The spears were in many cases "gully-knives," fastened to staves with twine and resin, called "rozet." The torches were very rough-and-ready things--rope and tar, or even rotten roots dug from broken trees--in fact, anything that would flare.

The black-fishers seldom journeyed far from home, confining themselves to the rivers within a radius of three or four miles.

There were many reasons for this; one of them being that the hands had to be at their work on the farm by five o'clock in the morning; another, that so they poached and let poach.

Except when in spate, the river I specially refer to offered no attractions to the black-fishers.

Heavy rains, however, swell it much more quickly than most rivers into a turbulent rush of water; the part of it affected by the black-fishers being banked in with rocks that prevent the water's spreading.