THE SALMON AND CHANNEL FISHERIES. 195 



tion of the legislature, as necessary to be destroyed, 

 which the magistrate has power to view and to de- 

 cide the fate of ; but we seldom hear of these 

 things being done. The penalties are too trifling ; 

 but the destruction of the engines, if strictly en- 

 forced, would be of vast importance, since it would 

 open a free passage to the fish which are seen 

 trying to beat up the stream throughout the year. 

 This natural inclination must have some object, 

 though it cannot be explained or comprehended ; 

 and that object oi nature should not be thwarted by 

 injurious and perhaps injudicious mechanical con- 

 trivances, which certainly have this three-fold effect, 

 — viz. of giving a monopoly to one man, depriv- 

 ing another higher up the stream of his right, 

 and injuring the public at large. Another vast 

 evil attending these fish-locks is, that as they pre- 

 vent the new fish from going up the rivers, so they 

 operate also as an engine to prevent the old fish 

 from going down to the sea. Hemmed in thus, and 

 prevented from going to the salt water, they look 

 more like hakes than salmon. They wander up and 

 down, seeking for an outlet and finding none, until 

 they pine away and die. There are a great many 

 in this condition at the present moment above 

 Totnes weir. 



The advantages, then, deducible from this ait, 

 are, that the fish are to be taken by " fair and legal 

 nets," and consequently by nothing else ; there- 

 fore, not with the spear or other engines, which the 

 justice may seize and destroy, 



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