AND THEIR INHABITANTS. 165 



to the i oth of March, and ordered that the bars of 

 iron should be placed not closer together than 3 inches. 

 But a further Act of Parliament in 1809 gave the 

 lessee of Lord Lonsdale's fishery, which only extended 

 for two miles and a half of the river, the right to fish 

 from the loth of February to the loth of October. 

 Thus the owners of all the length of the river beyond 

 Lonsdale's property, and which extended for thirty- 

 three miles, had no protection for their fish, and this 

 contributed gradually to destroy the produce of the 

 river, which had been so wonderfully prolific. 



Matters went on in this way till the year 1861, 

 when a new Act of Parliament for English river 

 fisheries altered the face of affairs. Near the mouth 

 of the Derwent the Scotch method of spearing salmon 

 still further contributed to its well-nigh extermination. 

 One method was for a man mounted on horseback 

 to follow the swimming fish in the water up to the 

 horse's belly, holding the bridle in one hand and 

 galloping after the fish ; when sufficiently near he 

 struck the fish with a spear, which he had in both 

 hands. He seldom, if skilful, missed striking the 

 fish. Then raising the transfixed fish to the surface 

 of the water, he turned round the horse's head to the 

 shore and ran the salmon on dry land before he dis- 

 mounted. In this manner forty or fifty salmon were 

 said to be killed in one day. Another method of 

 catching the fish was by stake-nets, erected near the 

 sea at Workington. 



It is stated in the account of river fisheries in Land 

 and Water for March 31, 1866, that as many as 

 eleven cartloads of fish were sometimes taken in one 



