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great an authority, we imagine, were it not assured that the stocking with Lochlevens and fario has produced a considerable head of trout in the river. But, on the other hand, as the knowledge of pisciculture improves, it becomes very evident that the methods of re-stocking on the Thames hitherto have been too intermittent to be adequate to the end in view. So far as the conversion of the Thames into a game-fish river is concerned, the operations with trout have been the merest experiments.

But, it will be asked by the majority of people, Who ever dreamed of turning the Thames into a game-fish river? Well, we suppose that this has been the dream of the most notable London anglers for years, and it seems now to be brought within the range of practical angling politics. There is a movement in this forward direction, and, so far as we can judge who are outside of circles and inner circles from which angling politics

are

directed, the movement has a strong force behind it. We should be glad to think that it is part of a general protest throughout the whole country against the mismanagement of our rivers, which at present is nothing short of disgraceful, and in support of more adequate protection and preservation of the head of fish, and especially of game-fish, in them. There are not wanting signs of this general protest. There is a likelihood, it appears, of early legislation on river pollution. We have also reason to believe that the Government

will give its support to the Bill for establishing a close season for trout in Scotland, originally introduced into the House of Commons by Sir Herbert Maxwell, and advocated by him with a gallant persistence. The absolutely disgraceful condition of the law regarding troutfishing in Scotland has been maintained in the face of the wishes of every respectable angler in that country by a Radical concession to lawlessness and political combination nothing short of immoral, which it is indeed high time to break down; and there is reason to believe that in the reform of the more crying evil, the need of stocking measures will not be forgotten. These are some of the signs that make us hope for a more enlightened state of the public mind regarding river management and sporting rights; although they are a poor set-off to the illustration of the general indifference to piscicultural science to be found in the deliberate neglect of the Buckland Museum. And to them has to be added the present movement on the Thames. The Restocking Restocking Association and other Preservation Societies have virtually determined on the establishment of public hatcheries. The angling dovecots have been fluttered further by the appearance of a Thames Salmon Association, to which the Fly-fishers' Club has extended its benign countenance and a subscription in guineas. It would seem, if we are to believe enthusiasts, that the sensational headings of the evening press are to be realised, and that

Londoners are to awake one fine morning to find that their old river is a salmon-water.

would

stimulate into

still

greater activity an opposition that undoubtedly lies aheadthe opposition of a large section of the holiday and club anglers, jealous of their present fishing opportunities.

The species of the Salmonida with which it is proposed to stock the Thames are salmon (Salmo salar), sea-trout (Salmo trutta), brown trout and Loch- None of the difficulties we levens (Salmo fario and leven- have mentioned seems to be ensis), and rainbow-trout (Salmo quite unsurmountable. Polluirideus). Whether the river is tion, certainly, is not. It was in a condition as yet to make the opinion of Frank Buckland, the introduction into it of sal- who himself made experiments mon proper a success is open in stocking the Thames with to doubt. Apart from pollu- salmon, that they could be intion, reasons for doubting it troduced into any decently exist that apply equally to all clear water communicating Salmonida. There is, for ex- with the sea, provided the ample, the wash of the launches necessary spawning - beds are and the river-craft in all its present. Now, we know that variety over the upper stretches pollution in the Thames is beof the river, the stretches ing dealt with in a manner which ought to, and in all that at least sets an example to probability would, form the the management, nothing short redds or spawning - beds. If of disgraceful, of most of our the river pleasure season and rivers. Since the Act of 1894 the game-fish spawning season laid the duty of its prevention were coincident, fish - breeding upon the Thames Conservancy, pollution has diminished by a third, and the measures that have accomplished this are likely to be still more efficient in the future. Whether the tideway is sufficiently clear is another matter: we doubt it, and we rather doubt the value of the experiment that has been proposed of sending a case of smolts floating down it. We feel assured, however, that in time the pollution can be coped with. The presence of proper redds above, Buckland always said, is a matter of greater study and anxiety than the clarity of water below; and it is the opinion of not a few well able to judge that the Thames never has been a river possessed of the natural spawn

in

But

these waters would be almost impossible; and even as it is, the winter traffic, we fear, is sufficient to arrest it considerably. It would be necessary, therefore, to fence off the redds a step that presents patent difficulties. the greatest obstacle, undoubtedly, to the scheme of stocking the Thames with Salmonida is one that would grow greater with the increasing success of the scheme itself. For in proportion to the success attending the introduction of gamefish to the river would be the natural desire of the riparian owners to benefit under the enhanced value of the waters that certainly would follow thereupon; and that desire

ing-beds that are necessary to make it a salmon-water. In that case, the idea of converting it into a salmon-river may be given up. If, on the other hand, the necessary spawningbeds are there, they could be satisfactorily fenced off. Nor would it be impossible, surely, before a scheme for stocking the river with Salmonida is entered upon, to compound with the riparian owners, and so disarm the club anglers of the one real argument against it with which we can imagine them possessed. But while we are persuaded that to stock the Thames with some Salmonide is a practicable enterprise, and even would be pleased to see some money expended on experiments with salmon, we are far from being sure that the time for them is ripe; and certainly it will be a matter of regret if the restocking enthusiasm, of which there are so many signs at the present moment, should inspire any one to ill-considered and unenlightened action. One thing, we are convinced, necessary to success is the establishment of a hatchery on the banks of the river, and the experience of the past warns us against committing any such hatchery to the care of the amateur pisciculturist. There is the true story, not to be forgotten, of those who placed several hundreds of trout-ova in a hatchery on the bank, and in course of time collected from the fry-pond some very excellent perch! We have no wish to throw cold water on any efforts towards improving the sporting condition of the Thames; but it is absolutely

necessary from the very earliest stage to point out how carefully and with what precautions these must be made to be successful. The promoters of the scheme must guard against a fiasco-which is very much the same as saying that they must be wary of the enthusiasts.

