94 THE COMPLETE ANGLEE. [PART i. 



to eat flesh, or suffer more inconveniences than are jet 

 foreseen. 



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

 months ? 



Pise. 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, 1 in most fresh rivers. And their 

 fry would, about a certain time, return back to the salt- 

 water, if they were not hindered by wires and unlawful gins, 2 

 which the greedy fishermen set ; and so destroy them by 

 thousands, as they (the fry) 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 I., and the like in 

 Bichard II., may see several provisions 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 no body'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. 3 



But, above all, the taking fish in spawning-time, may be 

 said to be against nature ; it is like taking the dam on the 

 nest when she hatches her young a sin so against nature, 

 that Almighty God hath in the Levitical law made a law 

 against it. 



But the poor fish have enemies enough besides such unna- 



fish days, shall forfeit 3, or undergo three months' imprisonment. The 

 object of the Act seems to have been more the encouragement of the 

 fisheries than religious observance. ED. 



1 Salmon spawn principally in November and December, and rarely 

 after March. The history of the Salmon is ably given in Yarrell's "British 

 Fishes." ED. 



2 The Thames Preservation Society have done much good in preventing 

 the unlawful practices Walton here complains of. ED. 



3 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 any one of them would cover a half-crown piece. The indictment 

 was for an affray, and an assault on a person authorised to seize unsta- 

 tutable nets ; and the sentence of the offender was a year's imprisonment 

 inNewgate.-^H. . -, . . 



