Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the Tweed
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
34 Berna-d Street, Est ix«j Southamptor * •IIKIIIT I GENERAL LIBRARY UMVftSITV Of fiiilPCMNfA E. CHALMERS-HAL^ ^ 1^' Jfrt L DAYS AND NIGHTS SALMON FISHING. A 2 1 London : Printed by A. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square. I 3D>AY;5 AFfB M0IBITS ( M )V':l : 3;F(JIN© fd u 1 /?, (r^;f I I] , I III DAYS AND NIGHTS SALMON FISHING THE TWEED WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OP THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE SALMON, INSTRUCTIONS TO SPORTSMEN, ANECDOTES, ETC. WILLIAM SCROPE, ESQ. F.L.S. AUTHOR OF " THE ART OF DEER STALKING." " Rura mihi, et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes." Virgil, Georg. lib. ii. ILLUSTRATED BV K.tti)0flra$>I)jS anfc Wiaats <Qn$cabixi%i BY L. HAGHE, T. LANDSEER, AND S. WILLIAMS, FROM PAINTINGS BY SIR DAVID WILKIE, EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A., CHARLES LANDSEER, WILLIAM SIMSON, AND EDWARD COOKE. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1843. " Let them that list, these pastimes still pursue, - And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill, So I the fields and meadows green may view, And daily by fresh rivers walk at will Among the daisies, and the violets blue, Red hyacinth, and yellow daffodil, Purple Narcissus like the morning rays, " Pale gander-grass, and azure culver-keyes. J. Davors. 3«f TO THE LORD POL WART H CTIjc foTT0iMtnij ^ajjetf arc mtfcrfiirtr, IN RKMEMBHANCF. OF THR HAPPY PAYS SPENT IN HIS COMPANIONSHIP ON THE BANKS OF THE TWEED, AND THE SOCIAL INTERCOURSE EN.TOYF.n FOI1 SO MANY YEARS AT MERTOIIN, BY HIS SINCERE AND FAITHFUL FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. A 4 M842039 PREFACE. " I will write a sort of a Book on Fishing," said I to friend Mr. Lobworm when a fresh my ; breeze from the gentle south swept over the " meadows, stealing and giving odours," and re- minded me of the many calm and pleasant hours I had spent by the margin of some crystal stream. " You really had better do no such thing," replied Lob. — He was a man of few words. " Your very polite reason, if you please?" " the is exhausted • Why subject utterly ; ninety nine books have been written upon it already, and no man was ever the wiser for any one of them, although many are clever and entertaining, and moreover abound in excellent instructions." " Hold! you forget dear old Izaak," said I, " whose dainty and primitive work, the emana- tion of a beautiful mind, has made many a man both wiser and better; for it is dictated through- ' out by that wisdom of which it is written, Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths " are peace.' PREFACE. " " Therefore it is," replied Lobworm, that I would have you by all means to refrain : that book will always stand unrivalled and unap- ' proachable. Excuse me, but ex quovis ligno " non fit Mercurius.' " Nay, nay, you cannot for a moment imagine that I shall attempt such a flight as that. I have read of Icarus, and also of the Ulm Tailor, who on the first trial of his patent wings fell into the Danube, instead of pitching upon the opposite as I cannot touch the I bank ; so, summits, must perforce be content to creep on level lands, — ' ' timidus procellas : — mine shall be a work quite of another character." " There is not the least doubt of that, I " think," said Mr. Lobworm. Know likewise," continued he (I never knew him so loquacious " or so disagreeable before),— know likewise, to thy discomfort, nay, to thy utter confusion, that ' a book has lately appeared yclept The Rod and the Gun,' so amusingly written, and so complete in all its parts, that there is not the least occasion for you to burthen Mr. Murray's shelves with stale precepts that no one will attend to." " Pretty discouraging that, most certainly," I " ' responded. And then we have Salmonia,' which or to a settler too and also a is, ought be, ; scientific work by Mr. Colquhoun, who touches PREFACE. XI deftly on the subject. But I tell you this, Sir Oracle, that although I see a hundred good reasons why I should abandon my design, yet I am resolved to persist: it is my destiny — that is a classical reason. You know that, to the great edification of our youth, the pious iEneas gives no better reason for the hundred rascally and much admired things he was in the habit of executing in his expedition to Latium. " I only hope the public will be so good as not to be because if I shall discerning ; they are, have you, my most tender and amiable friend, * eternally dinging in my ears, There, did not I tell you so ? But you would not be ruled by me, " so you must take the consequences.' At