106 EEMINISCENCES OP THE LEWS. 



and over and over again I ascertained to demon- 

 stration tliat the fish took the river with my 

 artificial, just as they would with a natural, 

 spate. By judiciously keeping up a supply of 

 water, I freshened up my river as it grew low, 

 and brought up, ever and anon, fresh fish. I 

 also, by the same process, sent to sea early the 

 foul fish, which I had previously known remain 

 in the river till the middle of July; thus 

 rendering a double service — making the foul 

 fish go to sea, and, consequently, return from 

 it earlier, and preserving the fry from the 

 wholesale slaughter made on them by their 

 unnatural and voracious parents while waiting 

 in the pools for water to get down. My belief 

 is, that but for this plan the fish would have 

 suffered much more than they did from the 

 bag-nets, from whose maw I thus rescued not 

 a few of my finny friends. This, however, I 

 did not do without exciting the dire wrath of 

 the bag-net men. To be sure, it was tantalizing 

 to see the beautiful shoal they had calculated 

 on daily diminishing with their abominable 

 engine, on its return with each retreating tide 

 from the fruitless attempt to take the river, 

 whisked up at once by so singular a stream. 



At first it was called an illegal act, an in- 

 terference with vested rights; but that soon 



