LEAVES FROM A GAME BOOK. 23 



obstacles in a day, and no net will move them or come 

 clear without being seriously damaged. In this manner 

 I successfully defeated the raids of several gangs of 

 habitual scringers of the mouth of a small sea trout 

 stream running through a shooting I once had near Oban, 

 much to my own gain in sport and greatly to the damage 

 of their nets. This town is undoubtedly the headquarters 

 of the poaching fraternity, and in the autumn, long after 

 the salmon nets have been compelled by law to cease 

 work on all the adjacent rivers, there may yet be seen 

 exposed for sale on the fishmongers' slabs most splendid 

 salmon freshly netted from the sea. In a letter to the 

 Scotsman and the Ohan Times, to which I signed my 

 name, I taxed the Oban fishmongers with selling poached 

 fish, and challenged them to deny the accusation, which, 

 however, not one of them did, and, what was more extra- 

 ordinary, neither did any of the local or district fishery 

 inspectors take any notice or in any way interfere. 

 Therefore small wonder the fish poacher thrives on the 

 West Coast ! 



An amusing sequel to a fish-poaching expedition 



