THE FISH-POACHER. 125 
During summer and when the water becomes 
low, the fish congregate in deep “dubs.” This 
they do for protection, and if overhung with trees 
there is here always abundance of food. If a 
poacher intends to net a ‘“dub,” he carefully 
examines every inch of its bottom beforehand. 
If it has been thorned, he carefully removes 
these—small thorn-bushes with stones attached, 
thrown in by the watchers to entangle the 
poachers’ nets, and so allow the fish to escape. 
At night the poacher comes, unrolls his long net 
on the pebbles, and then commences operations 
at the bottom of the river reach. The net is 
dragged by a man at each side, a third wading 
after to lift it over the stakes, and so prevent 
the fish from escaping. When the end of the 
pool is reached, the trout are simply drawn out 
upon the pebbles. This is repeated through the 
night until half-a-dozen pools are netted, and, 
maybe, depopulated of their fish. 
Netting of this description is a wholesale 
method of destruction, always supposing that the 
poachers are allowed their own time. It requires 
to be done slowly, however, and, if alarmed, they 
can do nothing but abandon their net and run, 
This is necessarily large, and when thoroughly 
wet is a most cumbersome thing and exceedingly 
heavy. The capturing of a net stops the depre- 
