REASONS FOR THE DECEEASE OF SALMON. 287 



at weirs (by which the fish are stopped and gathered 

 together in shoals) and elsewhere, much too numerous 

 to mention, for the ingenuity of man has been racked 

 to discover and adapt them to the work in the most 

 murderous fashions. We had, and have even now iu 

 very many places, also fixed erections, some of brush 

 faggots, wattled stakes, and other materials, extending 

 across the stream as far as may be practicable, against 

 which the salmon in its upward progress strikes ; and 

 when seeking to pass beyond the obstruction on the out- 

 side, they become entangled in a bag, or in a maze of 

 chambers, ending in a species of trap similar to an eel or 

 a funnel-mouthed mouse-trap, from which there is prac- 

 tically no escape. We have stages and ranges of baskets, 

 like large wicker eel-pots, into which the fish readily 

 passes, and from which, when they are perfectly adapted, 

 nothing even of shrimp size can escape alive.^ We have 

 cruives ; and here I must explain, for the benefit of the 

 general reader, what cruives are. 



A weir is first erected, either entirely across the river 

 or such portion as may be fishable, and over this the 

 salmon cannot pass. In this weir are left certain gaps, 

 through which the stream flows : in these gaps are fixed 

 the cruives or traps. The cruives are composed of wooden 

 bars in frames : these are called hecks or haicks. The 



' Models of all these machines belonging to the Association for 

 the Preservation of the Fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland can 

 be seen at the South Kensington Museum. These models were 

 exhibited at the International Exhibition, where they formed a 

 ■very attractive and instructive spectacle. 



