The smouts descend during the months of time, when they set the water of the wheel, March, April, May, and June. Mr. Halliday through the side-sluice; there have been so many states, From the first time that I have observed taken on some of the mills on the Annan, that them, about the end of March or beginning of sometimes they have fed their pigs with them;' April, they come down until about the 10th or p. 67. The dam-dikes conduct the fry, wher 12th of May. I have seen them in the middle coming down the water, into the mill-dam, of May, and as late as June, in a particularly and when night comes on they do not see, dry season, when the river had not been flooded;' and they seek their way down the dam, and so p. 63. Mr. Wilson says, I think they com- they go into the miller's heck or basket and mence going down about the end of April, and are all taken;' p. 67. Mr. Little adds, ‘They finish going down about May;' p. 10. James are very destructive to the fry when they come Sime, in his deposition in the Tay case, 'believes down the river; they take amazing quantities as that the fry goes down the river in the month of the fry go down; in dry seasons, when the waters April;' p. 93. Mr. Little declares, that they are little, there is no other way for the fry to get are principally out of the river early in May;' p. down the little rivers than by going down the 115. Mr. Johnstone says, 'They have generally mill-lead; in fact, they can take all the fry that reached the sea in the month of May. Some there are in the river at those mills. I have seen reach it in June; a few;' p. 36. While the fry the water black in these mill-leads with fry, seekare in the act of descending to the sea, they are ing down to the sea. I know they take the fry exposed to many enemies, of which the following in Ireland, and cure them like herrings;' p. 118. are the most destructive : A. Coble-nets. As these engines, according to the present practice, are in active operation during the period of the descent of the fry to the sea, we may expect such statements as the following. Mr. Johnstone says, that smouts cannot pass through the coble-net, if there be much dirt in it; and sometimes, particularly when there is a number of them, they get broadside on; in particular when there are salmon in the net, they prevent the fry from going through so easily; and the net is loose and not extended, more especially when near the edge of the water;' p. 40. Mr. Halliday says, 'I have dragged a number of them on shore with the coble-nets.' 'I have dragged them ashore at the Howe's Pool, on the river Annon; in the Bridge Pool at the bridge of Annon, when the boys used to gather them up; and at the Old Mill Pool I have hauled out a good many;' p. 66. B. Angling. At first sight one might suppose that the angler was an enemy of but feeble destructive powers. But it appears to be otherwise in fact. Mr. Wilson says, 'I have seen from my own window upwards of seventy or eighty people angling within the distance of half a mile on the Tweed;' p. 15. Mr. Halliday declares, I have killed above twenty dozen with the rod in one day;' p. 62. Mr. Little says, 'I have killed twenty or thirty dozen of fry, when coming from the school at Annan to Newby, in half an hour, with a rod in an afternoon,' p. 121; and he adds, I have known even boys and children go and kill, in the course of an afternoon, twenty, thirty, or forty dozen ;' p. 132. C. Mill-races.-Mr. Johnstone says, 'I have seen hundreds of them lying dead at the botom of a mill-race, killed by the wheel.' -I have seen them in thousands, and tens of thousands, in the water in the mill-leads, seeking to go down, but prevented by the dike across the river, which they could not get over;' p. 40-41. Mr. Halliday states, I have seen the miller taking out his creel in the morning at the Newby mill, and taking baskets full out of it; and I have seen great quantities lying dead in the dam behind the mill-wheel in the morning; I have also known the miller to put in a heck in the small side sluice, by which means great quantities are destroyed in the night D. Eel-weirs.-Mr. Little says, 'In Ireland the eel-fishery is very hurtful to the salmon fisheries. The eels are caught by weirs, set in the river for taking the eels going down to the sea; the eel-weirs are made of stake and wicker work, drawn together towards the centre, and the net, which is like a bag, is hung at the centre; the proper season of the eel-fishery is in the months of September, October, and November, when the eels are going down to the sea to spawn; but those who have eel-weirs place their nets in the river at the time the salmon-fry are going down; they do this under the pretence of catching eels, but really to catch the salmon fry, which they catch and salt in some places in great quantities;' p. 118. It has been alleged that stake-nets in estuaries and on the sea-shore are destructive to the salmon fry, and various questions are proposed by the committee, with the view of eliciting the truth. The answers and documents produced, however, demonstrate that there is little foundation for the charge. In reference to the Tay, Mr. Johnstone declares that he never' saw a smout in a stake-net; p. 43. Of the presence of such in stake-nets, Mr. Halliday