60 MAKING A FISHERY. 



to the bed of the river from bank to bank, from 

 the top of the water to the lowest boundary, and 

 in every tributary, carrier, and ditch. Much 

 of this can be done effectually by the chain 

 scythe, and it is more economical to employ a 

 sufficient number of labourers and get the work 

 finished off at once than to have one or two men 

 pottering about for months and making the job 

 last as long as possible. 

 Cut weeds. When the weeds have been cut, the question 



will arise as to what is to be done with the 

 masses of floating vegetation which accumulate 

 at the hatches and cover a considerable distance 

 of the water above them. The usual custom is 

 to open the hatches wide and let them drift 

 down with the current, some lodging on or 

 against any obstruction with which they may be 

 brought in contact, some being carried by the 

 flow of the water into stagnant places where 

 they remain, or into eddies where they are kept 

 slowly gyrating until carried away by a rise of 

 water, and the remainder gradually finding 

 their way down to the next set of hatches 

 in the river. Meanwhile all these weeds are 

 gradually decaying, polluting the air, poison- 

 ing the water, and filling the slow deep por- 

 tions of the river with foul-smelling mud, the 

 ultimate solid residuum of decomposed vegetable 

 matter. 



