S24 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



tinued to liawl for all otlier kinds of fish not 

 salmon, close up to the weirs, putting a salmon back 

 again into the water if taken within the prescribed 

 distance, as suggested by the Act of Parliament. 



On being asked the reason for my opposition, 

 tlie answer was, that no salmon would go up the 

 ladders I had seen on the Avon and Stour. In 

 the first place, the position of the ladders in holes 

 and corners at the side would never occur to fish 

 as a means of ascending a broad and rapid river, 

 however much they might lead to ditches ; and in 

 the second, that the rounds, if so they can be 

 called, of the ladder are too confined for anything 

 that had got no legs to go up by. To this hour, 

 187^, I do not believe that a salmon ever ascended 

 by the ladders on the two rivers immediately 

 referred to. 



I have hitherto spoken of mere rushes of water 

 not worthy of being called falls, where really 

 nothing more than a ^^free gap" or open sluice 

 was wanted to give the fish the run of both the 

 Stour and Avon. If roach and otlier far weaker 

 fish than the salmon could avail themselves of the 

 gap or sluice open to them, which all the coarser 

 fish did to my certain knowledge, then what need 