also says, 'never; and they could not be there without being seen by me; it was impossible;' p. 70. Mr. Little declares, 'A stakenet neither injures the breeding fish, nor does it destroy the spawn of the salmon or the fry; I speak from having attended those nets, and never having seen any salmon-fry in them;' p. 122. Mr. Sime, and Mr. Shepherd, who surveyed the stake-nets on purpose, during the Tay case, never found in any of them any salmon-fry; p. 9293. They are not even taken by the spirlin-nets, which have a small mesh. In fact, not only are the stake-nets innocent of the charge of catching the fry, but even the coble-net in the estuary can do them no harm, as they are beyond its reach in the deep water. Hence Mr. Sime and Mr. Shepherd, though fishing with a small-meshed net on purpose both in the eddy water and in the stream, found none after the fry had reached the tide, ib. The period of the return of the fry from the sea, seems not well determined; and, on this interesting subject, the evidence is very imperfect. Mr. Wilson seems to think that, as grilse, they return again at the end of June and the com mencement of July. Perhaps from the end of June they will average three pounds, and at the end of July about four or five pounds;' p. 10. Mr. Halliday says, I think we do not see them again from the time they leave the river as fry, until the next year, early in the spring, when they begin to return to the rivers young salmon;' p. 87. Mr. Little says, I consider that what we call the fry that go down in the early part of the season, if they are allowed to go down to the sea, return the same year; and that we kill them from three to nine or ten pounds weight; p. 111. The witnesses seem generally to agree with the prevailing opinion, That the salmon fisheries in the kingdom are rapidly decreasing in value, owing to the increasing scarcity of fish.' But the importance which should be attached to this evidence, will be estimated differently according to the judgment of the reader. Mr. Wilson communicates a statement of the number of boxes of fish shipped from the Tweed, or rather for the first thirteen miles from its mouth, from the year 1796 to 1823. In this table we perceive the very great fluctuations of the fisheries, depending on the seasons: the years 1796 and 1815 were as 9-338 to 9-382 boxes; yet 1776 was to 1797 as 9-338 to 12-665 boxes; and 1815 was to 1816 as 9-382 to 11:471. The year 1803 is less than 1819, and 1809 than 1819 or 1821, and but a little higher than 1822 or 1823. The box of salmon previous to 1816 contained six and a half stones of fish; since that period it contains eight and twelve stones. In this table the consumption of the neighbourhood, or what is sent to a distance by carriers and coaches is not noticed. Hence the table is useless as an index of the actual productiveness of the Tweed, though it may serve to illustrate the character of the exports of Berwick. Mr. Bell says that, in all parts of the Tay, the fisheries have decreased, but no statement is produced, p. 20. J. Proudfoot says, In 1815, 1816, 1817, and 1818, it was a tolerable fishery, and the year 1819 was rather inferior with me; perhaps it might not be less with some; and since 1820 we have had regular bad years successively.' But in reference to the influence of the seasons in producing these changes, he says, for the last two years they have not been so good,' p. 26. In reference to the fishery in 1824, of May, compared with the corresponding period in 1823, he says, 'I believe that this season there are more fish caught in the Tay, as yet, than last season,' p. 33. There is a statement given by Mr. Little, of the relative produce of his Irish fisheries, from the year 1808 to 1823 we shall give a few examples of intervals of ten years. The produce in tons of fish was at the Bann in 1808 and 1818, as 76 to 70; m 1809 to 1819, as 80 to 82; in 1812 to 1822, as 65 to 31; in 1813 to 1823, as 47 to 52. In the Bush fishery 1808 is to 1818, as 16 to 12; 1809 to 1819, as 9 to 12; in 1812 to 1822, as 8 to 8; and in 1813 to 1823, as 7 to 14; in the Foyle, 1808 is to 1818 as 37 to 44; 1809 to 1819 as 36 to 58; 1812 to 1822, as 48 to 57; 1813 to 1823, as 35 to 50.-Evidence, p. 106. The evidence in this Report shows that poaching operations are carried on both night and day, occasionally under the very windows of the houses of our nobility, the Castles of Duplin and Kinfauns, and the Palace of Scoon. Where this has been prevented, as it seems to have been done in the Moy at Ballina, Mr. Little declares, I consider that they had no protection for some years previous to 1816; by that protection it has risen from six tons to an average of sixty tons in a season;' p. 106. The same witness adds, "The Dublin market is just as regularly supplied with salmon during the close-season, as it is at any season of the year;' p. 116. How far these facts bear out Sir H. Davy in his assertion, that the great northern fisheries, and the Irish fisheries, are much less productive than formerly' (p. 145), the reader must determine. But if we believe the opinion of Mr. Little, in reference to the Solway, to be true, and extend it, as supported by the preceding evidence, to all the other great fisheries, I believe I can prove, from the dealers in salmon in the neighbourhood of the Solway Frith, that there were more killed in these nets by poachers, during the winter season of last year, than were killed during the proper season for killing salmon;' then must we conclude that salmon are as abundant as ever, but poachers now enjoy a greater share than formerly, to the injury of the legal fisher. The natural foes of salmon are limited in the evidence to seals and grampuses. In regard to the seals, Mr. Johnstone says, I have often counted between fifty and sixty seals that lie a little from my house summer and winter.' That they feed on salmon is ascertained. 