88 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



has of late shown signs of exhaustion — it does not 

 grow with its former vigour, and its progress seems 

 checked. The brook, after winding for several miles, 

 the lower course being beyond the keeper's boun- 

 daries, empties itself into a canal ; before the canal 

 was made it ran much further, and itself increased in 

 volume almost to a river. Now this canal is fished 

 day and night by people on the tow-path : there is 

 nominally a close time, but no one observes it, and the 

 riparian owners, having discovered that they had a 

 right so to do, net it mercilessly. The consequence 

 is that the fish which go down the stream and enter 

 the canal are speedily destroyed, while the canal on 

 its part sends no fish to the upper waters. This is 

 how the decrease of fish is accounted for, and it is the 

 same with perhaps half-a-dozen other brooks in the 

 same locality, all of which now fall into the canal, 

 which is so incessantly plied with rod and net and 

 nightline that little escapes. 



