540 
were almost always attached, caused great injury and obstruction to 
the run of salmon ; and the Severn had been specially injured by 
the erection, within a few years, of large weirs for navigation pur- 
poses, which not only prevented salmon running freely, but com- 
pletely prevented access to flounders and all the smaller migratory 
fish which ascended for the purpose of spawning ; such as shad, lam- 
prey, lampern, &c. &c. These all yielded a considerable revenue 
and food for the population, and were taken 100 miles above tide- 
way. They are all now entirely shut out. 
The Severn and Wye have been for a long period, and still con- 
tinue to be, fished by peculiar engines, which, in all probability, 
may soon be entirely done away with, or be much modified in struc- 
ture ; a record of these is therefore interesting. Those used in the 
Severn are putts and putchers, or trumpets, as the latter are 
termed from their shape; and they form in that river by far the 
most extensive salmon-fishery by means of fixed engines in any 
part of the English or Welsh waters. 
Putchers or trumpets are long, conical, wicker-work baskets with 
a mouth two feet wide, gradually narrowing, and ending in an open- 
ing so small as to prevent a fish of moderate size passing through. 
This, indeed, is frequently abused, and some are made so small as 
to take fish of two pounds weight. The stake or framework for 
these engines is about thirteen or fourteen feet high, and is fixed 
into the shore in two parallel rows of various lengths from high- 
water mark seaward. These are bound together by cross bars, on 
which rest the putchers , placed one above another in rows, with the 
wide mouth up or down stream, as they are intended to catch fish 
upon the ebb or flow of the tide. The greatest number are set 
with the mouth up the river, or to the stream ; the salmon falling 
down with the current enter the large mouth, and are literally 
jammed in the narrow end, which admits the head only, and holds 
the fish secure. They are thus often much injured, and rendered 
unseemly for the market by the scales being rubbed off in the 
struggles to escape, and no unclean, unseasonable, or old fish that 
enters can again escape or be let out alive. The tide in the Severn 
rises to a great perpendicular height, often exceeding twenty feet 
above the top of the putcher stages ; and it is considered that com- 
paratively few salmon are taken during the flow, the fish swimming 
near the surface, and above the mouths of the putchers, as soon as 
