no MAKING A FISHERY. 



has been thoroughly dragged it is good policy 

 to discover what number of trout have been 

 taken. As a rule, however, it will be found 

 that no accurate record has been kept, but that 

 the number taken has been approximately esti- 

 mated. It is safe to infer that this estimate is 

 greatly in excess of the actual number ; so 

 much so, that no adequate idea can be arrived 

 at by the deduction of any percentage. It may 

 be safely asserted that, provided the work is 

 properly done with three nets as described 

 herein, a small proportion will have been cap- 

 tured. It is also safe to infer that the pro- 

 portion of trout escaping the nets will have been 

 larger than that of the pike. 

 Netting dace. Of all fish that are usually present in any 

 number in the ordinary run of chalk streams, 

 dace are the most difficult to catch. When the 

 three nets are comparatively close together, 

 and a shoal of large dace can be seen between 

 the lower drag net and the stop net, it looks 

 like a certainty, and yet when hauled the result 

 will often be only two or three fish. How they 

 get away is sometimes a mystery, although of 

 course the small ones can pass through any but 

 the very finest mesh. They keep together 

 in a shoal, swimming backwards and forwards 

 in the ever-decreasing area between the nets. 

 Presently one finds a hole in the net, or a space 



