38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [CHAP. v. 



means all that could be wished. On one occasion they 

 captured the Fishery Inspector himself whose duty it was 

 to ascertain that the meshes were not below a certain 

 measurement and secured him in the nets. Another time 

 somebody (who, unluckily for him, bore some resemblance 

 to the obnoxious inspector) got nearly sloughed up in one 

 of the great marsh ditches, and would have been left to live 

 or die as might chance probably the latter but for the 

 arrival of timely help. My father being one of the acting 

 magistrates of the district, we used to hear from time to 

 time of these and other "mauvaises plaisanteries " in the 

 neighbourhood of the Forest of Dean. 



On reference to the portion of the Ordnance Map 

 (plate ix.) it will be seen that there is a broad band 

 marked "mud," of about a sixth of a mile in width at 

 the widest part and extending for about a mile and a half 

 by the side of the deep channel of the Severn, between 

 it and the cliffs of the Beachley and Sedbury Bay. 



The most remarkable capture of which I have any recol- 

 lection as taking place in the waters, or rather in the mud of 

 the Severn, was said to be a " Bottle-nosed whale," or 

 Dolphin, Delphinus tursio, Fabr., but it was so many 

 decades of years ago, that I have no means now of turning 

 to any record for verification of the species. The capture 

 itself excited a deal of local interest. It was on a summer 

 morning that one of my brothers, enlivening his vacation 

 studies, as was his custom, by watching through his tele- 

 scope anything of interest that might be going on amongst 

 the shipping or elsewhere, saw something like an enormous 

 fish struggling and " flopping " on the Beachley pier of the 

 old Passage Ferry. As a matter of course, we young folks 

 set off after luncheon to have our share of the sight, and 

 found the creature had been captured when lying helpless, 

 or half dead, in the mud at the Aust side of the Ferry, and 

 had been towed across behind a boat. At this distance 

 of time I only remember the whale- or dolphin-like shape of 

 the animal, its great size, and that it was apparently of a 



freyish colour ; but this item might very likely be from its 

 eing coated with Severn mud. In Bell's " British Quadru- 

 peds " the greatest length recorded of various specimens 

 found in England is 12 feet. The colour of the back is 

 black, with a purplish tinge, becoming dusky on the sides, 

 and dirty white on the belly. This species is considered 

 rare in England and it is of some interest, in referring to the 



