THE FISHERIES. 21 



open season in the river, or at the charter-weir. 

 The specious reason assigned for this pecuhar cap- 

 ture by the advocates of this destructive engine, is, 

 that these large fish are a species of sea-salmon, 

 which do not usually visit the river, but remain 

 conveniently in the ocean, to feed porpoises and 

 seals. This is a theory too absurd to require any 

 confutation ; a better and more practical solution 

 of the matter is, that these very large salmon of 

 20 lbs., 30 lbs., or 40 lbs. weight understood the 

 flow of w^ater in their native streams, long before 

 the era of fixed nets, and instinctively remained in 

 the sea in comparative security until the autumn 

 and winter floods commenced. Then the obnoxious 

 charter-weir had ceased its operations ; then the 

 river-nets were hung up ; and then these leviathans 

 rushed up stream, to deposit their matured ova in 

 the fords and spawning-places of their native rivers. 

 Poachers who destroy, and water-baihffs who guard 

 the helpless salmon on these fords, in the winter timr, 

 were once familiar with these monster salmon, fit 

 to populate whole rivers. Now, alas ! they are sel- 

 dom seen alive, except inside the door of a bag-net ; 

 and this peculiarity in its capture, though instanced 

 as one of the benefits conferred by that engine, we 

 regard, and have always regarded, as one of the 

 most fatal evidences of its destructive and pernicious 

 effects. 



Another supposed advantage set forward by the 

 advocates of the new mode of capture, and to which 



