TROUT RIVER AND LAKE MINNOW-SPINNING. 125 
truth—apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto—not only 
they are not caught, but they are not seen. Fifteen 
years ago, when the Marlow Fishing Association was in 
its zenith, I remember that one of its most prominent 
members thought nothing of taking two or three good- 
sized Thames Trout in an April morning. Thegentleman 
in question, Mr. H. R. Francis, was certainly one of the 
most accomplished anglers who ever threw fly or bait 
in the Thames ; but there are many first-rate spinners 
and fly-fishers still to be found occasionally in their old 
haunts, and none of them would, I think, be sanguine 
enough to anticipate such a basket for the Ist of April, 
1870. The same number of fish per week would now be 
a good take for any one. The lower weirs and pools have 
fared no better, and yet the capabilities of the river are 
precisely the same now as they were then. Nor does 
“over fishing” explain the deficiency, because there are 
now, and always must have been, more Trout dred or 
turned into the Thames every year than the water can 
feed. I confess I am perplexed, and when a disease 
cannot be diagnosed—as doctors phrase it—it is very 
difficult to prescribe for the patient. There are, how- 
ever, one or two points in which I think there can 
be no doubt that the Thames Angling Preservation 
Society might sensibly improve the Trout fishing. At 
present, when the stock Trout are turned in at the weirs, 
they have no proper “hides” or resting-places except 
the weir holes themselves, and are probably, in the vast 
