DECREASE OF COARSE FISH. 91 



former vigour, and its progress seems checked. The 

 brook, after winding for several miles, the lower course 

 being beyond the keeper's boundaries, empties itself into 

 a canal ; before the canal was made it ran much farther, 

 and itself increased in volume almost to a river. Now 

 this canal is fished day and night by people on the tow- 

 path : there is nominally a close-time, but no one observes 

 it, and the riparian owners, having discovered that they 

 had a right so to do, net it mercilessly. The consequence 

 is that the fish which go down the stream and enter the 

 canal are speedily destroyed, while the canal on its part 

 sends no fish to the upper waters. This is how the 

 decrease of fish is accounted for, and it is the same with 

 perhaps half a dozen other brooks in the same locality, all 

 of which now fall into the canal, which is so incessantly 

 plied with rod and net and nightline that little escapes. 



