EEASONS rOE THE DECREASE OP SALMON. 289 



■what is called " the Saturday slop," when for a certain 

 period, embracing the Sunday, the whole of the traps 

 were thrown open, so that a perfectly free passage should 

 be left. These arrangements, being properly and fairly 

 enforced, always permitted a sufficient number of fish to 

 run up to stock the river. It might, however, be neces- 

 sary in the present day, as our fisheries are so much 

 reduced, and the nets have much increased, and the 

 drainage has so much altered the duration of floods, to 

 enlarge the gap somewhat, and to lengthen the duration 

 of the " Saturday slop " (at any rate for a time^), in order 

 that a larger number of fish might be permitted to run 

 up, that the rivers might be the quicker and better re- 

 stocked, as has been done in the English Salmon Lav. 



Lastly, we had and have in far too many places still 

 those most destructive engines of all, called stake and bag- 

 nets. The first of these is a net of a certain depth, ex- 

 tending vertically upon stakes, and ending like the brush- 

 weir, in a maze of chambers. These stakes are carried 

 out as far as the shore and depth of water will permit ; 

 and if the stake-nets be not destructive enough, beyond 

 this, a net is often carried out a great distance farther by 

 means of floating leaders and anchors, and is called a bag- 

 net. These nets are set at right angles, or at a more suit- 

 able angle to the shore, and all fish seeking the rivers along 

 the coast must strike against them. A great many fish are 

 thus taken, and others are driven out to sea ; and as these 



1 This has since been done. By the new Scotch Law, the " Satur- 

 day slop" is extended to thirty-six hours. The English, however, 

 is forty-two hours, and the Irish forty-eight hours. 



