THE FISH-POACHER. 125 



During summer and when the water becomes 

 low, the fish congregate in deep "dubs." This 

 they do for protection, and if overhung with trees 

 there is here always abundance of food. If a 

 poacher intends to net a " dub," he carefully 

 examines every inch of its bottom beforehand. 

 If it has been thorned, he carefully removes 

 these small thorn-bushes with stones attached, 

 thrown in by the watchers to entangle the 

 poachers' nets, and so allow the fish to escape. 

 At night the poacher comes, unrolls his long net 

 on the pebbles, and then commences operations 

 at the bottom of the river reach. The net is 

 dragged by a man at each side, a third wading 

 after to lift it over the stakes, and so prevent 

 the fish from escaping. When the end of the 

 pool is reached, the trout are simply drawn out 

 upon the pebbles. This is repeated through the 

 night until half-a-dozen pools are netted, and, 

 maybe, depopulated of their fish. 



Netting of this description is a wholesale 

 method of destruction, always supposing that the 

 poachers are allowed their own time. It requires 

 to be done slowly, however, and, if alarmed, they 

 can do nothing but abandon their net and run. 

 This is necessarily large, and when thoroughly 

 wet is a most cumbersome thing and exceedingly 

 heavy. The capturing of a net stops the depre- 



