18 THE FISHERIES. 



Operation only occupies a few minutes : the seal has, 

 therefore, throughout the day, ample opportunity 

 for his operations ; he lurks and ranges about the net, 

 and the rifle-ball is very frequently employed to drive 

 him from its neighbourhood : but during the night- 

 tide he has it all his own way, lurking unseen and 

 undisturbed in its immediate vicinity. Those nets 

 are seldom fished, or examined at all during the 

 night ; and it is a well-known, and common observa- 

 tion, that the night-tide is always less productive to 

 the bag-net fisher, than the day -tide : it is said, sal- 

 mon in the sea are not much inclined to travel by 

 night ; this we cannot aver, but will take upon us to 

 say, that the capture from the night-tide is seldom 

 one-fourth the amount of the capture of the tide 

 which commences to flow after daylight. We shall 

 not go further into these somewhat abstruse fishing 

 speculations, and will conclude this unwarrantable 

 interference on our part, with the vested rights of the 

 seal, by assuring our readers, that the fact of his 

 extensive depredations at the bag-net, is perfectly 

 well known to every one, who either owns or tends 

 such engines. 



We must now introduce our readers to the por- 

 poise. He also has vested rights in the fixed-net. 

 With less instinct, but more speed than the seal, he 

 reHes upon the chase: shoals of porpoises may be 

 seen in pursuit of salmon up large tideways, such as 

 those of the Shannon and the Tay : the pace is tre- 

 mendous, and the issue doubtful : the porpoises hunt 



