570 THE OCEAN WOELD. 



the option of leaving, and are not compelled to go out. We must, 

 therefore, receive Dr. Bertram's narrative, much as we respect his 

 authority, with some reserve. A seed will not grow, nor will a parr 

 ever become a grilse, unless under given conditions : it is therefore an 

 easy matter to explain the anomaly of a parr passing seaward 

 becoming a four- pound grilse, while its twin-brother remaining in the 

 breeding-pond is conditionally developed as only a half-ounce samlet, 

 yet none the less a dwarfed grilse the possibility of growth existing 

 all the while, although it was not actively evoked by physical 

 surroundings. 



The modes of procedure in salmon fishery are very various. Spearing 

 with tridents, and liestering with a weighted hook by torch-light, 

 " burning the water," as the Scotch have it, as well as trammel, wear, 

 and cruive-wear fishing, are now prohibited. Legal fishing in rivers 

 is confined to row nets, and fly and bait rod fishing, fixtures being 

 illegal since 1810. Wear shot; a larger and heavier row-net placed 

 at the meeting of the waters ; stake, fly, and bag-nets are used in the 

 open sea. The latter is most in vogue, the former being almost super- 

 seded by the fly. Fixtures on the sea coast were held to be legal in 

 Lord Kintore's case by House of Lords in 1828, and continued so till 

 the passing of the recent Act. By this act all legal modes of fishing 

 are in action from the first of February to the fourteenth of September, 

 a period, however, now curtailed by twenty-eight days, netting being 

 illegal from Saturday to Monday in each week. It remains to be seen 

 whether the gourmet will enjoy his salmon better after its Sabbath 

 rest ; perhaps its ragout will then haunt him as it did Talleyrand's 

 abbe, who, instead of the mea culpa of the Confiteor, iterated, u Ah ! 

 le bon saumon ! ah ! le bon saumon !" 



A bag-net is composed of three chambers ; the first, which is the 

 widest, is at the entrance. The next is the doubling, and is one inch 

 to the mesh narrower than the outer. The last is the fish court, 

 where the fish by a simple and ingenious contrivance are prevented 

 from finding the door by which they entered. It is partly floated 

 by corks and partly by an empty cask on the head or principal 

 riding rope. It is set in the sea by ropes attached to anchors, 

 one anchor rope to the head of the net and one on each wing at the 

 entrance of the bag. The bag-leader is a separate net held by a rope 

 and anchor on the land side, and is fastened to the bag net. The 



