The Confessions of a ^Poacher. 171 



But I little knew what this meant, as will 

 presently be seen. I knew sufficient of the law 

 to forsee that I should be charged with tres- 

 passing ; with night poaching ; with being in 

 illegal possession of fish ; with illegally killing 

 and taking salmon ; perhaps other counts 

 besides. But what I did not know was that I 

 should be charged, in addition, with being in 

 illegal possession of one hundred and twenty- 

 nine salmon and trout during the close season. 

 And this is how it came about. There had 

 been an agitation throughout the whole of the 

 Conservancy district. It was contended that 

 the fishing season extended too far into Autumn 

 by a fortnight that by that time the fish 

 had begun to spawn. The old condition of 

 things had held for years, and the new Con- 

 servancy bye-laws had only just come into 

 operation. And so I was trapped. The case 

 came on, and a great shoal of magistrates with it. 

 Two of them were personally interested, and 

 were charitable enough to retire from the Bench 

 they pushed their chairs back about an inch 

 from the table. I pleaded guilty to all the 



