Leister

The methods of catching the ſalmon in this pariſh are ſimilar to thoſe deſcribed in the ſtatiſtical account of Dornock, p. 15. excepting that there is no raiſe-net fiſhing, and that the leiſter is only about 10 or 12 feet long, conſequently better calculated for throwing to any diſtance.

Rob Runchy, as a forlorn hope, once threw his clodding leister at a drowning man floating down the Yarrow in a high flood, and hauled him out with the lyams unharmed.

Andy, who had been a moment behind getting his leister out of the fish he had killed, came up, and both he and Jock made several random strokes, when Jock, in his eagerness, slipped his foot, and fell headforemost into the water, the leister flying from his hand just as I caught sight of the fish they were after, lying close in to the bank; […]

Old Sandy fished down the river, but he could kill no more salmon that night, […] He missed one; wounded another on the tail; and struck a third on the rigback, where no leister can pierce a fish, till he made him spring above water.

The leister is a spear composed of four or more barbed prongs, something like the manure fork or graip of the agriculturist, and firmly fixed to a light straight pole about twelve or fourteen feet in length. […] The leisterer looks into the river to find a fish, he spears it if he can and must keep it from wriggling off his leister after it is pierced.

Although leisters and harpoons cannot be called the most important implement in the fishing economy of the North American Indians, they are probably of more value as evidence of culture-historical movements than most of the other fishing artifacts, and for two reasons.

The shaft parts taper slightly upwards, have rounded outer surfaces and flat or slightly concave inner surfaces which are adapted to the shape of the leister pole.

These Aborigines possessed the entire Tasmanian toolkit plus hundreds of additional specialized tools, including a fine array of bone tools, leisters, spear throwers, boomerangs, mounted adzes (for wood working), many multipart tools, a variety of nets for birds, fish, and wallabies, sewn-bark canoes with paddles, string bags, ground-edge axes, and wooden bowls for drinking.

We once knew a notorious salmon poacher, who, on one of his excursions, saw a pair of salmon spawning in a stream. He leistered the male from the side of the female, and as soon as she missed her partner, she retired from the spawning-bed into the pool below the ford, and very soon returned with another male, which the poacher also leistered.

You are quite correct, sir, […] in what you say about the quantity of oil in the heads of these fish [gurnets or gurnards]. […] [T]he heads [of the fish are] placed with their mouths upward, and a small quantity of tow placed in each mouth. When they [the poachers] reach the stream where they are to leister the salmon, the tow is lighted, the fire immediately communicates with the lips of the fish, and a beautiful clear light is emitted, which continues to burn for a considerable time. Sometimes also a single head, thus prepared and dried, is fixed at the end of a stick, and is used as a torch, when a poacher goes leistering single-handed.