'I have seen them chasing, catching, and eating them ;' p. 47. Mr. Halliday says, I have observed from sixty to eighty seals in one flock, and I have seen three or four flocks within my view at Balmerino;' p. 74. Since the removal of the stake-nets these depredators have increased; p. 47, 75. Mr. Little states, that there are few seals in the Solway (where there are stake-nets), but that they are numerous in Ireland. The grampuses are in all the sea-coasts around Scotland and Ireland. It is indeed probable that, in the United Kingdom Seas, grampuses devour many more salmon than the inhabitants. Mr. Halliday says, 'Since the lands have been so much drained, the rivers fall in so fast, that fish cannot get up to the higher parts of the river so freely as formerly,' p. 82; and Mr. Little says, 'I consider that the draining of the land in Scotland has been as injurious to the fishings as the liming of it. Formerly the small waters, in consequence of the rains remaining long in the land and in the marshes, were a length of time in rising and falling; now they get up very rapidly, and fall very rapidly. The salmon, when they go up those little rivers to breed, deposit their spawn; and, at a season of the year when the spawn ought to rise from the gravel, it is left dry;' p. 117. SECT. VIII.-OF THE TURBOT FISHERY. The Dutch seem to excel both the English and Scotch in the turbot fishery; which is chiefly conducted on the Broadfourteen's bank, and in the neighbourhood of Heligoland, from the beginning of April to the middle of August. The mode of taking the fish is this:-At the beginning of the season, the drag-net is used, which, being drawn along the banks, brings up various kinds of flat fish, as soles, plaice, thornbacks, and turbots; but, when the warm weather has driven the fish into deeper water, and upon banks of a rougher surface, where the drag-net is no longer practicable, the fishermen have then recourse to the hook and line. Each line extends from one to nearly three miles in length, and is armed with 600, 700, or 800, hooks, fixed to it at the distance of several yards from each other. To keep these long lines properly stretched, and prevent their being carried away by the tide, lead is used or small anchors. The Dutch are said to supply turbot to the value of £80,000 per annum to the London market. It having been said that the English salt does not answer for curing fish, so well as that of St. Ube's, St. Martin's, and Oleron; and that foreign salt is generally preferred for that purpose in the West of England; Dr. Henry, of Manchester, examined in 1809 the comparative strength and purity of British and foreign salt, and the result of his investigation has proved, that the quantity of pure muriate of soda contained in the large grained fishery salt of Cheshire, is considerably more than what exists in the celebrated salt of Oleron, which is the strongest of the foreign salts; and that the proportion of sulphate and muriate of magnesia is ten times, and of other impurities in foreign salt, three times as much, as in the Cheshire salt. An account of this analysis was read before the Royal Society, in January 1810, and published at Liverpool, in 1811. Dr. Henry's Table of the result of his experiments is so curious that we here insert it. FISHING, RIGHT OF. It has been held, that where the lord of the manor hath the soil on both sides of the river, it is a good evidence that he hath right of fishing; and it puts the proof upon him who claims liberam piscariam; but, where a river ebbs and flows, and is an arm of the sea, there it is common to all, and he who claims a privilege to himself, must prove it; for if the trespass is brought for fishing there, the defendant may justify, that the place is brachium maris, in quo unusquisque subditus domini regis habet et habere debet liberam piscariam. In the Severn the soil belongs to the owners of the land on each side; and the soil of the river Thames is in the king, but the fishing is common to all. He who is owner of the soil of a private river, hath separata piscaria; and he that hath libera piscaria, hath a property in the fish, and may bring a possessory action for them; but communis piscaria is like the case of all other commons. One that has a close pond, in which there are fish, may call them pisces suos, in an indictinent, &c., but he cannot call them bona et catalla, if they be not in trunks. There needs no privilege to make a fish-pond, as there doth in the case of a warren. See FRANCHISE. FISHING-FLY, a bait used in angling for divers kinds of fish. Of the artificial fly there are reckoned no fewer than twelve sorts, of which the following are the principal:-1. For March, the dun fly, made of dun wool, and the feathers of the partridge's wing; or the body made of black wool, and the feathers of a black drake. 