90 ON THE CHANNEL-FISHERIES. 



from knot to knot 5* and all fishermen and others 

 having, possessing, or using any net or nets for the 

 taking of salmon with a mesh less than before men- 

 tioned, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty 

 pounds, together with the loss of such nets, which 

 shall be seized by any conservator, or other order 

 of any magistrate, and publicly burnt. 



And whereas all such salmon and fish of the sal- 

 mon kind, or the greatest part of them, as ascend 

 or get into rivulets and small streams,! either from 



* The fishermen very well know what is meant by a mesh of 

 two inches from knot to knot, though some, from selfish pur- 

 poses, have endeavoured to quibble about it ; they call it dia- 

 mond fashion, that is, the measure is to take place from knot 

 to knot, when the mesh is stretched out in the form of a dia- 

 mond or four square. 



■)* This is an evil of a much greater magnitude than may be 

 supposed, and there is no law whatever to prevent it ; for from 

 the impediments which the fish meet with in their efforts to 

 ascend the principal rivers, from weirs and close gratings? 

 coops and hutches, and other devices, they force themselves 

 in time of flood into any little stream which lies open, not de- 

 serving a better name than a gutter ; and when such floods 

 abate and these little streams return to their ordinary size, 

 every fish is inevitably destroyed ; for when once they are dis- 

 covered it is impossible they can escape, and it very rarely 

 happens that they can elude the perseverance and skill of the 

 salmon hunter, either man or otter. I could mention several 

 extraordinary but well authenticated instances of salmon taking 

 refuge in these little paltry streams in the last season, in con- 

 sequence, as is inferred, of being prevented by the Totnes 

 weir from going up the Dart. A most unusual number of sal- 

 mon in the last season also went up the river Harbourne (a 

 branch of the Dart, about three miles below Totnes, which has 



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