Welsh Journals

seat. The seat is 8in. wide and is fixed last of all. Alongside the- left hand side of the seat is kept the "priest," a stout oak stick about a foot long used for stunning the salmon. It is hung just below the gunwale in two loops of leather. The paddle, 4ft. 3in. long, has the edges of one side of the blade champhered, and this side must be kept "next to the water," which you are drawing towards you otherwise you will find yourself out of the coracle and in the water. There are two ways of using the paddle. One is to pull the coracle through the water by placing the paddle in the water in front of you, and, using both hands, working the paddle in a figure eight, keeping the champhered side of the blade towards you, next to the water which you are drawing to- wards you. When netting you place the paddle in the water on the right hand side of the coracle, and tuck your arm around it, with the top of the shaft resting on your forearm, and your fingers over and equally divided each side of the shaft. The left hand is then free to handle the net line. I prefer to carry the coracle horizontally and inverted, lifting it up and letting the flat of the seat rest on the left shoulder; then I place the paddle on my right shoulder, and let the blade fit under the seat to take part of the weight. The net is thrown over the top (really the inverted bottom) of the coracle, which avoids the user getting wet from the net. If you carry the coracle on your back by means of a strap looped to the seat, the wind is liable to fill the cor- acle and blow you off your feet." The coracle is still used on the Severn for angling at Shrews- bury, being carried on the Holyhead road for four miles to Shelton Rough and then placed on the water, the angler floating in it down stream to Shrewsbury. It is also used at Ironbridge, Bridgnorth and Worcester.1 To this information Mr. David Ruscoe, aged 73, now of Welsh- pool, adds — "I was born at Llanyblodwell, but when a small child my family moved to Llandrinio. On leaving school I worked on vari- ous farms in the neighbourhood. I had many opportunities of seeing the Criggion coracles at work. Making the framework of ash is a modern method. The frameworks of the coracles I saw were made- out of strong briars pulled from the hedgerows." 1. Worcester Hist. Trans., 1933.