When they have eaten they lie down till the next low water, and then all that are able march out, be it night or day, rain or shine, 'tis all one; they must attend the weirs, or else they must fast; for the earth affords them no food at all.

These poor creatures have a sort of weapon to defend their weir, or fight with their enemies, if they have any that will interfere with their poor fishery.

Every day the increasing water as it descended the weirs made a wilder tumult.

I am empty-hearted: I have not one hope, one particle of faith, one real, honest desire, except to "drie my weir," as the Scotch say, doing my duty as best I may, as it comes to me.

Mankind but scanty pleasure glean Frae snawy hill or barren plain, Whan Winter,'midst his nipping train, Wi' frozen spear, Sends drift owr a' his bleak domain, And guides the weir.

Their only food is a small sort of fish, which they get by making weirs of stone across little coves or branches of the sea; every tide bringing in the small fish, the there leaving them for a prey to these people, who constantly attend there to search for them at low water.

The shores of the lake are shelving, and afford good situations for placing fish-weirs, which are here established on an extensive scale.

The water came out of the hill like a broad sheet of green glass, giving scarcely any sign of movement until it reached a low weir, where it turned to the whiteness of snow.

After refreshing ourselves, we re-embarked, and passed on our right a shoal inlet, in which we saw a native's weir, for the purpose of taking fish; it was formed by sticks stuck in the mud, and so close as to prevent the retreat of such as were inside: three miles above this we landed on an open grassy spot on the south bank, and pitched our tent for the night.

One needs to have known an irrigating ditch when it was a brook, and to have lived by it, to mark the morning and evening tone of its crooning, rising and falling to the excess of snow water; to have watched far across the valley, south to the Eclipse and north to the Twisted Dyke, the shining wall of the village water gate; to see still blue herons stalking the little glinting weirs across the field.