14 THE FISHERIES. 



enactments of 1 842. The present Bill proposes, as 

 has been already said, to remove and prohibit all 

 new fixtures within the mouth, or within two miles 

 of the mouth. This is merely a recurrence to the 

 provisions of Magna Charta,* and the requirements 

 of the common law. 



Perhaps it would be well to give here a cursory 

 description of those engines, or rather of the bag- 

 net. This machine — invented by some cannie Hie- 

 landman — was first introduced into Ireland about 

 fifteen or eighteen years back. It is a most inge- 

 nious contrivance ; but fated, we fear, unless timely 

 restrictions be interposed, to annihilate the genus 

 salmo. It is a trap made of netting, extended upon 

 poles in such a manner, that when immersed in the 

 sea, it sinks to its upper surface, and then floats, so 

 as to form beneath the water, a cage, or compartment 

 like a chamber, some ten or twelve feet square : this 

 chamber is entered by a narrow door, which is so 

 adapted to the instincts of the salmon, that though 

 he enters freely, there is a shght labyrinth which 

 bewilders him, and prevents his egress. A '* leader," 

 or curtain of net-work, one or two hundred yards in 

 length, extends from the shore to this chamber, and 

 as the salmon is known to keep close to the shore, 

 and, in proceeding towards his native river, to tra- 

 verse the indentations of the coast, and the inner- 



• "Omnes Kidelli deponantur de cgetero penitus per Thame- 

 siam et Medewium et per totam Angliam, nisi per costeram ma, 

 ris." — Magna Charta. 



