RHINE SALMON. 17 



would restore our fisheries to the enviable state they were 

 in three centuries back, when, according to tradition, our 

 rivers swarmed with good large salmon, and every kind of 

 fish fit for the food of man. Without the artificial sys- 

 tematic arrangement I am urging upon the attention of my 

 readers, our rivers must ultimately become depopulated ; 

 and let the proprietors of salmonries shut up their fisheries 

 even for one, two, or more years, with the hope of their 

 restoration, they will find themselves wofully mistaken 

 in the end. The Rhine, which was never abused by over- 

 fishing, formerly produced salmon of the largest and most 

 luscious description : it lost its reputation for this breed of 

 noble fish about the same time at which the Thames also 

 became deserted ; yet salmon still pay an annual visit to 

 the Rhine, in proof whereof, witness the quantity of fine 

 fish brought over to this country under the denomination 

 of Dutch salmon, all taken as they are running into the 

 mouth of the Rhine. A few salmon also arrive in the 

 Thames, and may annually be observed making way and 

 working up the quieter river Lea, which, instead of being 

 pure water fitted to breed in, is no better than a sewer, and 

 not a single egg of all their spawn is ever brought into 

 life. Two years ago, it is true, a solitary grilse was killed 

 at Teddington ; but how is it possible for any fish to pass 

 such a formidable barrier as a six-feet-high puttock, even 

 at high water, when it is known that the nimblest of sal- 



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