236 
MALACOPTERYGII. — SALMONID^. 
are carefully landed ; and five hundred Salmon 
have been taken at a single haul. 
If the season be favourable from the 1st of 
July to the 12th of August^ the daily average 
may be five hundred Salmon, besides an immense 
quantity of white Trout. But should the weather 
be rainy or tempestuous, the Salmon forsake the 
estuary and remain at sea till it clears ; so that 
the time limited by law sometimes elapses before 
a moiety of the fish can be secured. 
Through the winter months the Salmon rises 
freely at the fiy; but the diminution of vigour 
and energy in the fish affords very inferior sport. 
Their beauty and their value too are gone. They 
are now reddish, dull, dark-spotted, perch-coloured 
fish, and seem a different species from the spark- 
ling, silvery creatures we saw them when they 
first left the sea. As an esculent they are utterly 
worthless, — soft, flabby, and flavourless if brought 
to table : — instead of the delicate pink hue they 
exhibited when in condition, they present a sickly, 
unhealthy, white appearance, that betrays how 
complete the change is that they have recently 
undergone. 
And yet at this period they suffer most from 
night-fishers. This species of poaching is as dif- 
ficult to detect, as it is ruinous in its consequences. 
It is believed that the destruction of a few breed- 
ing fish may cost the proprietor a thousand.” 
Night-fishing is prosecuted when the river is 
low and the night moonless. The poacher, armed 
with a gaff and carrying a torch, selects the gra- 
velly shallows, where he may see the fish deposit- 
ing its spawn ; he readily discovers them with the 
torch, and secures them with the gaff. Hundreds 
