SALMON FISHING DESCRIBED. 63 



torch, selects some gravelly ford for there, by a law 

 of nature, the salmon resort to form beds in the stream, 

 wherein to deposit their ova ; and they continue working 

 on the sand, until they are discovered by the torch- 

 light, and gaffed by the plunderer. Hundreds of the 

 breeding fish are annually thus destroyed ; and although 

 the greater fisheries may be tolerably protected, it is 

 impossible to secure the mountain streams from depre- 

 dation. If detected, the legal penalty upon poaching 

 is trifling ; and, as appeals on very frivolous grounds 

 are allowed from the summary convictions of magis- 

 trates, it too frequently happens that delinquents evade 

 the punitory consequences attendant on discovery. 



Here, too, the evils of private distillation may be 

 traced ; for most of the depredations committed upon 

 the salmon are effected by persons concerned in this 

 demoralising trade. They are up all night attending 

 to the still. The watch kept against the revenue police 

 enables them to ascertain when the bargers are away, 

 and the river consequently unguarded. A light is 

 snatched from the still-fire, the hidden fish-spear 

 speedily produced, and in a very short space of time 

 an infinite deal of mischief is perpetrated. 



I should be inclined to question the accuracy of 

 weight which Sir Humphry gives his salmon. Fish 

 of the sizes he describes are rarely met with here, and 

 out of one thousand taken in the nets, there will not be 

 ten fish of twenty-five pounds weight. 



The average size is from seven to fifteen pounds. 

 Within thirty years but one monster has been taken ; 

 he weighed fifty-six pounds. Four years ago one of 

 forty-eight pounds was caught : but of the thousands 

 which I have seen taken, I would say I never saw a 



