SALMON-FISHING AS AN INDUSTRY 



fusion, have been swept round by it ; and, before they 

 can escape, it appears to them that they are walled in on 

 every side ; the real fact of the case being that the left 

 wing of the seine has now been pulled round to where 

 the middle was at first, and the right wing has cut off' the 

 retreat up stream. Well for those that have the sense to 

 see that so far escape is still, in reality, as possible as it 

 was at first, for the net has but changed its position. 



But now the chances of freedom have begun to 

 diminish, for the left-hand tow-line being now crossed 

 over the right, the men on the bank begin to pull in two 

 different directions till the half-circle has become a whole 

 one. Above the net there is no escape, for the upper 

 edge is buoyed on the surface with bladders or corks, and 

 now that the edges are together, every step taken by the 

 haulers is lessening the opportunity of flight via the 

 bottom. At last the seine-weights touch the mud, the 

 salmon are trapped beyond all hope of freedom, and 

 such a crowd of prisoners is there that the combined 

 efforts of the three or four men, who could easily tow it 

 while it was a floating concern, can now scarcely move 

 it an inch further. But two or three stout dray-horses 

 are in waiting ; a rope or chain connected with the tow- 

 lines is hitched to them and the net-full drawn up high 

 and dry. 



A little higher up the river a very curious form of trap 

 is in use the fish- wheel, which is shaped and worked just 

 like an ordinary water-mill wheel, and over which the fish 

 are swept into a staked enclosure ; but most of the up- 

 river fishing is still in the hands of the remnants of the 



E 65 



