246 APPENDIX. 



a bag-net. These nets are set at right angles, or at a more 

 suitable angle to the shore, and all fish seeking the rivers 

 along the coast must strike against them. A great many- 

 fish are thus taken, and others are driven out to sea ; and 

 as these implements are usually employed near the mouths 

 of rivers, the few fish which are not taken are driven 

 from the river which they are seeking, and are, in all 

 probability, put past the mouth of the river altogether ; 

 and when they again draw in to the shore for the purpose 

 of entering the river, probably heavy in spawn, they come 

 acainst some other net on the other side of their river, and 

 if they have again the good luck to escape the maze of 

 chambers, they are driven out to sea again ; and thus they 

 are kept in the sea for weeks and weeks over their natural 

 time, a prey to the seals, sharks, and other predaceous 

 animals, which always swarm near stake-nets, and during 

 the residence of the salmon in the salt-water, take heavy 

 and incessant toll of them. Such is the voracity and 

 determination of the seal in pursuit of salmon, that they 

 will rob the nets in the very face of the fishermen; and 

 the destruction thus caused, and the number of salmon 

 yearly lost to the consumer, from the fish being kept in 

 the salt-water for an undue length of time, is something 

 enormous in the total ; and if they spawn it is in the 

 tidal part of the river, probably in brackish or deep 

 water, or in some other spot quite unsuited to the de- 

 velopment of the ova, and thus the spawning is lost. 



Some of these nets have seven or eight heads or sets of 

 chambers, and extend out from the shore for nearly a 

 mile. One of the most destructive species of mischief 



