1 66 Poachers and Poaching. 



enemies are in the air, on the land, in the water, 

 and nothing short of an enumeration of them 

 can convey any idea of their numbers and whole- 

 sale methods of destruction. In addition to the 

 yearling salmon and trout which for ever haunt 

 the skirts of the spawning grounds, there are 

 always a number of mature unfertile fish which 

 for a part of the year live entirely upon the 

 spawn. An instance of this is recorded by a 

 river watcher on the Thames, who states that 

 while procuring trout ova in a stream at High 

 Wycombe, he observed a pair of trout spawning 

 on a shallow ford, and another just below them 

 devouring the ova as fast as it was deposited by 

 the spawner. The keeper netted the thief, and 

 in its stomach was found upwards of two ounces 

 of solid ova, or about three hundred eggs. Eels 

 particularly root up the gravel beds, and the 



to perish amid the waste of waters. We felt on these occa 

 sions pretty safe. Our principal enemies were dispersed : the 

 gulls sought worms in the ploughed uplands; the kingfisher and 

 the solitary heron flew away to the smaller streams, where the 

 less turbid water permitted them to see their prey. The cold, 

 slimy, cruel eel, alone of all our enemies, was then to be 

 dreaded. Crawling along at the bottom of the water, his flat 

 wicked head pressed against the gravel, so as to escape the force 

 of the stream, the wily beast would insinuate himself into every 

 crevice or corner, where a small fish might have taken shelter, 

 or a drowned worm be lodged, and all was prey to him." The 

 Autobiography of a Salmon. 



