SALMON. ()1 



tagc on the shores of the Sol way Firth where the halve-net 

 inay not be seen suspended. The fishermen have all some 

 other employment by which they maintain their families, 

 being mostly artisans ; and they generally consume the 

 produce of the halve-net at home, unless they chance to take 

 a fish whose value is sufficient to compensate them for the 

 time spent in going to market, sometimes ten or twelve 

 miles distant. 



Somewhat akin to this is the Salmon fishery in the 

 Frith of Forth. Narrow stages or platforms, supported on 

 wooden pillars, are carried from the shore for a considerable 

 distance into the river. Upon each of these half-a-dozen 

 or more fishermen station themselves with bag-nets, which 

 are dropped down from the side of the stage with the current 

 of the tide. The owner concealed, and also sheltered by a 

 straw hurdle, such as is used in decoys for water-fowl, watches 

 his net, and on a fish being taken, instantly secures it. 

 When the tide ebbs, the net is shifted to the opposite side 

 of the stage. 



" A singular method of taking Salmon is practised at 

 Invermoriston, in the county of Inverness, where the river 

 flows in a narrow chasm between two projecting rocks. 

 The fisherman seats himself on a cleft of this rock, right 

 over the cascade, with a spear in his hand, which has a line 

 fixed to the upper end of the shaft, similar to the practice 

 of fishing for whales with harpoons. Whenever the Salmon 

 makes a spring to gain the ascent over the cataract, the 

 spearman strikes the fish and lets the shaft go, holding only 

 by the line until the fish has exhausted his strength ; then 

 the spear and fish are thrown ashore by the stream, and taken 

 out at the lower side of the pool." 



The mode of fishing for Salmon in the Severn, and other 

 rivers of Wales, with coracles and nets, requires a short and 

 concluding notice. The coracle is a small boat constructed 



