THE nSHERIES. 17 



off to the adjacent rocks the salmon which are con- 

 Yeniently assembled for his purpose in the net. The 

 aouteness of the seal tribe, and their eager pursuit 

 of salmon, render it yerv unlikely that thev would 

 overlook so inviting a receptacle as a bag-net, where, 

 without trying the velocity of their pace against the 

 salmon (in which they are invariably foUed;, they 

 here find them, close to their haunts, or abode in the 

 rocks, most invitingly enclosed in a machine abso- 

 lutely adapted to supply their wants, without any 

 necessity on their part to watch for and surprise their 

 prey. It would be trifling with zoology, and with 

 the known habits of these animals of prey, to doubt 

 that the seal has had a great boon conferred upon 

 him by the Act of 1S42. Every fixed-net fisher is 

 awcire that these animals frequent his net : he sees 

 them in the day-time — shy though they be; nay, 

 thev wiQ sometimes so much forojet themselves as to 

 go quietly over the corks of the ordinary draught- 

 net, or seine, while the men are in the act of hauling 

 it to shore, and carry off a salmon in the presence of 

 perhaps fifty spectators. But in the fixed-net it is 

 quite another matter ; there it floats in a remote spot 

 extended from the rocks, with the salmon enclosed 

 in it, like a dec-oy, swimming about in the most 

 tempting way in its capaciotis chamber. Once or 

 twice, perhaps, during the day, the owner approaches 

 with his boat, and *'•' fishes *' the net, as it is techni- 

 cally called; that is, removes from it the salmon 

 which had entered during the previous tide, which 



