Poachers and Poaching. 13 



labour. At this time the game birds pheasants, 

 partridge, and grouse are breeding, and are 

 therefore worthless ; so with rabbits and hares. 

 But when game is "out," fish are " in." Fish 

 poaching has decreased of late years, owing to 

 stricter watching and greater preservation gener- 

 ally. In summer, when the waters are low, fish 

 resort to the deep dubs. In such spots comes 

 abundance of food, and the fish are safe, be the 

 drought never so long. The pools of the Fell 

 becks abound at such times with speckled brown 

 trout, and are visited by another poacher the 

 otter. When the short summer night is darkest, 

 the man poacher wades through the meadows by 

 the river. He knows the deeps where the fish 

 most congregate, and there throws in chloride of 

 lime. Soon the trout of the pool float belly upper- 

 most, and are lifted out, dazed, in a landing net. 

 In this way hundreds of fish are taken, and find 

 a ready sale. The lime in no wise poisons the 

 edible parts ; it simply affects the eyes and gills, 

 covering them with a fine white film. Fish so 

 taken, however, lose all their pinky freshness. 

 The most cowardly part of this not uncommon 

 proceeding is that the lime is sometimes put into 

 the river immediately below a mill. This, of 

 course, is intended to mislead watchers and 

 keepers, and to throw the blame upon the non- 

 guilty millowner. And, seeing that chloride of 

 lime is used in various manufactures, the ruse 



