SALMON-SPEARING 



Hei mihi prceteritum tempus ! That is, the past 

 time when new Fishery Laws did not forbid, and 

 we young sportsmen might combat the salmon in 

 his own element, armed, like the Eetiarius, with a 

 trident, but, unlike him, without a net. Ill-omened 

 word ! is it not to thee that the interdict is owing ? 

 — blockading the mouth of every river with thy 

 cowardly meshes, only withdrawn for the barest 

 minimum of hours out of the twenty-four to give 

 free passage to the home-sick fish and lusty grilse 

 to re-seek the dear old pools of his birth. For the 

 grace now extended, and the check put upon the 

 rapacious suppliers of Billingsgate and Leadenhall, 

 we shall ever be grateful to the Commissioners, even 

 though the same powers that have removed the 

 stake-nets have prohibited the use of the spear, 

 whose operation, as numbered amongst the things 

 past, we purpose to record. 



And first for the science of the sport. Salmon- 

 spearing, as we used to perform it, was of two kinds. 

 First, that by day ; second, that by night. For the 



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