290 APPENDIX. 



implements are usually employed near the mouths of 

 rivers, the few fish which are not taken are driven from the 

 river which they are seeking, and are, in all probability, 

 put past the mouth of the river altogether; and When 

 they again draw in to the shore for the purpose of entering 

 the river, probably heavy in spawn, they come against some 

 other net on the other side of their river, and if they have 

 again the good luck to escape the maze of chambers, they 

 are driven out to sea again ; and thus they are kept in the 

 sea for weeks and weeks over their natural time, a prey to 

 the seals, sharks, and other predaceous animals, which al- 

 ways'swarm near stake-nets, and during the residence of the 

 salmon in the salt-water, take heavy and incessant toll of 

 them. Such is the voracity and determination of the 

 seal in pursuit of salmon, that they will rob the nets in 

 the very face of the fishermen ; and the destruction thus 

 caused, and the number of salmon yearly lost to the con- 

 sumer, from the fish being kept in the salt-water for an 

 undue length of time, is something enormous in the total ; 

 and if they spawn it is in the tidal part of the river, 

 probably in brackish or deep water, or in some other spot 

 quite unsuited to the development of the ova, and thus 

 the spawning is lost. 



Some of these nets have seven or eight heads or sets of 

 chambers, and extend out from the shore for nearly a 

 mile. One of the most destructive species of mischief 

 caused by them, where they are set near the mouths of 

 rivers, is the enormous number of salmon-fry or smolts 

 which they kill. Jammed together in masses of wrack 

 and searweed, thousands on thousands are sacrificed in a 



