"WHERE IS THE PEA?" Ill 



to pigs, and employed as manure for the garden and 

 the field. A witness, who was horrified at seeing a 

 man manuring his garden with salmon-fry, coolly in- 

 forms the Commissioners that he thinks a salmon good 

 within a fortnight of spawning, and that on the Taw 

 " you will hear many gourmands say, ' Where is the 

 pea?' They look for the pea. I assure you that is the 

 case here." At Bideford, it seems, the pregnant fish is 

 reckoned good the day before she spawns ! This de- 

 praved taste is the reason why the population on the 

 banks of many English rivers show no mercy to the 

 breeding fish. Declaring them " very good," a state 

 of lawlessness in pursuit of them is sometimes witnessed 

 in Wales, throwing into shade the sufficiently high- 

 handed doings on Tweedside. " Kebecca and her 

 daughters," with whose antipathy to turnpikes we are 

 familiar, are remarkable for their unseasonable love of 

 salmon. So recently as December 1857, a crowd of 

 these desperadoes, who are mostly small farmers, and 

 their sons and servants, assembled with blackened 

 faces, and, armed with guns, proceeded to devastate 

 the fords on the little river Elan, which they would 

 have effectually accomplished but for the promptness 

 of the river conservator, who, rushing to the fords, 

 disturbed the fish a few minutes before the approach of 

 the enemy. 



It is deplorable to learn that, in certain parts of 

 Wales, the law is powerless to repress such murderous 

 poaching, " all the country being up in arms, so that 

 you could hardly fix upon anybody;" and a gentleman, 

 anxious for the preservation of the fish, dared not come 

 to give evidence before the Commissioners ; " there is 

 such a gang of people about, who make a regular trade 

 of killing the salmon, that he will not come forward ; 

 he is afraid that his cattle will be killed, or his stacks 

 burned." 



Besides the fondness of the gourmands for " the pea 

 of the salmon," the pregnant fish is killed for the sake 



