1 88 Poachers and Poaching. 



smolts respectively, and a trustworthy water 

 bailiff asserts that he once watched a couple of 

 cormorants hunt and kill a kelt salmon, and that 

 after dragging it ashore they commenced tearing 

 it up, when they were driven off. It was once 

 thought that both the cormorant and heron only 

 ate that which they could swallow whole, but 

 this is now known not to be strictly correct. 



And now, finally, we come to the man poacher. 

 Fish poaching is practised none the less for the 

 high preservation and stricter watching which is 

 so characteristic of the times. In outlying 

 country tow r ns with salmon and trout streams 

 in the vicinity it is carried on to an almost 

 incredible extent. There are many men who 

 live by it, and women to whom it constitutes 

 a thriving trade. These know neither times nor 

 seasons, and, like the heron and the kingfisher, 

 poach the whole year round. They provide the 

 chief business of the county police-court, and 

 the great source of profit to the local fish and 

 game dealer. The wary poacher never starts 

 for his fishing grounds without having first 

 secured his customer ; and it is surprising with 

 what lax code of morals the provincial public 

 will deal when the silent night worker is one 

 to the bargain. Of course the public always 

 gets cheap fish and fresh fish so fresh, indeed, 

 that the life has not yet gone out of it. It is a 

 perfectly easy matter to poach fish, and the 



