52 HOME FISHING AND HOME WATERS. 



pickerel and perch among the weeds; the bull-head 

 in holes excavated by them in the mud, etc. These 

 localities are well known to poachers, and where the 

 fish congregate in these places in large schools, they 

 draw nets around them and frequently capture the 

 whole lot at a single haul. Where the bottom is 

 such that it is impracticable to draw a seine by rea- 

 son of its being covered with boulders or rocky reefs, 

 the "gill net" is used. 



This net is made of very fine thread, and the 

 meshes of the net are made in proportion to the size 

 of the fish intended to be captured, and as the name 

 of the net implies, the fish, while swimming through 

 the water, thrust their heads into the meshes of the 

 net, which catch them under their gills and hold 

 them securely. If, by any chance, the fish should 

 succeed in freeing itself from the net, it does not 

 stand one chance in a hundred of recovering; the 

 reason of which is that the gills are, comparatively 

 speaking, the fish's lungs. When the fish feels him- 

 self caught, he instinctively struggles violently to 

 escape, thereby lacerating his breathing apparatus 

 to a great extent. We all know the usual result of 

 injury to our own lungs, and it will, therefore, be easy 

 to comprehend the effect upon fish. 



Another method by which our inland waters are de- 

 prived of hundreds of thousands of young fish annu- 

 ally, is through the means of the murderous spear 

 and jack-light. The depredators approach at night 

 the spawning beds of the salmon trout, bass or 

 other fish; the strong light of the jack, as it is 

 called, thrown upon the water, enables the spear- 

 man to see down in the clear water for several feet; 



