POACHING 163 



frighten ineffectually. Another, and even worse method 

 of poaching, is snatching or stroke hauling. This 

 cruel and barbarous practice of sinking a weighted 

 triangle or triangles in some place where salmon lie 

 thick, and jerking it through the water till it catches 

 in some part of a fish, is, unfortunately, only too 

 common and well known. Numbers of fish escape, 

 lacerated and torn, and the tackle is usually so 

 strong that little play is given by the struggles of 

 those landed. Yet, in some parts of Ireland 

 especially, 'sportsmen ' may be seen in rows manipu- 

 lating a bunch of weighted triangles through a shoal 

 of salmon sometimes with a prawn or minnow 

 attached to them as a colourable pretext for the 

 proceeding. This is done, not occasionally and to 

 obtain a fish for the pot in low water, but in the 

 name of sport, and to provide amusement for the 

 perpetrators ! I confess I should like to see some of 

 these 'gentlemen' severely punished, as I sympathise 

 far more with the poor man who poaches for gain or 

 food than with such desecrators of the gentle name 

 of sport. 



In Scrope's time these snatching implements were 

 known as rake-hooks, and he avers that 'most fisher- 

 men were provided with the tackle.' 'It consists of 

 two strong hooks about two or three inches long tied 



M 2 



