392 



COMMON SALMON. Class IV. 



half from Coleraine. When I made the tour of 

 that hospitable kingdom in 1754, it was rented 

 by a neighboring gentleman for 620/. a year, 

 who assured me that the tenant, his predeces- 

 sor, gave 1600/. per ann. and was a much great- 

 er gainer by the bargain for the reasons before- 

 mentioned, and on account of the number of 

 poachers who destroy the fish in the fence 

 months. The mouth of the Ban faces the north, 

 and is finely situated to receive the fishes that 

 roam along the coast, in search of an inlet into 

 some fresh water, as they do all along that end 

 of the kingdom which opposes itself to the north- 

 ern ocean. We have seen near Ballycastle, nets 

 placed in the sea at the foot of the promontories 

 that jut into it, which the salmon strike into as 

 they are wandering close to shore, and numbers 

 are taken by that method. 



In the Ban they fish with nets eighteen score 

 yards long, and are continually drawing night 

 and day during the whole season, which we think 

 lasts about four months, two sets, of sixteen men 

 each, alternately relievins; one another. The 

 best draught is when the tide is coming in : we 

 were told that at a single one there were once 

 eight hundred and forty fishes taken. A few 

 miles higher up the river is a wear, where a con- 

 siderable number of fishes that escape the nets 



