472 SALMON AND TROUT. 
also that poaching is systematically practised, as the fish are 
to be found in shallower water, when a slight knowledge by the 
poacher of the habits of trout will enable him to take almost as 
many fish as he wants. Greater loss occurs at this than at any 
other season, as not only the parent fish, but all their offspring 
are destroyed. Spawning grounds should be watched night~ 
and day, and good solid obstructions should be so placed in 
the river as to be effectual in preventing the working of nets. 
Hatches, or water-gates, frequently leave no place for fish to 
hide, and if the poacher knows his business (as most of them 
do) he has only to shut down the gate, and the pool runs all 
but dry in a few minutes; the poacher pockets the fish, opens the 
gate, and takes his departure’as quickly and quietly as he can, 
returning the next night probably to find another good haul 
of fish. Proprietors of streams, and also their keepers, are 
not always judicious in their attempts to ‘secure’ the fish to 
their own part of the water. 
Weeds, instead of being ruthlessly eradicated, as is too fre- 
quently the custom, should be judiciously retained. With the 
wholesale destruction of weed goes the principal part of the 
fishes’ food, and often the only hiding places the river affords. 
A stream is sometimes cleared of weed so entirely as to 
resemble a well-kept carriage drive. The trout naturally seek 
a more secluded part of the water, and will no more remain 
where there is no cover, than would pheasants. If they stay, 
they become shy feeders, and as soon as one fish is startled by 
a footstep on the bank, he seems to communicaté the alarm to 
others, as if by electricity, and the whole rush wildly up and 
down stream, causing mimic waves in the river for a hundred 
yards or more. 
A certain number of fish are thus ‘preserved’ to the river, 
as the angler has not the slightest chance of getting within cast 
of them. The proprietor’s wish of course is, that persons who 
have permission to fish should have fair sport: the fault lies 
principally with the millers and keepers, who find it easier to 
set a few men to clear the weeds right out, than to superintend 
