THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 185 



possession of this. Any one who poaches trout or other 

 fish with net, double-handed rod, cross line or set lines, 

 incurs a penalty of 5 and forfeiture of the fish ; and he may 

 be arrested if he be net fishing, but not otherwise. A man 

 angling for trout that is, using a single-handed rod with 

 line and hook although he may be poaching, cannot be 

 arrested nor punished by any penalty except that obtained 

 by an action at law, which may be taken against him. 

 However, the poaching angler for salmon can be fined. His 

 name and address should be taken, and a summons obtained 

 for "unlawfully taking or attempting to take," &c., &c. The 

 worst kind of poaching is that of capturing the fish heavy 

 with spawn, about settling on their spawning grounds, 

 thereby destroying not alone the parent fish, which at this 

 time are quite unfit for food, but the myriads of eggs which 

 otherwise would have hatched out, and in time have become 

 full-sized fish, affording sport to the angler and food for the 

 million. The main safeguard against this poaching is 

 plenty of water being in the river at the spawning season, 

 as the poacher cannot work successfully in heavy water. 

 It is at this season, too, that the water keepers or watchers 

 should be most alert. It is difficult to catch poachers in the 

 act. They usually work in gangs, and while two or three 

 are sweeping the pools with their nets, others are placed on 

 heights above the river commanding a good view of all 

 approaches to it, so that they can give timely warning to the 

 netters if they see any sign of impending danger. Should 

 there be no appearance of a keeper or watcher the scouts 

 remain perfectly still, but at the approach of an enemy they 

 move quickly away ; this movement is taken up by all the 

 the others placed at distances along the banks, so that like 

 a semaphore danger is signalled for miles in a few minutes. 



