256 POACHING IN THE RIVERS. 



North Wales than in London, for the only two 

 articles of consumption to be obtained there at a 

 moderate rate are poultry and eggs. 



Against the fish in the river poaching is pursued 

 to a murderous and ruinous extent, in season and 

 out of season, by day and by night, by rod and 

 spear, by torchlight and moonlight, with nets 

 and night lines ; and but for the rocky passes of 

 the stream higher up, through the ravines, where 

 the fish find shelter and protection from the net, 

 beneath the stones of the foaming torrent, salmon 

 and trout would soon become totally annihilated in 

 the Welsh rivers. But I am losing sight of my 

 subject in these general remarks on the other sports 

 of the country. 



On the morning of the 20th of - — — , the quiet 



little village of M d was roused from its usual 



repose by the arrival of Mr. V — — 's fox-hounds. 

 " The horn sonorous calls" — and the inhabitants 

 rush out to welcome — not the eighteen or twenty 

 couples selected, as in England, for a day's sport ; 

 not " the many- colour' d hounds in all their beau- 

 ty's pride," with the gay cortege of pink coats, 

 mounted on the satin-coated, racing-like hunters 

 of the Saxon ; but — tell it not at Quorn, publish 

 it not in the streets] of Melton — nine aboriginal 

 specimens of the Welsh harrier_ honoured by the 



