24 SALMON IDE. 



his progress upward. When a fisli is thus discovered, an 

 alarm or signal is instantly given to the men at the shiel or 

 house where the fishermen lodge ; and immediately a boat is 

 rowed off by one man with great celerity, having a net 

 attached to it, and ready prepared for dropping gradually 

 into the water, one end of which is tied to the boat, and the 

 other is dragged with a rope by men on shore ; and by taking 

 a considerable sweep, an endeavour is made to surround the 

 fish. When thus discovered coming up, they seldom escape. 



Higher up the river, and in parts that are narrow, weirs 

 or dams are built across the stream. At certain intervals 

 along these weirs, cruives are placed. Cruives are enclosed 

 spaces formed in the dam wall ; the fish enter these spaces, 

 through which the water rushes, as they push up the stream, 

 and are prevented by a grating of a peculiar contrivance from 

 returning or getting out. All the wide and open pools of 

 the river between these artificial, or any other natural con- 

 tractions of the stream, are fished with the coble and sweep 

 net. 



In the work by the Rev. William Hamilton already 

 quoted, and in the second series of Mr. Jesse's Gleanings in 

 Natural History, an interesting account is related of the 

 assistance afforded by a water-dog to some Salmon fishermen 

 when working nets in shallow pools. The dog takes his 

 post in a ford or on a scour where the water is not very 

 deep, and at a distance below the net : if a Salmon escapes 

 the net, the fish makes a shoot down the river in the direc- 

 tion towards the sea : the dog watches and marks his ap- 

 proach by the ripple on the water, and endeavours to turn 

 the fish back towards the net, or catch him ; if he fails in 

 both attempts, and the fish passes him, the dog then quits 

 the water, in which the pace of the fish is too fast for him, 

 and runs with all his speed down the bank of the river to 