2. For April, the stone-fly: the body made of black wood, dyed yellow under the wings and tail. 3. For the beginning of May, the ruddy fly; made of red wool, and bound about with black silk, with the feathers of a black capon hanging dangling on his sides next his tail. For June, the greenish fly; the body made of black wool, with a yellow list on either side, the wings taken off the wings of a buzzard, bound with black broken hemp. 5. The moorish fly, the body made of duskish wool, and the wings of the blackish mail of a drake. 6. The tawny 4. fly, good till the middle of June: the body made of tawny wool, and the wings made to stand contrary, one against the other, of the whitish mail of a white drake. 7. For July, the wasp Hy; the body made of black wool, cast about with yellow silk, and the wings of drakes' feathers. 8. The steel fly; proper in the middle of July; the body made with greenish wool, cast about with the feathers of a peacock's tail, and the wings made of those of the buzzard. 9. For August, the drake fly; the body made with black wool cast about with black silk; the wings of the mail of a black drake, with a black head. The best rules for fishing with the artificial fly are: To fish in a river somewhat disturbed with rain: or in a cloudy day, when the waters are moved by a gentle breeze; the south wind is best; and if the wind blow high, yet not so but that you may conveniently guard your tackle; the fish will rise in plain deeps; but, if the wind be small, the best angling is in swift streams. Keep as far from the water-side as may be; fish down the stream with the sun at your back, and touch not the water with your line. Always angle in clear rivers, with a small fly and slender wings; but in muddy places, use a larger. When, after rain, the water becomes brownish, use an orange fly; in a clear day, a light colored fly; a dark fly for dark waters, &c. Let the line be twice as long as the rod, unless the river be encumbered with wood. For every sort of fly, have several of the same, differing in color, to suit with the different complexions of several waters and weathers. Let the fly fall first into the water, and not the line, which will scare the fish. In slow rivers, or still places, cast the fly across the river, and let it sink a little in the water, and draw it gently back with the current. Flies for salmon should be made with their wings standing one behind the other, whether two or four. This fish delights in the gaudiest colors that can be; chiefly in the wings, which must be long, as well as the tail. FISHING-FLOATS are little appendages to the line, serving to keep the hook and bait suspended at the proper depth, to discover when the fish has hold of them, &c. Of these there are divers kinds; some made of Muscovy duck quills, which are the best for slow waters; but, for strong streams, sound cork, without flaws or holes, bored through with a hot iron, into which is put a quill of exact proportion, is preferable: pare the cork to a pyramidal form, and make it smooth. FISHING-FROG. See LOPHIUS. FISHING-HOOK, a small instrument made of steel wire, of a bent form, to catch and retain fish. The fishing-hook, in general, ought to be long in the shank, somewhat thick in the circumference, the point even and straight. The bend should be in the shank. For setting the hook on, use strong, but small silk, laying the hair on the inside of your hook; for if it be on the outside, the silk will fret and cut it asunder. There are several sizes of fishing-hooks, some big, some little, and of these some have peculiar names; as, 1. Single hooks. 2. Double hooks, which have two bendings, one contrary to the other. 3. Snappers, or gorgers, which are the hooks to whip the artificial fly upon, or bait with the natural fly. 4. Springers, or spring hooks; a kind of double hooks, with a spring which flies open upon being struck into any fish, and so keeps its mouth open. FISHING-LINE, a line made either of hair twisted, or silk; or the Indian grass. The best colors are the sorrel, white, and gray; the two last for clear waters, the first for muddy ones. The pale watery green color is given artificially, by steeping the hair in a liquor made of alum, soot, and the juice of walnut-leaves, boiled together. FISHING-ROD, a long slender rod or wand, to which the line is fastened, for angling. Of these there are several sorts; as, 1. A troller, or trolling rod, which has a ring at the end of the rod, for the line to go through when it runs off a reel. 2. A whipper, or whipping rod; a top rod, that is weak in the middle, and top heavy, but all slender and fine. 3. A dropper, which is a strong rod, and very light. 