SALMON TAINTED. 115 



"Are you aware of any noxious matter being discharged 

 into the Severn?" replies, "There was some refuse 

 from creosote-works discharged into the river, and it 

 was supposed by every one that it had a very injuri- 

 ous effect on the Severn fisheries. I know that the 

 fish tasted very much of the creosote when we did get 

 one for dinner." As to the effect on fish of gas-refuse, 

 another witness depones that " they tasted just the 

 same as the tank timber smells." Tar appears to have 

 a very special power of tainting fish without injuring 

 it externally, so that the epicure only knows when it is 

 cooked what a precious mess is a tarred salmon. This 

 is no fancy of the Mayor of Gloucester. A fishmonger 

 there, having a salmon returned by a customer, is honest 

 enough to confess, " I tasted the tar itself throughout 

 the fish from head to tail. There was no mistake about 

 it ; it was like tar itself." 



This should discourage the attempt to reintroduce 

 the salmon into the Thames. If successfully made, the 

 result will be the capture of fish having a composite 

 gofit corresponding to the number of the savoury ingre- 

 dients in the midst of which it has lived. And if the 

 Mayor of Gloucester be invited to an aldermanic ban- 

 quet in London to celebrate the reintroduction of sal- 

 mon into the Thames, we predict that he will not envy 

 Messrs Gould and Noble the dearly-purchased bonne 

 bouche. 



We therefore hope that discredit will not be thrown 

 upon the really valuable system of artificial breeding 

 by the attempt to make it the means of restoring sal- 

 mon to the Thames. Let this river be made to produce 

 those fish for which it is still found suitable. Under the 

 care of an angling association the breed of fine large 

 trout has increased astonishingly. As bait for large 

 turbot and the immense Dogger Bank cod, there is a 

 great demand by Dutch fishermen for lampreys. " Sixty 

 thousand went the other day, at 3 a thousand, from 

 Teddington/' Well, it is some consolation to learn 



