THE FISHERIES. 27 



they go for stock, and thus breed and uphold tlie 

 fishery. Take again the charter-weir, in any other 

 river ; that old monopoly which has existed so long 

 with advantage to the pubhc; there, too, in high 

 floods, throughout the fishing season, there is an 

 escapement for salmon in defiance of the charter, 

 and all the vested rights of proprietor or patentee. 

 When the river is in flood, and a flow of twelve 

 inches or more is passing over the weir, salmon, in 

 numbers may be seen, at various suitable places, 

 running up the weir, and thus escaping, in spite 

 of every art we can employ ; and it is only as the 

 flood is subsiding, that the boxes and other devices 

 come into play ; in the meantime, great numbers 

 have escaped, and have scampered off, and thus go 

 to stock the river : these are the natural escapements 

 which have preserved the Salmon-fisheries for ages 

 against the rapacity of man : there is another escape- 

 ment, too, at the solid weir, provided by law during 

 the open season, which we shall presently describe. — 

 But let us now take a look at the bag-net : behold 

 it ! there it is, extended treacherously in the sea, in 

 the very track and pathway of the salmon, fishing 

 incessantly night and day. Over its door might be 

 placed that dreary inscription — " Lasciate ogni spe- 

 ranza, voi ch' entrate ! " For ingress, the door is 

 for ever open to the salmon ; but once in, it is all up 

 with him — there is no escapement there : — he will 

 never again revisit his native river — dash up the tide- 

 way — dart through the cruive — or bound over the 

 weir. From the full grown salmon of 20 lbs. or 30 



