Water Poachers. 187 



food is so great that it can hardly be reckoned, 

 and in future years must tell greatly upon the 

 British yield of salmon. Mill-wheels * and 

 hatches, too, are often great sources of destruc- 

 tion. 



Another enemy to salmon and trout is the 

 great black cormorant a poacher that studies 

 their migratory and local movements, and acts 

 accordingly. It is the habit of this bird to 

 visit small rivers which flow into the sea, 

 especially during the late winter and early spring 

 months. At these seasons the smolts are pre- 

 paring to come down, and the kelts of salmon 

 and sea trout are assembling in the large pools 

 prior to their return to salt water. A brace of 

 cormorants which were shot at their fishing were 

 found to contain twentv-six and fourteen salmon 



J 



* "In this neighbourhood T escaped, by pure good fortune, a 

 danger that I afterwards learnt proved fatal to thousands nay, 

 tens of thousands of my young companions. The stream had 

 apparently divided, and whilst 1 followed the course of the 

 right-hand one, the greater number passed down the wider but 

 less rapid left-hand division. Here they speedily encountered 

 a terrific mill-wheel, and, dashing on one side, they found their 

 progress stopped by a small net, which being placed under them, 

 they were landed literally by bushels. My informant, who 

 escaped by passing under the mill-wheel at the imminent risk 

 of being crushed to death, assured me that the bodies of our un- 

 lucky brethren were used as manure! And, degrading as the 

 suggestion is, it seems not impossible, for the numbers taken could 

 not be sold or used for food." The ditto biography of a Salmon. 



