The Modern Thames 



been placed in the river taken from ponds and bodily 

 transported to the Thames. So that upon the whole 

 the fish have been well looked after of recent years. 



The more striking of the aquatic plants such as 

 white water-lilies have been much diminished in 

 quantity by the constant plucking, and injury is said 

 to have been done by careless navigation. In things 

 of this kind a few persons can do a great deal of 

 damage. Two or three men with guns, and indifferent 

 to the interests of sport or natural history, at work 

 every day, can clear a long stretch of river of water- 

 fowl, by scaring if not by actually killing them. 

 Imagine three or four such gentry allowed to wander 

 at will in a large game preserve in a week they 

 would totally destroy it as a preserve. The river, 

 after all, is but a narrow band as it were, and is 

 easily commanded by a gun. So, too, with fish 

 poachers; a very few men with nets can quickly 

 empty a good piece of water : and flowers like water- 

 lilies, which grow only in certain spots, are soon 

 pulled or spoiled. This aspect of the matter the 

 immense mischief which can be effected by a very- 

 few persons should be carefully borne in mind in 

 framing any regulations. For the mischief done on 

 the river is really the work of a small number, a mere 

 fraction of the thousands of all classes who frequent 

 it. Not one in a thousand probably perpetrates any 

 intentional damage to fish, fowl, or flowers. 



As the river above all things is, and ought to be, a 

 place of recreation, care must be particularly taken 

 that in restraining these practices the enjoyment of 

 the many be not interfered with. The rational 

 pleasure of 999 people ought not to be checked 

 because the last of the thousand acts as a blackguard. 

 This point, too, bears upon the question of steam- 

 iii 



