. 25 



ning of May, the/ry are still in their progress to the sea 

 Now, taking this fact in connection with the destruction 

 of the fry necessarily attendant on the present modes of 

 fishing, it is evident, that so long as those modes are 

 continued, the close season ought to be greatly pro- 

 longed. 



The mode generally in use, laying out of view the 

 cruives, at particular stations, is the coble-net ; which is 

 a loose floating net, the upper side being buoyed up by 

 cork or blown bladders, or other means ; and the under 

 side kept upon the gravel, by ponderous weights, lead 

 or iron, or heavy knotted ropes. 



This net is used, or shot as it is termed, in different 

 ways, according to the local currents and the nature of 

 the station at which it is employed. But, in general, in the 

 upper parts of the rivers, one end being first connected 

 with the shore by a rope, the net is placed in a coble, 

 which is rowed across the river as near as convenient to 

 the opposite bank, and, as the coble proceeds, the net 

 drops into the water; the lower side with its weights or 

 ropes sinking to the bottom, and the upper being buoyed 

 to the surface of the river. The current operating upon 

 the net, presses the body of it along with the stream, so 

 that to keep it always extended, it becomes necessary for 

 the fishermen on the shore, to drag the inner end along 

 the bank ; and for those in the coble, in like manner, to 

 drag the outer end along with the body of the net, as it is 

 carried onwards by the pressure of the current. In the 

 course of its progress, a bay or chamber is gradually form- 

 ed towards the centre of the net, into which all the fish 

 which it encounters are received. The outer end of the 

 net is afterwards brought rapidly to the bank, thus en- 

 closing all the fish within the bay ; and, by means of 



