DISAPPEARANCE OF SALMON FROM COQUET. 279 



ally to 16 Ibs. and 18 Ibs. in weight, while 10 Ibs. or 12 

 Ibs. is an ordinary size. It is not a little singular, as I have 

 noticed in a previous chapter, that on the appearance of 

 this fish somewhat about eighty years ago, the true 

 salmon, which till then visited the Coquet in common 

 with other rivers, began gradually to disappear, until, for 

 a long time back, not one has been ever known to enter 

 its waters. What the cause may be, few will be able 

 to conjecture. Until the present fishery act came into 

 operation, the eriox were entirely prevented from enter- 

 ing the river after the season opened, by a lock at the 

 mouth of the river at Warkworth, unless during a very 

 high flood ; and the only sport to be had with this noble 

 member of the salmon tribe was in the early spring, 

 when a few mended kelts, that had lain in the river over 

 winter, were to be caught, with an occasional clean fish 

 after a high flood. But now that the lock is furnished 

 with a fish-ladder or pass, sport may be enjoyed with 

 them during the whole of the legitimate season. And 

 as the spawning grounds in the head waters of the 

 Coquet are inferior to few, I have no doubt the increase 

 of this fine member of the salmonidae will keep pace with 

 the care taken to protect it from the wholesale spolia- 

 tion it used a few years ago to undergo during close- 

 time, from regularly organized bands of midnight mau- 

 rauders, who not unfrequently were in the habit of cap- 

 turing fifteen or twenty horse-loads of spawning fish 

 from a few miles of water, during the course of a single 

 night, by means of the torch and leister. This may 

 seem incredible ; but I have heard it stated by an old 



