24 WHITEBAIT IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH. [CHAP. i. 



if, like Lord Lovat's salmon, whitebait could leap out of the 

 water into the frying-pan, it would be a decided advantage to 

 those dining upon it, for if kept even for a few hours it 

 becomes greatly deteriorated, and, as a consequence, requires 

 all the more cooking to bring the flavour up to the proper 

 pitch of gastronomic excellence. In fact, it is necessary to 

 keep the fish alive in a tub of water, and to ladle them out 

 for the process of cooking as the guests may arrive. Perhaps, 

 as all fish are chameleon-like in reflecting not only the colour 

 of their abode, but what they feed on as well, the supposed 

 fine flavour of whitebait, so far as it is not conferred upon that 

 fish by the cook, may arise from the matters held in solution 

 in the Thames water, and so the result from the corrupt source 

 of the supply may be a quicker than ordinary decay. The 

 waters of the Forth at the whitebait ground, of which I have 

 given a slight sketch, are clean and clear, a little way above 

 Inchgarvie, where the sprat-fishing is usually carried on, and 

 the whitebait taken there are in consequence slightly different 

 in colour, and greatly so in taste, from those obtained in the 

 Thames ; in fact, all kinds of fish, including salmon, are able 

 to live and thrive in the Firth of Forth. It is long since the 

 refined salmon forsook the Thames, but then salmon are very 

 delicate in their eating, and at once take on the surrounding 

 flavour, whatever that may be. Creditable attempts are now 

 being made to re- stock the Thames, especially the upper waters, 

 with more valuable fish than are at present contained in that 

 river, but whether these attempts will be successful yet remains 

 to be seen. I have been watching with great interest what is 

 being done by Mr. Frank Buckland and others : but salmon 

 I fear cannot at present live in the Thames. To thrive 

 successfully, that fish must have access to the sea, and how a 

 salmon can ever penetrate to the salt water with the river 

 in its present state is a problem that must be left for future 

 solution ; however, as Mr. Frank Buckland very truthfully 



