THE NITH 425 



yair nets and shoulder net of the Dee are, and is fished in the 

 Annan as well as the Nith. It is a net made somewhat in 

 fashion of a shrimp net, being a tapering bag of netting having 

 its mouth stretched on a rectangular framework of wood, with 

 a handle across the centre and one side of the long axis. The 

 net is fished by a man who wades into the water near to the 

 edge of the tidal channel, and there stands with the net set 

 upright and the bag floating out with the current. It is only 

 in the much discoloured waters of these muddy Solway estuaries 

 that the haaf net is likely to be successfully fished, since if the 

 water were clear the salmon would avoid the trap. The tide, 

 however, raises so much fine alluvial matter, that the water 

 becomes " drumlie," and the salmon has to adventure into 

 fresh water in a sort of aqueous fog. If he runs into a haaf 

 net, the fisherman immediately raises his frame and wades out 

 with his prize. 



Very commonly haaf net men arrange to work in company, 

 and form a string of nets at right angles to the direction of the 

 current, the furthest out man being up to the arm-pits in the 

 water. It is a quaint sight to see a file of submerged men out 

 in the water, each as motionless as any heron watching for a 

 passing smolt. When the rising tide threatens to drown out 

 the ultimate man, he lets his net float up and moves to the 

 shallow end. In time the next man comes in, and so on. 

 When the tide turns, they all turn, and face the other way. 



Now, without any doubt, it seems to me, the haaf net is a 

 fixed engine according to the interpretation of that term as 

 regards Scottish salmon fisheries. It is not a net which is 

 caused to move by the hand of the fisherman, or, to use Lord 

 Westbury's accepted expression, which takes a temporary 

 grasp of the water. It is not a net which is set, and left to 

 fish by itself, as an ordinary stake net is, since it is held in 

 position by the fisherman ; but it is a stationary engine set 

 and held in position, in as true a sense as is a toot-and-haul 

 net formerly fished in the Tay estuary, and now disallowed by 

 decision of the House of Lords. Moreover, like a drift net 

 which was simultaneously abolished, it is, when fished in con- 

 junction with other similar nets, an obstruction to the passage 

 of fish. In ordinary draught netting or net and coble fishing, 

 such, for instance, as is practised below Dumfries Caul, it is not 



