1828-1 Sabnon Fisheries of Great Britain. 235 



little affected, as to have been sent (blessed thought !) to market. The 

 produce of the stake-net employed as it is, where other nets and other 

 machinery cannot be employed is, therefore, positive gain ; and salmon- 

 fisheries may thus be extended to an amount beyond calculation. The 

 river-fishers may still catch as before : they will not get the former prices, 

 to be sure ; but they must, like other people, submit to the common effects 

 ,of competition. The stake-net may be compared to newly-invented 

 machinery for cottons and cloths, with this advantage that if it throw 

 some out of employ, it re-employs more, and at the same time augments 

 the stock of eatable produce, and reduces the cost. 



. As to any other objections which have been started to this mode of 

 jishing, they may readily be disposed of. Among the principal, is the 

 apprehension, that the stake-net will destroy the breed so capacious are 

 its powers of capture. We need only bid the proprietors of the spawn- 

 ing-grounds to leave the fish undisturbed to the operations of nature 

 free course to come up and go down and such is the boundless means of 

 reproduction, that all fears of this kind must be superfluous. But, as 

 the matter is by the river people a war of destruction is made upon the 

 salmon in its most helpless, and, we add, its most useless and unhealthy 

 state in the egg, the fry, the kelt, and the spawner. Then, again, it has 

 been objected, that the stake-net will, by-and-by, be extended to the 

 mid-channel, and thus shut up rivers at their mouths ; but this is anti- 

 cipating an abuse, rather than the further use of them not ta say that 

 their specific value is on the shores and estuaries, or rather the sands 

 from high to low- water mark. Then, again, it has been urged, they are 

 destructive to the fry and the spawners ; but the truth is, they do not 

 touch either ; for the fry and the spawners are well known to take the 

 mid-stream : the mesh of the net is full three inches from knot to knot, 

 and the fry of course cannot be detained. Again, it is said, these nets 

 capture other fish besides salmon turbot, cod, ling, flounders, &c. an 

 advantage surely, and no objection ; for this interferes neither with the 

 privileges of the rivers, nor the rights of any one ; and, to let no com- 

 plaint pass, they are also, it seems, calculated to interrupt navigation ; 

 to which it is sufficient to reply these nets must be on the shallows ; 

 and, therefore, they rather play the part of beacons, than present any 

 obstacle to navigation. 



But, really and truly, not only are these nets defensible against all 

 these objections, but they are even unexposed to those with which the 

 coble and the weir are themselves justly chargeable. They cannot be 

 used for poaching. Considerable labour must be spent in their erection, 

 and, when erected, they are visible to every eye; and it is not desirable 

 to keep them standing, when not actually employed affording thus the 

 best possible security against illegal usage. They cannot, again, injure 

 the spawning beds nor, of course, crush the egg nor sweep away the 

 fry ; because they are stationary, and so could do no mischief, were these 

 beds on every side of them ; and never is it to be forgotten, that they are 

 usable only where the tide reaches, and there there are no spawning-beds. 

 They do not, moreover, interfere with the fry in their descent ; for the 

 nets extend no farther than low- water mark, and the fry, on reaching the 

 top of the estuary that is, the point to which the tide advances are 

 known to take to the depth and stillness of the mid- water ; and, in point 

 of fact, none have ever been taken. In like manner, the kelts seek the 

 deep water ; but, by the river-nets and weirs, they are inevitably inter- 



2 H 2 