What has been said of salmon is precisely true of sea-trout; but the case for stocking with brown trout and Lochlevens is entirely different. Without doubt the Thames, throughout its entire length above the tideway, can be made an excellent trouting-river. It may surprise many of our readers to learn

we have met scores of Londoners who had no idea of it

that at the present moment the Thames contains trout that are famed among anglers all the world over as sporting fish. No doubt they would be famed as a table fish as well, and their existence more generally known in consequence, were they not So rare that any other destination for them when caught than a glass-case apparently is not to be thought of by the Thames angler without horror. The indigenous trout is distributed over the whole non-tidal portion of the river. In the close season, the professional fisherman is out on the river - bank, or slowly paddling up and down stream, seeking to "spot" the fish where they have taken up a position on a feeding - ground, and when the open season arrives he acquaints his clients with the information thus gathered. The sight of the big fish feeding is enough to quicken any angler's pulse. As calmly

as the excitement will permit, he looks to his delicate gut bottom and the flight of triangle hooks (so tiny), on which he fastens the glittering bait that he is to flash over the spot where the great fish has risen. As likely as not, he flashes it in vain. Dissatisfied with the live lure, he may spin over the water where the fish is, not necessarily with better results. He is fortunate if, by either method, he feels the welcome tightening on the line. For when a Thames trout, a seven-pounder, say, is hooked, you may look out for a battle royal: the trout has the fight in it of a salmon twice its size, and the lucky man who lands it has a tale for his grandchildren, when he sits in the arm-chair of old age, and hand and wrist have lost the power and knack of striking and playing such a prize. So rare is the Thames trout, however, that one notable angler for them has confessed to fishing for two whole seasons in vain; and luck (which enters here as elsewhere) comes in a large slice to him who takes half-adozen to his rod during the four or five months in which the sport is open to him. Moreover, at a legal weight the Thames trout, as we have said, will not rise to the fly. Now if the river were stocked with fario the standard for the indigenous trout might be lowered, to permit of the flyfisher plying his art for them as well. The character of the sport on the river would be levelled up that is undoubted: we are anxious to admit that the skill of the coarse-fish an

gler may be as great as the flyfisher's, but that his sport will compare with the other's is nonsense. If the river is stocked with trout, there need be no more roasting in a malodorous punt, catching dace and roach of trifling size, or filling up the river preparing a swim for a day's barbelling. The rushing and bubbling weir-heads and the streams below them, the swirling eddies, the deep and quietly flowing pools, the channels between the long waving weeds, the quiet boscages beyond the wash of traffic,-all would hold their head of trout, and the fly-fisher's ideal would be attainable, and be attained.

There is no one, we imagine, who doubts that by a properly conceived and carried out scheme the Thames could be stocked with fario; but we may direct attention to an interesting suggestion that has been made of turning in rainbow trout as well. The rainbow trout is a fish indigenous to the Americas, and a prejudice against it on that score may exist in some minds-the more so that importations from America of Salmo fontinalis (so called; but it would seem that the fontinalis is not a trout at all, but a char) for stocking home waters—or home rivers, at any rate was a complete failure. But the prejudice against all acclimatisation of fish is unreasonable. It is surely sufficient to remember that, but for acclimatisation, there would not be a trout to-day in New Zealand, where instead there are hundreds of great size, and in the pink of condition. If we are to judge by the manner in

a

which the rainbow trout beautiful fish—thrives in waters similar to the Thames, we may conclude that it would thrive well in it. There has been ample opportunity for testing its qualities. A considerable stock is held by most pisciculturists in England, and their hardiness and rapid growth are spoken of in high terms; while their beauty, and, we believe, their fine quality as food, are not to be denied. In some cases they have been placed in unsuitable waters, and have failed accordingly; but in public reservoirs, and in slow and deep-flowing waters, they grow rapidly, feed heartily (without being cannibals overmuch), rise freely to the fly, and fight every ounce of their weight. The evidence all points to the rainbow as a capital fish for the Thames.

Before the Thames could become the trouting river which we have pictured it earlier, a long course of assisting Nature must be entered upon. Hatcheries capable of hatching-out at least one million ova in a season would have to be established upon the banks.

The fry, so soon as they had absorbed the umbilical sac, would be transferred to rearing-ponds carefully prepared to receive them, and, where suitable, to fencedoff portions of backwaters and tributary streams, and there carefully assisted to food until they have reached the age of twelve months. Thereafter they would be turned into the river. It seems reasonable to count upon fifty per cent of the original ova reaching the year-old stage. In that case,

500,000 fish could be transferred to the river; although a better policy would be to reserve at least 100,000 of them until they are two-year-olds. This is not too great a mass of fish to plant in such a river as the Thames: were we to go by the practice of pisciculturists in charge of certain American and Continental waters, we should have to estimate for two or three times as many fish. And in addition to these, fully-eyed ova ought to be planted in redds, artificially formed and protected, in which, though considerably less successfully than in the hatchery, a supplementary stock of fish could be reared.

To hatch out this great quantity of ova, it will be necessary, as has been said, to build a properly devised and equipped hatchery, and it is no less necessary to place it under the control of a thoroughly competent man. Such a hatchery, and the upkeep of it most of all, will entail a large expenditure of money; and the want of money will be the first of the obstacles to present itself to the promoters of the scheme. It seems too much to expect that in England any experiment in pisciculture will receive State aid.

We have no belief that the support of the County Council and other public bodies, such as would be given to it in other countries, is to be counted upon. To begin with, at any rate, the burden will have to be borne by the anglers themselves.

It will be necessary, therefore, for the societies to take the matter up, and, unfortunately, united action on their part is difficult to obtain. There

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