162 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



How taken Salmon-hunting. 



the Severn, and the Thames. They are some- 

 times taken in nets, and sometimes by means of 

 locks or weirs, with iron or wooden gates, so 

 placed in an angle, that being impelled by any 

 force in a direction contrary to that of the stream 

 they open, let the fish or whatever else pushes 

 against them through, and again by the force of 

 the water or their own weight, close, and prevent 

 their return. Salmon are also killed in still water, 

 by means of a spear with several prongs,which the 

 fishermen use with surprising dexterity. When 

 this is used in the night, a candle and lantern, or 

 a wisp of straw set on fire, is carried along, to 

 the light of which the fish collect. 



One Graham, a person who farms the sea- 

 coast fishery at Whitehaven, has adopted a suc- 

 cessful mode of taking salmon, which he has ap- 

 propriately denominated salmon-hunting. When 

 the tide is out, and the fish are left in shallow 

 waters, intercepted by sand-banks, near the 

 mouth of the rivers, or when they are found in 

 any inlets up the shore, where water is not more 

 than from one foot to four feet in any depth, the 

 place where they lie is to be discovered by their 

 agitation of the pool. This man, armed with a 

 three-pointed barbed spear, with a shaft of fif- 

 teen feel in length, mounts his horse, and plunges 

 at a swift trot, or moderate gallop, belly-deep 

 into the water. lie makes ready his spear with 

 both hands ; when he overtakes the salmon, he 

 lets go one hand, and with the other strikes 



