126 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
dations of the poachers for a while, as these, 
being large, take long to knit. For narrower 
streams, pretty much the same method as that 
indicated above is used, only the net is smaller, 
and to it are attached two poles. The method of 
working this is precisely similar to that of the 
last. 
A species of poaching, which the older 
hands rarely go in for, is that of poisoning. 
Chloride of lime is the agent most in use, as it 
does not injure the edible parts. This is thrown 
into the river where fish are known to lie, and 
its deadly influence is soon seen. The fish be- 
come poisoned and weakened, and soon float 
belly uppermost, This at once renders them 
conspicuous, and, as they are on the surface of 
the stream, they are simply lifted out of the water 
with a landing-net. This is a most wholesale 
and cowardly method, as it frequently poisons the 
fish for miles down-stream; it not only kills 
the larger fish, but destroys great quantities of 
immature ones, which are wholly unfit for food. 
Trout which come by their death in this way 
have the usually pink parts of a dull white, with 
the eyes and gills of the same colour, and covered 
with a thin, white film. This substance is much 
used in mills on the banks of trout-streams, 
and probably more fish are destroyed by this kind 
