120 SALMON AND TROUT. 



plenty of salmon are— or used to be — killed in them without \hQ: 

 rod, I think I can avouch ! For trout fishing they seem well 

 suited to their habitues, but certainly coracle-fishing is an art 

 which does not come by nature. The method of propulsion 

 is by paddling, the paddle sometimes used in front • and pulled 

 towards the rower, the blade being turned side- or edge-ways 

 when recovered. This is slightly complicated in practice, and 

 rather difficult to describe theoretically. ' If worked at the 

 side, and the paddle used perpendicularly, the coracle only 

 spins round without progressing' \W. H. ZT.] — a result which 

 tends to instruction rather than edification. 



The coracle is carried on the back by a band passing 

 through the seat and over the bearer's chest, the paddle resting 

 horizontally against his back, which prevents the bottom of the 

 coracle incommoding the action of the legs in walking. Coracle 

 races are an * institution,' and afford much fun. The com- 

 petitors start two or three hundred yards on land, with the 

 coracles on their backs ; launch them, get on board, and then 

 ' go as they can ' — a ' foul ' usually terminating in the capsize 

 of one or both competitors, and no assistance is expected by 

 a shipwrecked adversary. The length of the course is usually 

 about a quarter of a mile. 



On the Wye, Dee, Usk, and Towey the coracle is more or 

 less generally in use both for rod and net fishing. The well- 

 known Trammel or ' Horn-net ' is often worked by this means, 

 extended between two coracles. In rod-fishing a sort of anchor 

 is employed to keep the boat stationary or 'slow' its course 

 down stream — 'putting on the drag,' in fact. The two ap- 

 pended views of coracle-fishing are taken from the picturesque 

 scenery of the Dee. . . . But all this is rather in the way of a 

 digression, and I apologise. 



A final word on the really much more portable as well as 



' The paddle is mo-e often used at the side, being fixed between the arm 

 and the body, and worked, like the single scull in a sea-going boat, with either 

 hand -the paddle almost perpendicular and at the side, instead of behind lil<.e 

 the scull in a sea boat. — Ed. 



