TREATISE ON FLY-FISHING. 65 



above, if perchance a fish does succeed in evading 

 the cunning of his netting foes, a host of spearmen 

 are on watch by night, as well as by day, to immo- 

 late the persecuted wanderer. 



Laws exist, restricting the capture of salmon, 

 within certain months ; but that which in this 

 case is truly everybody's business, is considered 

 nobody's ; consequently, in season and out of 

 season are they caught, sold, and devoured, as 

 openly as if no penalties were incurred by the act. 

 That food, w^hich under proper regulation would 

 soon become abundant and reasonable, can only 

 now be placed on the tables of the affluent. 



The preservation of salmon I hold to be a 

 question of national importance ; so much so, that 

 I consider conservators should be appointed to 

 protect them, as well from the unlawful proceed- 

 ings of the owners of fisheries, as from the unscru- 

 pulous acts of the poacher. Weirs should be so 

 constructed as to admit of their ascending when- 

 ever the waters are swollen by floods ; hutches 



