weir, wears (wer)

[The spelling weir is irreg. and appar. Sc.; the proper spelling is wear; early mod. E. wear, weare, were, sometimes wire; Half the river fell over a high weir , with all its appendages of bucks, and hatchways, and eel-baskets, into the Nun's-pool. Kingsley, Yeast, iii. 2. A fence, as of twigs or stakes, set in a stream for catching fish. Weirs differ from pounds principally in being constructed, in whole or in part, of brush or of narrow boards, with or without netting; and they are sometimes arranged so that at low tide a sandbar cuts off the escape of the fish, leaving them in a basin, and allowing them to be taken at any time before a certain stage of rise of the next tide. Weirs are of two kinds, the shoal-water weir and the deep -water weir. The shoal-water weir, as illustrated in fig. 1, has a leader L, which is a row of stakes, generally woven with brush, leading out from the shore. Its extremity is at the entrance of the big IMG:content-2212.png:[blocks in formation] 1, shoal-water weir; 2, deep-water weir. pound M. The big pound is likewise of stakes filled with brush, and its entrance 30 feet wide. This leads by a pa age 5 feet wide into the little pound N, and this into the pocket O, which is a frame about 16 feet long and 10 feet wide, with sides of netting, and a board floor. The fish following the shore meet the leader, turu and follow it into the big pound; here they follow the side around until they pa into the little pound, and from that into the pocket, where they are left by the receding tide and taken out at low water. The deep-water weir (fig. 2) has a similar leader A, extending to the entrance of the big pound, or heart, B, beyond which are the small pound C and the bowl D, into which the fish finally go. The form of the inclosures in both cases leads the fish constantly forward, and they rarely or never find their way back through the pa ages. In both figures E represents the land or high water mark, and F the low-water mark. The day following we came to Chippanum, where the people were fled, but their wires afforded vs fish. Quoted in Capt . John Smith's Works, I. 90. Deep-water weir. See def. 2.- Dry weir, a weir on a flat which is left bare at ebh-tide. - Half-tide weir, a tishweir so placed that the fish taken can be removed at halfebb or half-tide, without waiting for low tide, as is generally done. -Lock-weir, a weir having a lock-chamber and gates. E. H. Knight . - Shoal-water weir. See def. 2.Slat weir. See slat3 .