Having regard to the special interest which Miss Ormerod took in the progress of Economic Entomology in Canada and the United States, and the high appreciation in which she was held by the enlightened exponents of the subject on the other side of the Atlantic, we conclude with an extract from the September number of the “Canadian Entomologist” for 1901:—
“Entomology in England has suffered a great loss through the death of this talented and estimable lady, who died at her residence, Torrington House, St. Albans, on Friday, July 19th. Practical entomologists throughout the world are moved with profound regret that a career so remarkable and so useful should be brought to a close, but one could hardly hope that the aged lady would long be able to sustain the burden of increasing infirmities and the trials of a painful and protracted illness. Miss Ormerod was one of the most remarkable women of the latter half of the nineteenth century, and did more than any one else in the British Isles to further the interests of farmers, fruitgrowers, and gardeners, by making known to them methods for controlling and subduing their multiform insect pests. Her labours were unwearied and unselfish; she received no remuneration for her services, but cheerfully expended her private means in carrying out her investigations and publishing their results. We know not now by whom in England this work can be continued; it is not likely that any one can follow in the unique path laid out by Miss Ormerod; we may therefore cherish the hope that the Government of the day will hold out a helping hand and establish an entomological bureau for the lasting benefit of the great agricultural interests of the country.”]
APPENDICES
Appendix A (p. [37]).
Salmon Fishery.—Both locally, and thence to the country at large, the bay beneath the Beachley and the Sedbury Cliffs was very important, as being one centre of the Severn Salmon Fisheries. The following notes by Mr. Frank Buckland,[[117]] Government Inspector of Salmon Fishing for England and Wales, are interesting: “The visitor will observe in the lower estuary stretching for a considerable distance into the water from the muddy banks, rude piers made entirely of wicker work, which look like large eel-baskets; these are called ‘ranks’ of ‘putchers.’ Each putcher is about 5 ft. 6 in. long, and 21 inches across the mouth. A framework is made by driving stakes into the mud, and the putchers are then fastened together in rows one above the other, often to the height of 10 feet or more; these great walls of baskets look not unlike, as my friend the late John Keast Lord remarked, ‘a gigantic wine rack filled with bottles, encased in wicker work.’ As the salmon come along with the tide in the thick muddy Severn water, they run their noses into the open mouths of the putchers, and speedily get jammed up at the narrow end; the poor things cannot turn, and the more they struggle to get out, the firmer they become wedged in; as the tide recedes they are left high and dry. I have often observed that wasps wait about till the tide goes down, and then take first cut at the salmon. A great many first-class Severn salmon are caught in these putchers and sent to the London market.”
With regard to another form of baskets used for catching flat fish, &c., at p. 368, he says:—
“Besides the putchers another kind of basket is used which is called putts; ... the wicker work is much closer in this instance than in the other. The putt in its most special form consists of three parts, the large part or mouth, called the ‘putt’; the middle called the ‘butt’; and the small end or bag, called the ‘firwell.’... The diameter of the opening is about 5 feet, and the length from 12 to 13 feet; they are used to catch flat fish, &c.” The illustration (fig. A, page 36), given by Mr. Buckland shows the putt, with the small end or “firwell” removed.
The above technical description of the arrangement, measurement, &c., of the “putts” and “putchers,” corresponds in most points with the details of the long rows (three or four in number) running out into the river beneath the Sedbury cliffs (plate [X].).