ARE THE SALMON DECLINING? 113 



found to be singularly lacking in reason. Was this 

 belief about the salmon one of them ? 



It was impossible to be sure. True, I had hardly 

 ever met any one who, convinced that the days of 

 salmon fishing would soon be over, could give specific 

 grounds for certitude. Requests for these par- 

 ticulars had been met by a look of astonishment, as 

 much as to say, " Do you really want proof that 

 twice two are four?" That is our British habit. 

 We affirm much more than we reflect. We habitu- 

 ally believe the worst, and the worst is its own 

 evidence. At the same time, I well knew that 

 certain rivers had been declining. There could be 

 no doubt on that score. At every country-house 

 there is a game register, and that is not a misleading 

 tome. Most men, especially the elders, think that 

 the past was better than the present, and that the 

 future will be as bad as possible. General im- 

 pressions of that kind are to be distrusted. The 

 registers, however, are to be believed ; and they are 

 proof that on many a river the sport is, as a rule, 

 less good than it once was. 



On the other hand, it was not clear that there 

 was no river that was not improving; perhaps a 

 good many rivers were exceptions to what was gener- 

 ally taken to be the rule. Besides, the interest in 

 angling had been spreading very rapidly; was it 

 conceivable that this had not been accompanied by 

 efforts to redeem waters that had been well-nigh 

 ruined ? The Thames, flowing through the largest 

 city in the world, had been purified sufficiently to 



8 



