" "Bide" they
must, though in times not remote one has heard faint whisperings of the
burning of the waters in some far-off district of the Border. Nor are
there wanting those who yet openly defend the practice, deeming it
indeed no sin, but rather a benefit to the water, to take from it some
of the superfluous fish, which, say they, would otherwise almost
certainly die of disease and contaminate the stream.
Yet, if in our day the water has been burned, it cannot have been
oftener than once in a way, and probably no great harm has resulted. Nor
can the game be worth the candle, one could imagine, for watchers now
are many and alert, in the execution of their duties much more
conscientious than was common in days gone by. There are none now, we
may hope, like the bailiff of Selkirk in the early part of last century,
who constantly find salmon in close time mysteriously appearing on their
dinner-table. Yet this early nineteenth-century bailiff could truly
swear that such a thing as salmon on his table he never had seen. For it
appears that his wife, canny woman, having first brought in a platter of
potatoes, was wont to tie round his eyes a towel before she brought in
the boiled fish; and before she again took away the towel, every vestige
or trace of salmon had been carefully removed from the room.
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