NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 13 



to every disinterested and candid mind, that the 

 salmon fisheries can never prosper whilst these 

 obstacles, interfering so much with the instinctive 

 habits of the fish, are allowed to exist. I do not 

 mean to say that all weirs should, even if they 

 could, be swept away entirely, because they may 

 be nationally advantageous in a commercial 

 point of view, both for the miller and the manu- 

 facturer ; but I do mean to say, that all weirs 

 should be so constructed, and nothing is easier, 

 that the fish in times of flood may easily go up to 

 breed ; and that, after they have bred, they may 

 be able again to return to the sea. 



I well remember seeing some years ago on the 

 river Teign, a weir which had elevated stakes at 

 the foot, over or through which it was impossible 

 for a fish to pass : the stakes were placed there to 

 force them into a lock or trap by the side, which 

 easily admitted them, but from which they could 

 not escape ; and, consequently, the occupier of this 

 device had the power of taking every fish upon 

 this fine river, sizeable and unsizeable, seasonable 

 and unseasonable, the public thus lying at the 

 mercy of an interested individual. 



On the Avon was a device^ something like the 

 former. I went on purpose to see it, and I have 

 been informed that there are several on the river 

 operating pretty nearly in the same way. The 

 one I saw was contrived thus : — The mill-leat oc- 

 cupied nearly the whole stream ; of course all the 

 returning or old fish entered into this leat ; they 



