106 The Confessions of a 'Poacher. 



Angling Association would always render their 

 custody a critical business. When, upon any 

 rare occasion, the nets were kept at home, it was 

 only for a short period, and when about to be 

 used. Sometimes, though rarely, the police 

 have discovered them secreted in the chimney, 

 between bed and mattrass, or, in one case, 

 wound about the portly person of a poacher's 

 wife. As I have already said, the women are 

 not always simply aiders and abettors, but 

 in the actual poaching sometimes play an 

 important part. They have frequently been 

 taken red-handed by the watchers. Mention of 

 the water-bailiffs reminds me that I must say a 

 word of them too. Their profession is a hard 

 one harder by far than the poacher's. They 

 work at night, and require to be most on the 

 alert during rough and wet weather ; especially 

 in winter when fish are spawning. Some- 

 times they must remain still for hours in 

 freezing clothes ; and even in summer not 

 unfrequently lie all night in dank and wet 

 herbage. They see the night side of nature, 

 and many of them are as good naturalists as 



