WEED-CUTTING 281 



up-stream, it is less liable to be interfered with by 

 the masses of weeds floating down. In the latter, 

 the casting being necessarily down-stream, the 

 hook is fouled and clogged by every little frag- 

 ment of weed which it encounters, and the water 

 is full of such. Moreover, though the trout will 

 often continue to rise, even when the weeds are 

 coming down most heavily, the salmon appear to 

 be scared by them, and are often unsettled for 

 some two or three days after the cutting has been 

 discontinued. I have again referred to this weed- 

 cutting annoyance because it is more serious on a 

 salmon than a trout stream. There is said to 

 be a remedy for every evil under the sun, and I 

 will endeavour to explain how even this one may 

 be prevented. 



In the Hampshire rivers weed-cutting prevails 

 more or less throughout the summer, and it was 

 found to be such an intolerable nuisance, and so 

 greatly to interfere with the salmon-fishing, that 

 my friend Mr. Kendle, who has the management 

 of the Broadlands estate, and takes the keenest 

 interest in the welfare of the fishery belonging 

 thereto, adopted the following plan, which has 

 been found to answer most thoroughly, and has 

 been in use for several years : A strong wooden 

 baulk, some eighteen inches square, is laid across 

 the river, and placed en wooden piers at either 

 end, thus forming a kind of foot-bridge. The 



