92 ON THE CHANNEL-FISHERIES. 



the small quantity of water therein, as well as from 

 the number of mills which are generally erected on 

 such rivulets and small streams, exposed to certain 

 destruction, by the facility thereby afforded to 

 poachers, who use the spear and other unlawful 

 means for the taking such fish, and the young of 

 such fish as happen not to be killed before they 

 have spawned, are also all or the greatest part of 

 them taken or destroyed at mill-tails and in mill- 

 leats, and produce no increase to the public stock. 

 It is therefore expedient that the evil last before 

 stated should,- as far as possible, be remedied by the 

 said fish being shut out or kept from such rivulets 

 and small streams, and kept in the main and prin- 

 cipal rivers where they can find better shelter and 

 protection. Be it therefore enacted by the author- 

 ity aforesaid, that the magistrates aforesaid in ses- 

 sions assembled, shall have power to enquire into 

 the state, condition, and aptitude of all such rivu- 

 lets and streams, and collateral branches of rivers, 

 and to determine whether they or any, and which 

 of them, are fit and proper, and of sufficient mag- 

 nitude for the breed and protection of the said fish, 

 and shall have further power to erect or order, or 



if such exist, in the proper season, when they may be taken at 

 all places by legal and proper means ; but only to prevent their 

 being destroyed at unseasonable times during the fence days, 

 when they ought not to be molested by any person, by any 

 means, or at any place It therefore appears to me that there 

 cannot be any well-grounded objection to this clause, designed 

 as it is for the benefit of all and the prejudice of none. 



