103 



this wholesale ruin, are never so happy as when they can 

 catch some innocent or ignorant gentleman trespassing 

 the letter of the law, by lot torn -fishing one clay before 

 the statute allows him to do so. They speedily send a 

 water-baili ff after him . j and not uncommonly, where the 

 poor angler is a. stranger, assume that character them- 

 selves, rather than lose the opportunity of levying either 

 the fine, or a I rile ! 



The gentlemen of Sunbury on Thames, where there 

 has been excellent angling in every branch, proved them- 

 selves a match for the professional fishermen (with which 

 nil the banks of the Thames swarm, and who are per-- 

 haps as dissolute a tribe as any in the united kingdoms), 

 and took very effectual means to prevent the total destruc- 

 tion of the fishes. 



They purchased a few old, rotten hulls of boj?.-:, 

 barges, &c. which were to be had for a mere song, a::d 

 having put plenty of tenter-hooks into their bottoms, and 

 knocked -out some holes, so as to "give access to the fishes, 

 carried them out into the principal holes and haunts, and 

 there sunk them bottoms uppermost. 



The fishes, in consequence, soon multiplied ; for no 

 fisherman liked to cast his net over such traps : where, 

 besides the inevitable damage his tackle must sustain, 

 there appeared no chance of catching fishes, which had 

 so ready and so effectual an asylum at hand. 



The angler will do well always to inquire, if any such 

 means have been adopted in respect to the waters he may 

 be at ; if they have, he may depend on finding fishes 

 near those spots where such barriers to poaching have 

 been placed. It is true, that he may here and there 

 F 4 hook 



