5C POACHING. 



night moonless. The poacher, with a gaff and torch, selects 

 some gravelly ford for there, by a law of nature, the salmon 

 resort to form beds in the stream, wherein to deposite their 

 ova ; and they continue working on the sand, until they are 



discovered by the torch-light,* and gaffed by the plunderer. 

 Hundreds of the breeding fish are annually thus destroyed ; 

 and although the greater fisheries may be tolerably protected, 

 it is impossible to secure the mountain streams from depreda- 

 tion. If detected, the legal penalty upon poaching is trifling; 

 and, as appeals on very frivolous grounds are allowed from 

 the summary convictions of magistrates, it too frequently 

 happens that delinquents evade the punitory consequences 

 attendant on discovery. 



Here, too, the evils of private distillation may be traced ; 

 for most of the depredations committed upon the salmon are 

 effected by persons concerned in this demoralizing trade. 

 They are up all night attending to the still. The watch 

 kept against the revenue police, enables them to ascertain 

 when the bargers are away, and the river consequently un- 

 guarded. A light is snatched from the still-fire, the hidden 



* " There are a good many pike in the river near to Trolhatten. In 

 the course of two successive days, I once took with my rod sixty-three of 

 those fish ; they were, however, small, their aggregate weight being little 

 more than one hundred pounds. The largest fish weighed eight pounds. 

 Great quantities of pike and other fish, salmon amongst the rest, are 

 speared in the vicinity of Trolhatten by torch-light, many of the people 

 thereabouts being adepts at that amusement." Lloyd. 



