114 SALMON RIVERS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



of Parliament, and compel our legislators to sympathise 

 with the unfortunate salmon, which, until 1824, strove 

 to perpetuate their race in these polluted waters. Of no 

 degenerate stock were the Thames salmon. In the 

 journal of Richard Lovegrove, tenant of Boulter's Lock 

 on the Thames, we read : " 1801. This year there 

 were taken 66 salmon, weighed 1124 Ib. Two salmon 

 weighed 65 Ib., and three that weighed 70 Ib." As the 

 custom of sending fish to London in ice had not begun, 

 the Thames salmon of those days used to be sold at 

 10s. or 12s. a-lb. Is there a probability that the 

 Thames may be restocked with salmon ? We think not. 

 So thoroughly is it polluted by the filth, the gas-works, 

 and the steamers, that we are persuaded that no salmon, 

 however impelled by philoprogenitiveness, could push 

 its way to the spawning-beds in the upper parts of the 

 river. We have it in evidence that salmon have been 

 seen to turn tail the moment they came within the in- 

 fluence of a certain mining abomination in a river in 

 Wales. And having had no small difficulty in resisting the 

 nausea occasioned by sailing down the Thames, we can- 

 not conceive that the dainty salmon should either at- 

 tempt or survive swimming up the odorous stream. As 

 to the tender smolt effecting a passage to the sea through 

 such pestilent waters, that appears equally impossible. 

 Mr Gould, the naturalist, is of a different opinion, and 

 recommends having recourse to artificial propagation. 

 " If," says he, " 10,000 smolts went down to the sea, 

 possibly 100 grilse, or some small proportion, would re- 

 turn ; " and he adds that Mr Noble, of Maidenhead, is 

 ready with 200 guineas to assist in bringing back sal- 

 mon to the Thames. Did he ever reflect whether they 

 would be eatable, supposing them reintroduced into such 

 a river ! The Commissioners' Report brings out the 

 curious fact that the pollutions of rivers, when they do 

 not destroy the fish, yet communicate to them such a 

 detestable flavour as to render them uneatable. 



The Mayor of Gloucester, in answer to the question, 



