AND HOW I HAVE CAUGHT MY FISH 97 



the number of fish taken during the past season, and 

 to those recorded must be added numbers of others 

 that were taken by those who, for obvious reasons, 

 did not speak, except perhaps to their confessors, 

 of their secret captures. 



Salmon come into the bay with the flow of the 

 tide, keeping to the centre until they reach the 

 river, when, if the falls be negotiable, all is well ; 

 but, if not, they have to return to the sea, which they 

 invariably do by a course which takes them round 

 one or other of the sides, and, as the nets are set 

 jutting out from the shore so as to thwart this, 

 a thinning of the shoals takes place at each of their 

 attempts. 



The whole of these nets in the bay are worked 

 by Sir James Musgrave's men, who, while I was 

 there, took as many as 624 fish in one day. 



The fish taken by the fishermen beyond the 

 limits of the bay, while not quite a secret, is not 

 so easily ascertainable, but I was present at the 

 emptying of a grand haul of eighty-seven. 



It must be remembered that this rocky coast 

 rises direct from deep water, and so care and skill 

 are required to gather in such a quantity without 

 loss. The difficulty of getting this vast mass of fish 

 into the boat requires that every man of the crew 

 should know his work and do it at the right moment. 

 One fish, finding its way out round an insufficiently 

 splashed corner, may be followed by all the others. 



The fact of the sea being bound in by an almost 



H 



