THE LIFE-HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 289 



series of legitimate trammel-nets and of poaching devices, 

 especially at weirs ; the attacks of Seals at the estuary and 

 of Otters higher up, and the use of trained Dogs which 

 endeavour to drive it into nets, and nothing terrifies a Salmon 

 more than a Dog. Thus when the water was turned aside from 

 a pass for examination on an Irish river, a Salmon of about 

 20 lb. floundered amongst the water in the shallows, and a 

 terrier rushed at it, causing the fish in frantic terror to dash 

 itself hither and thither until it gained a pool of some depth, 

 where it lay alongside and parallel with the concrete wall in 

 perfect quietude, permitting the point of a stick to rest on its 

 back rather than move from its shelter and run the risk of 

 meeting its enemy. 



In former days before the syndicate took the fishings of the 

 river Tay into their hands, one might well have doubts as to 

 the safety of a sufficient number of fishes to stock the river. 

 Thus, on looking down from Kinnoull Hill during the season, 

 each bank of the river was dotted with the little huts for the 

 fishermen, and the coble, as a black speck, pushed out every- 

 where into the stream — now from this bank and again from the 

 other — the ripple of the boats' wake concealing the gradual 

 falling of the net. The convexity of the boat's course, which 

 was in the form of a loop, was directed downward (toward the 

 mouth of the river) during ebb-tide, and the reverse during the 

 flow of the tide. One end of the net was fastened to the boat, 

 the other on shore to a stationary windlass, by which, at the end 

 of the loop formed by the boat, the net was drawn to the bank, 

 and the fishes removed from the bag or trap of the net and 

 killed by blows from a stick. Now all this is changed, and the 

 reduction of the number of the fishing stations has been found 

 to be no disadvantage financially, though the lively and 

 picturesque features of old can no more be seen. Yet, if the 

 Salmon is persecuted by stake and bag-nets, by trawlers and by 

 trammel-nets in the sea, it is pursued with tenfold avidity in 

 fresh waters legitimately by nets of various kinds, sometimes 

 with the aid of Dogs, by traps termed " cruives " in dam-dykes 

 (now, it is to be hoped, almost in abeyance), by spears, and 

 by anglers. 



It was formerly held, and with good reason, that early or 



