THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 71 



glad both to exchange such a courtesy, and also to enjoy your 

 company. 



Venator. Well, now let's go to your sport of angling. 



Piscator. Let 's be going, with all my heart. God keep you 

 all, gentlemen, and send you meet, this day, with another bitch- 

 otter, and kill her merrily, and all her young ones too. 



Venator. Now, Piscator, where will you begin to fish ? 



Piscator. We are not yet come to a likely place : I mu&t walk 

 a mile farther yet before I begin. 



Venator. Well, then, I pray, as we walk, tell me freely, how 

 do you like your lodging, and mine host, and the company ? Is 

 not mine host a witty man ? 



Piscator. Sir, I will tell you presently what I think of your 

 host : but, first, I will tell you, I am glad these otters were 

 killed ; and I am sorry that there are no more otter-killers, for I 

 know that the want of otter-killers, and the not keeping the 

 fence-months for the preservation of fish, will, in time, prove 

 the destruction of all rivers. And those very few that are left, 

 that make conscience of the laws of the nation, and of keeping 

 days of abstinence, will be forced to eat flesh, or suffer more 

 inconveniences than are yet foreseen. 



Venator. Why, sir, what be those that you call the fence- 

 months ? 



Piscator. Sir, they be principally three, namely, March, April, 

 and May ; for these be the usual months that salmon come out 

 of the sea to spawn in most fresh rivers. * And their fry would, 

 about a certain time, return back to the salt water, if they were 

 not hindered by weirs and unlawful gins, which the greedy 

 fishermen set, and so destroy them by thousands, as they would, 

 being so taught by nature, change the fresh for salt water. He 

 that shall view the wise statutes made in the 13th of Edward the 

 First, and the like in Richard the Third, may see several pro- 

 visions made against the destruction of fish : and though I profess 

 no knowledge of the law, yet I am sure the regulation of these 

 defects might be easily mended. But I remember that a wise 

 friend of mine did usually say, " That which is every body's 

 business is nobody's business." If it were otherwise, there 

 could not be so many nets and fish, that are under the statute 

 size, sold daily amongst us ; and of which the conservators of the 

 waters should be ashamed, f 



* This is a mistake ; for salmon come out of the sea to spawn in October 

 and November. J. K. 



t About the year 1770, upon the trial of an indictment before me at 

 Hicks's-hall, a basket was produced in evidence, containing flounders that 

 had been taken with unlawful nets in the river Thames, so small that scarce 



