XCV1 MODES OF PISHING. 



(wherein fishes were previously protected by grass, reeds, or trees) become 

 drained and cultivated, and predaceous man increases his modes of 

 destruction. 



Respecting our present fresh- water fisheries, that of the salmon is the most 

 valuable (vol. ii, page 70), but it almost seems as if our legislators are being 

 misled, and therefore ignore the axiom that the good of the fish and fisheries 

 should be of greater consideration than the interests of private individuals.. 

 A free passage for the fish* to their breeding-grounds and an unpolluted 

 river are certainly necessities for an abundant supply, and although poaching 

 does injury, such is a mere fraction in the element of destruction compared 

 with the battle for life in the lower waters, which is a far more efficient 

 reason for the paucity of fish, whether such is owing to legalized fixed 

 engines, or an excess of netting in the lower reaches or along the tidal 

 shores. 



MODES OF FISHING. 



Possibly the most primitive mode of tidal fishing was the construction of 

 pounds or enclosures into which fish entered with, the flood, but were left 

 impounded at the ebb. Here they would be removed by hand, spears, or by 

 a small net. In some places it may have been found necessary to erect a 

 rough wall across the outlet which would permit water to escape but detain 

 the large fish, or a trap might be inserted at this spot. Advancing still 

 further are wicker-work labyrinths, and next stake-nets, made on various 

 plans. In the late " Great International Fisheries Exhibition," these various 

 modes of fishing from India were shown in a consecutive series : f dip-nets 

 were seen in frames, or used as purse or lave-nets, so that they can be 

 dragged or pushed up narrow pieces of water, or a row of fishermen can 

 employ them along the coast. If these purse-nets are taken from their 

 frames, and have their free extremities weighted by sinkers, we obtain the 

 cast-net ; or connect several of these cast-nets together, when it is desired 

 to drag a piece of water with them, and we have a sort of ground-seine. 

 Then we have set-nets or trammels, seines employed in bays, and finally drift- 

 nets for outside fishing in order to capture surface forms. It is not my 

 purpose to follow out the various descriptions of nets, traps, and appliances 

 that have been used for the capture of fish, but merely to briefly allude to 

 the principal modes of fishing as now carried on in the British Isles for 

 commercial purposes, and they may be classed under nets, fixed engines, 

 and hooks-and-lines. 



* The abolition of night netting in rivers, a longer weekly close time, and the prohibition of all 

 fishing within 150 yards of fish passes, would be highly desirable for the above object, 

 f See " Catalogue of the Exhibits in the Indian Section." by Francis Day, page 6. 



