WATER POACHERS 197 



to escape. At night the poacher comes, unrolls 

 his long net on the pebbles, and then commences 

 operations at the bottom of the river reach. The 

 net is dragged by a man at each side, a third wading 

 after to lift it over the stakes, and so prevent the 

 fish from escaping. When the end of the pool is 

 reached the trout are simply drawn out upon the 

 pebbles. This is repeated through the night until 

 half a dozen pools are netted, and maybe depopu- 

 lated of their fish. Netting of this description is a 

 wholesale method of destruction, always supposing 

 that the poachers are allowed their own time. It 

 requires to be done slowly, however, and if alarmed 

 they can do nothing but abandon their net and run. 

 This is necessarily large, and when thoroughly wet 

 is most cumbersome and exceedingly heavy. The 

 capturing of a net stops the depredations of the 

 poachers for a while, as the nets, being large, take 

 long to make. For narrow streams a method 

 pretty much the same as that described above is 

 used; only the net is smaller, and to it are attached 

 two poles. The method of working it is similar to 

 that employed with the large net. 



A species of poaching which the older hands 

 rarely go in for is that of poisoning. Chloride of 

 lime is the agent most in use, as it does not injure 

 the edible parts. This is thrown into the river 

 where fish are known to be, and its deadly influence 



