reasonable wideness after the old assize used or accustomed; and they shall appoint under-conservators, who shall be sworn to make like survey, search, and punishment. And they shall enquire in session, as well by their office, as at the information of the under-conservators, of all defaults aforesaid, and shall cause them which shall be thereof indicted, to come before them; and if they shall be thereof convicted, they shall have imprisonment, and make fine at the discretion of the justices; and if the same be at the information of an under-conservator, he shall have half the fine. 17 R. 2. c. 9. 3. By the 1 Eliz. c. 17. No person, of what estate, degree, and condition soever he be, shall take and kill any young brood, spawn, or fry of fish; nor shall take or kill any salmon or trouts, not being in season, being kepper and shedder, nor any pike or pikerel, not being in length ten inches fish or more; nor any salmon, not being in length sixteen inches fish; nor any barbel, not being in length twelve inches; and no person shall fish, or take fish, by any device, but only with a net or trammel, whereof the mash shall be two inches and a half broad, (angling excepted, and except smelts, loches, minnows,bullheads, gudgeons, and eels;) on pain of forfeiting 20s. for every offence, and also the fish, nets, and engines. Note. In some editions of the statutes it is 201. in others 20s. in the records it is not distinguishable whether it is pounds or shillings. The latter seems more adequate to the offence. And the conservators of rivers may enquire hereof by a jury; and in such case they shall have the fines. The leet also may enquire hereof; and then the forfeiture shall go to the lord of the leet. And if the steward do not charge the jury therewith he shall forfeit 40s. half to the king, and half to him that shall sue. And if the jury conceal the offence, he may impannel another jury to enquire of such concealment; and if it is found, the former jury shall forfeit every one 20s. to the lord of the leet. And if the offence is not presented in the leet within a year, then it may be heard or determined at the session or assizes, (saving the right conservators.) And by the 33 G. 2, 3, 27. No person shall take, or knowingly have in his possession, either in the water or on shore, or sell or expose to sale, any spawn, fry, or brood of fish, or an unsizeable fish, or fish out of season, or any smelt not five inches long and any person may seize the same, together with baskets and package, and charge a constable, or other peace-officer, with the offender and with the goods, who shall carry them before a justice; and on conviction before such justice, the same shall be forfeited and delivered to the prosecutor; and the offender shall beside forfeit 20s. to be levied by distress, by warrant of such justice, and distributed, half to the prosecutor, and half to the poor of the parish where the offence was committed, (and any inhabitant of such parish, nevertheless may be a witness,) for want of sufficient distress, to be committed to the house of correction, to be kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding three months, unless the forfeiture be sooner paid. Provided that the justice may mitigate the said penalty, so as not to remit above one half. Persons ag grieved may appeal to the next sessions: And the form of the conviction may be Be it remembered, that on this in the year of the reign of this; day of G. B. one of his of is convicted before me for to pay and forfeit the sum of and I do adjudge him Given under abovesaid. my hand and seal the day and year S. 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. 4. No person shall fasten any nets over rivers, to stand continually day and uight, on pain of an hundred shillings to the king. 2. H. 6. c. 15. Our plenteous streams a various race supply, POPE'S WINDSOR FOREST. CHAP. VIII. PROGNOSTICS OF THE WEATHER, INDEPENDENT OF THE BA ROMETER, EXTRACTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES. AS it is highly necessary that an angler should be able to form a judgment of the change of weather, on which his sport entirely depends; if he observes the following signs, it will soon become familiar to him. SIGNS FROM VAPOURS. If a white mist in an evening or night is spread over a meadow, wherein there is a river, it will be drawn up by the next morning sun, and the day will be bright afterwards. Where there are high bills, and the mist which hangs over the lower lands draw towards the hills in a morning, and rolls up their sides till it covers the top, there will be no rain. In some places, if the mist hangs upon the hills, and drags along the woods, instead of overspreading the level grounds, in a morning, it will turn to rain; therefore to judge rightly of the appearances of a fog, it is in some degree necessary to be acquainted with the nature of the country. SIGNS FROM THE CLOUDS. It is a very considerable symptom of fair weather, when the clouds decay, and dissolve themselves into air; but it is otherwise when they are collected out of it. Against heavy rain, every cloud rises bigger than the former, and all the clouds are in a growing state. This is most remarkable on the approach of a thunder-storm, after the vapours have been copiously elevated, suspended in the sky by the heat, and are highly charged with electrical fire; small fragments of flying clouds increase and assemble together, till in a short space of time they cover the sky. When the clouds are formed like fleeces, deep, and dense towards the middle, and very white at the edges, with the sky very bright and blue about them, they are of a frosty coldness, and will soon fall either in bail, snow, or in hasty showers of rain. If clouds are seen to breed high in the air, in thin white trains, like locks of wool, or the tails of horses, they shew that the vapour, as it is collected, is irregularly spread and scattered by contrary winds above; the consequence of which will soon be a wind below, and probably a rain with it. If the clouds, as they come forward, scem to diverge from a point in the horizon, a wind may be expected from that quarter, or the opposite. When a general cloudiness covers the sky above, and there are small black fragments of clouds, like smoke, flying underneath, which some call messengers, and other's Noah's Ark, because they sail over the other clouds, like the ark upon the waters, rain is not far off, and it will probably be lasting. Their is no surer sign of rain than two different currents of clouds, especially if the undermost flies fast before the wind; and if two such currents appear in the hot weather of the summer, they shew that a thunder storm is gathering: but the preparation which precedes a storm of thunder, is so generally understood, that it is needless to insist upon it minutely. SIGNS FROM THE DEW. If the dew lies plentifully upon the grass after a fair day, another fair day may be expected to |