

 with more ease and security amongst rocks and 

 eddies ; whereas with a short rod you cannot 

 keep enough of your line clear of the water to 

 prevent danger in such places. Your reel-line 

 should be thick in the middle, and taper towards 



