180 SALMON. 



distinction; but probably it was then used as affording an 

 evening's party of amusement rather than for mere profit; and 

 in this manner it was practised with less injury to ordinary 

 fishing than even the usual sweep or drag-net. At least we 

 are told that in remote times there were places at which Salmon 

 were so abundant, that it was a matter of covenant between 

 the master and servants that they should not be fed on this fish 

 oftener than three times in a week. Dr. Fuller, who wrote his 

 "Worthies of England," in the reign of Charles the First, 

 mentions this under the section of Herefordshire, but he appears 

 to regard the report as no more than a joke. Such however 

 was not the case, and in a book on the agriculture of Berwick, 

 by Robert Kerr, it is said that "formerly servants stipulated 

 with their masters that they should not be compelled to make 

 frequent meals of Salmon." In the work "Notes and Queries," 

 for May, 185T, there is also a quotation from Coursell's "History 

 of Gloucester," where, speaking of the House of Lepers in that 

 city, he says, "it was a standing condition of apprenticeship that 

 the apprentice should not be obliged to eat Salmon more than 

 thrice a week, the object being to render him less liable to the 

 leprosy, which after the crusades in the middle ages was a 

 formidable disease, that was supposed to be brought on or 

 aggravated by the eating of fish." But if this fact, which 

 affords so strong a contrast to what is known in our day, seems 

 remarkable, it will appear less so when we consider the difficulty 

 which then existed of conveying to a market any large quantity 

 of fish as often as it might be caught; but more especially, 

 that the Salmon which were the subject of this bargain were 

 either pickled or smoked after being salted; and therefore hard, 

 and scarcely to be digested. Such must have been the case 

 where fear could be expressed of their producing such a disease 

 as leprosy; and in this condition the Salmon could not have 

 been a more agreeable food than any other salted fish, and 

 scarcely equal to some of the more common kinds. 



But before we quit the subject of illegal or irregular fishing, 

 I will mention another method, which has been practised chiefly, 

 if not solely, in Ireland, and for the knowledge of which I am 

 indebted to an individual who has practised it; and although 

 it may be that I am divulging what might more properly be 

 kept concealed, yet on the other hand the knowledge itself may 



