ANGLING IN THE IR WELL. 103 



But old traditions of some ten or twenty years then 

 gone, told of good fishing in the Irwell. We heard of the 

 time when fine salmon were caught opposite the New 

 Bailey — itself now no longer "new," but a vanished 

 structure, — and we were told of many trout and other 

 fine fish that had been common. Fisherman's Rock in 

 Hulme had its history of wonderful catches. But all 

 these accounts were for a time— say about the years 

 1820-22 — tales of what had been before the gas- waste 

 was put into the river. 



About the year 18 19 I have, from the New Bailey 

 Bridge (now called Albert Bridge), watched the fish on 

 the shoals at the lower sides of the piers, and seen 

 innumerable fish both there and at the packet station 

 near the old Barracks (then opposite the New Bailey). 

 These were chiefly gudgeon ; but other fish were seen 

 rising to flies, — and so numerous were the flies that the 

 air was lively with swallows and house-martins ; and the 

 " Old Quay boys " used to stand on the bridge and whip 

 them down, with a long, heavy, short-handled whip, 

 adroitly throwing the lash so as to kill the poor birds. 

 It was a favourite amusement for us to count the swallows' 

 nests along the Salford Crescent, and there were two or 

 more in every window of the cotton mill at the river side 

 opposite the New Bailey. There are no nests there now 

 to be counted. 



Some ingenious man found out that gas-tar would 

 make a cheap black paint, and instead of its being put 

 in the river it began to find a use, and by-and-by was 

 actually sold for money — a great result in those days. 



