40 ATJTOBIOGKAPHY OF 



sunk a little below the water, and intended to 

 keep the fish from passing upwards during the 

 short period from Saturday to Monday, when 

 net-fishing ostensibly ceases, until they could 

 legally be dragged out of the pool on Monday 

 morning. They urged us to return,* and seek 

 the comparative safety of the sea, swarming as 

 it did with our natural enemies, in preference 

 to placing ourselves within the power of those 

 short-sighted, unprincipled scoundrels who dis- 

 grace the name of fisherman ! Had I been 

 unsupported, my natural timidity, enhanced by 

 the remembrance of the dangers I had gone 

 through, would have induced me to accompany 

 them, but my more experienced and bolder 

 companion overruled their counsel. She told 

 them how, by swimming on the surface of the 

 water, instead of the bed of the river, on which 

 to escape the force of the stream our course 

 had hitherto been held, we should escape the 

 danger, and how essential it was to our health, 

 and the preservation of our race, that the upper 



* Running fish, especially grilse, are frequently turned 

 back by meeting others which, having been scared by the 

 nets, are again returning to the sea, thus affording a double 

 chance of capture to their vigilant enemies. 



