REASONS FOR THE DECREASE OF SALMON. 243 



worked one over the other incessantly at all hours, to inter- 

 cept and sweep on shore the fish that are running up ; we 

 have nets which are half fixed that is, fixed at one end, 

 and extended across the stream : against these the salmon 

 strike, and the end of the net is immediately brought 

 round, so that the salmon are enclosed and dragged on 

 shore \ we have nets of a somewhat similar nature, which 

 are lifted up from below j we have nets of every variety and 

 construction, worked at weirs (by which the fish are stopped 

 and gathered together in shoals) and elsewhere, much too 

 numerous to mention, for the ingenuity of man has been 

 racked to discover and adapt them to the work in the most 

 murderous fashions. We have also fixed erections, some of 

 brush faggots, wattled stakes, and other materials, extend- 

 ing across the stream as far as may be practicable, against 

 which the salmon in its upward progress strikes ; and when 

 seeking to pass beyond the obstruction on the outside, they 

 become entangled in a bag, or in a maze of chambers, ending 

 in a species of trap similar to an eel or a funnel-mouthed 

 mouse-trap, from which there is practically no escape. We 

 have stages and ranges of baskets, like large wicker eel-pots, 

 into which the fish readily passes, and from which, when 

 they are perfectly adapted, nothing even of shrimp size can 

 escape alive. 1 We have cruives ; and here I must explain, 

 for the benefit of the general reader, what cruives are. 



1 Models of all these machines are in the possession of the Asso- 

 ciation for the Preservation of the Fisheries of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, 14, Eegcnt Street an excellent association, deserving of 

 every encouragement and support. These models were exhibited at 

 the International Exhibition, where they formed a very attractive 

 and instructive spectacle. 



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