4. A snapper, or snap rod, which is a strong pole, peculiarly used for the pike. 5 A bottom rod; being the same as the dropper, but somewhat more pliable. FISHGUARD, a sea-port town and borougn in the hundred of Cemmaes and the county of Pembroke, South Wales, situated on the estuaries of the river Gwayne. Its public buildings are the parish church, baptist and methodist chapels. Goods are exposed for sale in a spacious market place. Accommodation is afforded to travellers and visitors at several good inns; and many well stocked shops enclose the principal trading streets. The quay presents a scene of constant bustle and activity. Upwards of 100 vessels claim this port as their home, and the building and repairing of vessels affords a profitable occupation here at all times. The principal exports are butter, oats, barley; and the imports consist of coal, culm, hardware, &c. There is a never-failing fishing ground outside the harbour, where boats from distant ports take turbot and John Dory. The salmon and herring fisheries here are also profitable. There is a chalybeate spring adjacent to the town. In the year 1797, the French made a descent on the coast near this place, but fell into the power of Lord Caudorf. In 1832, Fishguard and Narbeth were made contributary to Haverfordwest in returning one member to parliament. FIS'SILE, adj. Latin fissilis, fissura, FISSILITY, ns. from findo, to cleave. FIS'SURE, n. s. & adj. Easy to cleave; fissility is the quality of admitting to be cloven: fissure, a cleft made; a narrow chasm or breach. FISSURE OF A BONE, in surgery, is when it is divided either transversely or longitudinally, not quite through, but cracked after the manner of glass, by any external force. See SURGERY. FIST, n. s. & v. a. Į Sax. Fyrt; Goth. fast FIST'ICUFFS. Teut. faust; i. e. the hand in a fast or closed state. The hand clenched either to strike or hold: as a verb, to strike or grasp with the fist: fisticuffs are cuffs with the fist. She quick and proud, and who did Pas despise, Sidney. Tyrrheus, the foster-father of the beast, Arbuthnot John Bull. My invention and judgment are perpetually at fisticuf, 'till they have quite disabled each other. Swift. Naked men belabouring one another with snagged sticks, or dully falling together by the ears at jisticuffs. More. FIST'ULA, n. s. Į Fr. fistule; Lat. fistula. FIST'ULOUS, adj. A sinuous ulcer. See below. That fistula which is recent is the easiest of cure : those of a long continuance are accompanied with ulcerations of the gland and caries in the bone. Wiseman's Surgery. How these sinuous ulcers become fistulous, I have shewn you. Id. FISTULA, in the ancient music, an instrument of the wind kind, resembling our flute or flageolet. The principal wind instruments of the ancients were the tibia and the fistula. Some had holes, some none; some again were single pipes; others a combination of several; witness the syringa of Pan. FISTULA, in the veterinary art. See VETERINARY ART. FISTULA, in surgery, a deep narrow ulcer, generally arising from abscesses. It differs from a sinus, in being callous, the latter not. See SURGERY. FISTULA LACHRYMALIS. A disorder at the canal leading from the eye to the nose, which obstructs the natural progress of the tears, and makes them trickle down the cheek; but this is only the first and mildest stage of the disease: in the next there is matter discharged with the tears from the puncta lachrymalia, and sometimes from an orifice broke through the skin between the nose and the angle of the eye. The last and worst degree of it is, when the matter of one eye, by its long continuance, has not only corroded the neighbouring soft parts, but also affected the subjacent bone. FISTULARIA, or Tobacco-pipe fish, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of abdominales. Of this genus Linnæus reckons two species. Three are now discovered. The F. tabacaria is generally about a foot in length; the fore part from the nose to half way the body of nearly equal bigness; from whence it grows tapering to the tail, which is forked, and from which issues a slender taper whip, four inches long, of the consistence of whalebone; the mouth narrow, and the whole fish of a brown color. They are sometimes taken on the coasts of Jamaica. They feed on sea-insects, &c., which they drag easily from rocks on account of the peculiar formation of the snout. FIT, n. s. The life did flit away out of her nest, For your husband, He's noble, wise, judicious, and best knows Sometimes 'tis grateful to the rich to try An ambitious man puts it in the power of every malicious tongue to throw him into a fit of melancholy. Addison. Thus o'er the dying lamp the' unsteady flame Id. Mrs. Bull was so much enraged, that she fell downright into a fit. Arbuthnot's John Bull. Small stones and gravel collect and become very large in the kidneys, in which case a fit of the stone in that part is the cure. Sharp's Surgery. All fits of pleasure we balance by an equal degree of pain or languor: 'tis like spending this year, part Swift. of the next year's revenue. As his years increased, his fits of giddiness and deafness grew more frequent, and his deafness made Johnson's Life of Swift. conversation difficult. FIT. See PAROXYSM. FITTINGLY, adv. Sax. Fezt; Isl fit; Kem. vitten; Belgic, voegt; Teut. fuight; (Sax. fegan, means to adapt. Thomson) Proper; meet; adapted: right; convenient: as an active verb, to make so; to accommodate or adapt one thing to another; taking out and up to give intensity to the meaning: as a neuter verb, to be proper or Fitment is an obsolete word for becoming. something adapted to a particular purpose Men of valour, fit to go out for war and battle I Chron. |