WELL.MENDED KELTS. 131 



season, should be subject to a heavy penalty. I 

 think, even in the case of spent fish, which invari- 

 ably make sad havoc among smolts, and are nothing 

 more or less than fresh-water sharks, that it would 

 be wise to allow anglers to capture them after a cer- 

 tain date, say the 25th of April. If these sugges- 

 tions should meet with favourable consideration, 

 and my views adopted, magistrates would have a 

 very plain and easy duty to perform when offenders 

 are brought before them, and there would be less 

 risk of the ends of justice being defeated than at 

 present. The consequence would be that we should 

 hear no more of the question touching unclean and 

 unseasonable salmon, of which, I feel certain, that 

 anglers in general, and magistrates in particular, are 

 heartily sick. 



WELL-MENDED KELTS. 



What is a well-mended kelt ? is a question I have 

 often heard asked ; but it appears that no one has as 



K 2 