the end of this colloquy, and when left I to reflect a little and at alone, began ; although first I could not help thinking my gentleman somewhat hasty, yet I came to the conclusion that he was partly, if not entirely, in the right. So I began to listen a little to reason, and con- tracted my plan, resolving to treat on Salmon Fishing alone, as it is practised in the Tweed ; for although various authors have written some pages on the sport, yet I am not aware that any one has as yet gone far into the subject, or given any precepts, or treated of the various methods available to the sportsman of killing these Xll THEPACE. valuable animals in the rod-fisher's part of a river throughout the whole of the lawful season. This I have attempted to do in the following pages, having had more than twenty years' practice in that border river alone, above twelve miles of which I rented at different periods. To the Tweed I have confined and I myself ; beg my readers to observe, that my remarks and instructions are meant to apply to that river alone and that I am not account- ; consequently able for what salmon choose to do in other waters, and for the different means that people may employ for catching them there. Deer-stalking and salmon-fishing are at the head of field and river sports: having written what has been very generously received upon the first and best of these subjects, I have been encouraged to take up the other. This I have done the more readily, as I have been fortunate enough to bring to my aid the talents of artists, who are amongst the most eminent in their various departments that this country can boast of. I must not, however, impute the landscape part to them: this it was unfortunately ne- cessary that some one should undertake who was acquainted with the scenery, and I must hold myself in a great measure responsible for such portion of the plates. PREFACE. Xlll It will be seen that in the letter-press I have attempted little more than to give a correct and faithful account of the manner and spirit in which the sport of salmon fishing is carried on in various ways where the scene is laid, and to bring before the sportsman the characters of such people as he is likely to fall in with in his excursions. Among those whom I have taken this liberty with, as the type of his class, will be found the late Tom Purdie, Sir Walter Scott's faithful right-hand man, well known to the readers of Mr. Lockhart's delightful Biography, and the genuine parent of the stories here attributed to him. Since the following pages have been printed, " Mr. Yarrell has put into my hands The Annals and Magazine of Natural History for Feb. 1843," containing an account of Mr. Young's experiments on the growth of salmon. I have inserted an extract in the Appendix, for the benefit of those who are interested in the subject. I hope I am correct in saying that, judging from the outline, my statements will agree with Mr. Young's experiments. This, however, will be more accurately seen when the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh are published. Belgrave Square, April, 1843. ERRATA. " " Page 24, line 22, for some had," read in some it had. " 108, line 21, omit &c." " " 120, line 4, for griped," read gripped." " " 130, line 23, for reels," read reel." " " 194, line 25, for thence," read home." CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. Citizen anglers. — Mr. Pooley. — Mr. John Poplin. — Scientific - angler. — Self-complacent angler. — Harry Otter Page 1 CHAP. II. — — Salmonidae.— The common salmon.— His powers— of swimming and leaping.— Method of spawning. Habits. Passage to the sea. Letter from the author to Mr. Kennedy respecting the parr. — The peculiar formation of its eyes, similar to that of a salmon. — Mr. Shaw's experiments. — Passage of the smolts to the sea. — Gilses. — — Destruction of salmon fry. Injurious effects of heavy —Tame salmon. — of in fish. — spates. — Change colour Dr. Stark's experiments. Proceedings at the Literary and Philosophical Society of St. Andrew's. — Seasons of various rivers. — Cairn net. — The salmon trout. — The grey, or bull trout. — Severe contest with him. — St. Kentigern ... 8 CHAP. III. Harry Otter. — Childish incident. — Martha's eloquence. — The coy Phyllis. — Self-devotion of a fish. — Feats of Master Harry. — The pet basket. — Encounter with a duck. — An idle scamp.— " I saw young Harry with his beaver off'" - - - 70 CHAP IV. Murderous fish. — Hypocritical fish. — Curious predicament. —A cat fish. — Facetious whale. — Harry Otter pastoral. — Purchase of horses of dissenting opinions. — The illustrious Higginbotham. —A five pounder. — Trout not a fish. — Dumb-foundered. — Melrose Waxing of the water.