Book II. INLAND FISHERIES. 567 



upper ends growing narrower, and shallower, until they close in points, at the tops of 

 the sand banks. As the tide flows upward, the salmon, either in search of food, or the 

 channel of the river to which they are destined, enter these valleys or " lakes." But 

 finding, on the turn of the tide, that their passage further upward is stopped, they natu- 

 rally return with it into deep water ; where they remain until the next tide. The ma- 

 norial proprietors of these sand^banks having discovered this fact, have, from time 

 immemorial, run lines of nets, during the fishing season, across the lower ends of these 

 lakes or valleys, half a mile or more, perhaps, in width ; the nets being suspended in 

 such a manner, that they are lifted from the ground by the current of the tide in flow- 

 ing upward ; so that the fish find no diflSculty in passing beneath them into the lake. 

 But, on the tide's turning, their lower edges fall down close to the sand, and effectually 

 prevent the salmon from retreating. They are, in consequence, left dry, or in shallow 

 water, easily to be taken by hundreds perhaps, at once. 



3618. The other remarkable method, which is practised in the Firth of Solway, is 

 founded on a well-known habit of salmon, when they first make the land, and enter into 

 narrow seas and estuaries, to keep much along the shore : no matter, whether to hit, 

 with greater certainty, their native rivers, or to rub off the vermin, with which, in ge- 

 neral, they are more or less infested, when they return from the ocean, or in search of 

 food. This method of taking salmon, if not a modern invention, has recently been 

 raised to its present degree of perfection, by an enterprising salmon fisher and farmer in 

 the neighborhood of Annan ; who has turned it to great profit. At a short distance 

 below the mouth of the river Annan, he has run out a long line of tall net fence, several 

 hundred yards in length, and somewhat obliquely from the line of the shore, with which 

 it makes an acute angle, and closes in with it, at the upper end : thus forming, in effect, 

 an artificial lake ; one side of which is the Ijeach, the other the net fence. The lower 

 end is ingeniously guarded, with nets of a more trap-like construction than those which 

 are in use for natural lakes; in which fish are found to lie more quietly, until the turn 

 of the tide. In this immense trap, great quantities, not of salmon only, but of cod, ling, 

 soals, and other white fish are taken. Marshal knows no place in the island where sea 

 fishing, for salmon, can be studied with so much profit as on the shores of Annandale. 



3619. River fishing for salmon is chiefly done with the seine, or long draught net, 

 whose construction and use are universally known. In rivers which are liable to fre- 

 quent and great changes of depth, and strength of current, by reason of tides and 

 floods, it is desirable to have nets of different textures, as well as of different depths t as, 

 one of the construction best adapted to the ordinary state of the water, and to the size 

 of the fish that frequent it (salmon peels, trouts, mullets, and other small sized fish are, 

 in some rivers, commonly taken with salmon) ; and another with more depth, and wider 

 meshes ; to be used during high water and strong currents, when the larger salmon do not 

 fail to hasten upward : and the same strength of hands which is able to draw a close shell 

 on it, can work a deeper one with wider meshes. In wide rivers, with flat shores, a 

 variety of nets are required of different lengths as well as depths, to suit every height 

 and width of the water. 



3620. In rivers traps are set for salmon. The most common device of this kind is 

 the weir, or salmon leap ; namely, a tali dam run across the river, with a sluice at one 

 end of it, through which the principal part, or the whole, of the river at low water, is 

 suffered to pass with a strong current ; and in this sluice the trap is set. 



3621. The construction of salmon weirs. Marshal conceives to be, in all cases, dan - 

 gerous, and in many highly injurious to the jjropagation of salmon. And although it 

 would be altogether improper to demolish those which long custom has sanctioned, yet 

 he is of opinion that it would be equally improper to suffer more to be erected ; at least, 

 until some judicious regulations are made respecting them : regulations which cannot be 

 delayed without injury to the public. 



3622. It now only remains to speak of poaching, or the illegal taking of groiun salmon. 

 There are already severe penalties inflicted for this crime ; which, compared with that of 

 destroying young salmon, might, in a public light, be deemed venial ; the latter deserving 

 tenfold punishment. For tlie grown salmon that are taken, in season, by poachers, 

 becomes so much wholesome food. There is no waste of human sustenance by the 

 practice. Nevertheless, as theft, the crime is great, and ought to be punishable as such. 

 As an improvement of the present law, Marshal proposes to make the receiver, in this 

 as in other cases of theft, equally punishable with the thief. If poachers were not 

 encouraged by purchasers of stolen salmon, the practice would not be followed. 



3623. Lake fisheries are of small extent, and are chiefly confined to one or two 

 mountainous districts ; and, even there, unless where char or trout aboimd, as in 

 Keswick and Lochlomond, their value is small, and their improvements few. The 

 Lochfine fishery is to be considered as marine, it being in fact an inlet of the sea. 



3624. Fool fishing is, in most parts, peculiar to the seats of men of fortune, and the 

 country residences of minor gentlemen. Surrey and Berkshire are, perhaps, the only 



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