ON THE CHANNEL-FISHERIES." 93 



cause to be erected or ordered, any grating, weir, 

 or such other means as they shall think proper, at 

 such place and places, at such season, and for such 

 length of time (during the fence days only, when 

 salmon go up the rivers to spawn) as they shall 

 deem expedient, to prevent such fish from getting 

 into such rivulets and small streams. Such erec- 

 tions or contrivances for the purposes aforesaid, 

 being constructed and managed so as to do no in- 

 jury, or as little as possible, to the lands adjoin- 

 ing. And if any person or persons shall remove, 

 destroy, or injure such erection or means as afore- 

 said, so put up by order of the said magistrates, he, 

 she, or they shall forfeit and pay the sum of 50L 

 to be recovered in manner as hereinafter ex- 

 pressed.* 



And whereas it is a very common practice for 

 fishermen to fasten nets across rivers, or to hold 

 them in their hands at each end thereof for a con- 

 siderable time, after such nets are shot, and before 

 they are drawn, contrary to the letter and spirit of 



* There ought also to be a handsome reward for the de- 

 struction of otters, as these animals make sad havoc among the 

 salmon in the breeding season. So do also porpoises; it 

 is highly desirable that some method could be devised for 

 taking them, and I think a net might be so constructed as to 

 answer the purpose. I have known porpoises taken even 

 in the herring nets ; and if so, they might easily be taken in 

 great numbers in nets made and constructed for the purpose, 

 and their oil would richly repay the fishermen. This fish being 

 of the cetaceous genus is soon drowned when once ensnared in 

 a net. 



