SALMON. 



57 



ammunition of stones, to prevent the retreat of the fish till 

 the net has been completely pulled round them ; after which 

 they all join forces, and drag the net and fish quietly to the 

 rocks."* 



Pursuing a course along the shore and arrived at an estu- 

 ary, on each side of the mouth, and for miles up on both sides, 

 stake-nets are used, of which the engraving above represents 

 the form. The distance between high and low water mark 

 on the shore is the site occupied. The shallow extremity 

 of the net on the left hand in the figure, which is fixed and 

 supported by stakes, is placed on the shore at high-water 

 mark ; the deepest part of the net, at low-water mark ; the 

 concavity of the sweep of the net between its two ends, 

 called the court, being opposed or open to the flood-tide 

 running up the river, the Salmon which in their passage up 

 along-shore strike against any part of the net are conducted 

 by its form through the chambers into the trap, from whence 

 they can find no retreat. 



Many fish, in the wide part of the estuaries, ascending 

 with each flood-tide and returning with the ebb, it is not 



* Letters concerning the Natural History of the Basalts on the Northern 

 Coast of the County of Antrim, by the Rev. William Hamilton, A.B. 



