108 Thames Estuary Salmon. 



be a diminution of Thames salmon,* the numbers dwindling by 

 degrees until we hear of the last salmon caught up river, 

 June, 1833. 



There follows an interval of some thirty years duration,f 

 when in 1864 a salmon was got in the trawl by the Southend 

 fishermen. Again, in July, 1866, the Southeiiders were fortu- 

 nate in a 2 Ib. fish an authenticated salmon and others were 

 said to have been captured about the same time. On 2nd 

 August of the same year came a salmon to be taken in a net 

 in the Long Reach, below Purfleet. This so-called Gravesend 

 salmon was 26 inches long, and weighed 7f Ib. Another was 

 seen about Sunbury Weir in June, 1867. Two specimens were 

 seined near Folkestone in 1868. A salmon was captured in the 

 Crouch above Burnham (Battles Bridge), 10th December, 1870. 



In 1875 the Southend fishers were lucky in a capture, 

 and the same season was another got opposite Leigh. Still a 

 finer fish was secured in their drag-net by two Leigh white- 

 baiters while plying their craft at the marshend below Canvey 

 Spit, May, 1880, The men at first were rather alarmed at the 

 splutter and dashing about of the creature in their net, 

 so totally different to anything in their ordinary catch. 

 Pleasure followed their discovery of its being a salmon 27J Ib. 

 weight, and for w r hich they received Is. 9d. per Ib. from the Jate 

 Rector, Canon King. In 1882 a capture is recorded at the 

 mouth of the Blackwater, and Dr. Laver, referring to it, adds 

 some are caught there annually. Just within the Lowway, at 

 entrance to Hadleigh Ray, in June, 1891, a fine conditioned 

 salmon, nigh three feet long and weighing 33 Ib., met its fate in 

 "baiter's" drag-net. Mr. Cadman purchased it at Is. per Ib., 

 had it stuffed, and made a presentat ; on of it to the village. It 

 now graces the walls of the Board School, serving as a practical 



* Consult Venables' series of articles in Land and Water, 1867; and Marston in 

 Nineteenth Century Magazine, April, 1899 ; besides Senior in Field, January, 1898. 



t Regarding this 30 years blank period of Thames salmon, Mr. Senior ("Red 

 Spinner") is of opinion that annually some must have been caught by the Estuary 

 fishermen, though unrecorded. On this head all we can say is that the very oldest of 

 the Leighmen cannot remember of any being taken during the interval in question. 

 -(J.M.) 



