John F.L.S. Watson
The Confessions of a Poacher
For a minute nobody spoke—nobody was able to. I lay where I fell, and the men leaned against what was nearest them. Then the sergeant condescended to say "poor beggar"—and we all moved off. The fish were turned out on the grass in the police station yard, and were a sight to see. There were ninety trout, thirty-seven salmon-morts, and two salmon. I was not detained. One of the men handed me a mort, telling me I would be ready for a substantial breakfast. I knew what it all meant, and first thought of bolting, then settled that I would do as I had always done—face it out. But I little knew what this meant, as will presently be seen. I knew sufficient of the law to forsee that I should be charged with trespassing; with night poaching; with being in illegal possession of fish; with illegally killing and taking salmon; perhaps other counts besides. But what I did not know was that I should be charged, in addition, with being in illegal possession of one hundred and twenty-nine salmon and trout during the close season.
And this is how it came about. There had been an agitation throughout the whole of the Conservancy district. It was contended that the fishing season extended too far into Autumn by a fortnight—that by that time the fish had begun to spawn. The old condition of things had held for years, and the new Conservancy bye-laws had only just come into operation. And so I was trapped. The case came on, and a great shoal of magistrates with it. Two of them were personally interested, and were charitable enough to retire from the Bench—they pushed their chairs back about an inch from the table. I pleaded guilty to all the charges except the last, and explained the case as clearly as I could. The Conservancy solicitor, who prosecuted, did then what he had never done before. It was a bad case he said, but added that I had never before been charged with netting during "close-time," and had never used lime or other wholesale methods of poisoning. He pointed out, too, to the presiding Justice that I always claimed to "poach square"—at which all the young ones laughed. He did not press for the heaviest penalty. But this was quite unnecessary, as I got it without. I never quite understood how they made it up, but I was fined ninety-seven pounds. I told the Chairman that I should pay it "in kind," and went to "hard" for nine months.
