GROUND, STOCK, AND POACHING 221 



of surrounding a moor with nets, which catch the 

 birds as they fly off it on to the neighbouring pas- 

 tures. This has been carried to such a pitch in some 

 parts of Yorkshire, Westmoreland, and the other 

 northern counties, that the value of a moor becomes 

 seriously affected by it. A sort of blackmail is set 

 up, which obliges anyone taking the moor either to 

 hire all the adjoining pasture land as well, or to enter 

 into an agreement with certain parties not to net in 

 this manner for either of which forms of protection 

 he is mulcted in proportion to the value of the net- 

 ting on such ground, often amounting to nearly as 

 large a number of birds as he will get on the moor 

 proper by fair shooting. On one Yorkshire moor 

 that I know this lately became so serious, and the 

 stock was getting so much reduced, that the owner 

 purchased netting himself, which he set on the moor 

 edges in charge of his own men, so as to intercept 

 the birds before they reached the enemy's nets, those 

 taken being merely set at liberty again. Miles of 

 this netting these poachers have in some places, so 

 that the protecting nets of the owner and the con- 

 stant watching become a serious consideration. 



It is difficult to see how this can be prevented by 

 the operation of law, since where it is done on any 

 scale the net owners are careful to take out a game 



