12 SMELTS AND FLOUNDERS. 



tempting to be resisted, when offered to trout or any other 

 fish. 



At this very time of the year (end of March, 1848) the 

 delicate smelt is being caught in the Thames, near Ham- 

 mersmith, where this fish comes annually to spawn on the 

 clean sands ; but who takes a smelt with an angle in the 

 Thames in these days, as was formerly the case ? The 

 smelt spawns between Hammersmith and Chiswick : the 

 flounder also seeks the same spot for breeding, but, like 

 the smelt, is becoming scarce, and from the same causes ; 

 and this decrease is extending to every river in the king- 

 dom. It is high time, therefore, for the naturalist to resort 

 to art to restore our fisheries, or they must eventually be- 

 come extinct. 



I will only touch, in passing, on the Thames, a noble 

 stream, which might again be converted into a perfect sal- 

 monry, though the conflicting interests make it a subject 

 of " non-preservation," and its conservancy a fable. There 

 are many other rivers as well, now running to waste too 

 literally, which, at very little cost, might be charged full of 

 stock, and annually supply a sure and certain abundance 

 of fish. I would not thus boldly venture these assertions 

 had I not proved the subject by most decided success, by 

 obtaining a better produce, and restoring a completely 

 wasted stream ; and again and again shown the true cause 

 of the depletion of rivers to originate and begin in the 



