THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



283 



remember the sickening sense of shame that crept 

 over us as, unwilling participators in the outrage, 

 we crept over the mossy ground ; when the noise 

 made by every water-ouzel that took wing, and 

 every sheep that leaped down the hillside, seemed 

 to herald the approach of a keeper, with the awful 

 penalties of the law in his train. 



Diverting the course of a brook, and emptying 

 the pools of their water, and afterwards of their 

 fish, is a long operation, and therefore not so 

 frequently resorted to ; but that poaching instru- 

 ment called the two-pole net we have known to 

 clear many a nice little pool in a stream of its 

 spotted denizens. 



In Cardiganshire it is the practice for men to go 

 up the streams armed with a sledge-hammer, with 

 which they strike the big stones in the brook. The 

 concussion stuns the fish, and they are easily picked 

 up afterwards. 



Do our readers know what a " cleeching-net ' 

 is ? It is in effect a magnified landing-net at the 

 end of a long pole, with the lower part of the rim 

 straight. Its use is to ''grab" fish from under 

 clumps of weed and overhanging banks. We once 

 had one made for the purpose of catching bait, 

 and a ludicrous accident occurred to a friend of 

 ours who used it. He plunged it in too far from 

 the side, where the water was deeper than he 

 imagined, and the consequence was that he fell 

 forward, his feet still on the bank, and his hands 



