ENGLAND AND WALES 229 



the estuary. Two fixed engines on the Taw take 

 a large proportion of the summer -running salmon 

 and peal. 



The SEVERN affords practically no rod -fishing. 

 "This," I am informed by Mr. Willis Bund, an 

 eminent authority on the habits of the salmon, " is 

 the result of the great distance the fish have to go 

 before any water fit for angling is reached. The 

 canalisation of the river has tended to drive the 

 angler upwards, and the abstraction of water by the 

 Liverpool Corporation has made it more difficult 

 for the fish to ascend. The idea of sport may be 

 dismissed. As to the stock of fish, it is hard to give 

 a clear answer. Certainly fewer fish are bred in the 

 river. That is because the spawning season has 

 been greatly shortened by the absence of floods, 

 which the waterworks have prevented. The fish 

 are unable to reach the spawning grounds, and the 

 spawners, instead of being spread over the river, are 

 concentrated in a few places. Thus many of the 

 ova are lost. The abstraction of water produces 

 another result. The salmon ascend in shoals of 

 sexes. It is found, when the females arrive on 

 the beds, that the number of males is often not 

 sufficient properly to impregnate the ova. From 

 both these causes the number of salmon bred is less 

 now than before 1890, when the waterworks were 

 set going. It is difficult, however, to say that the 

 actual stock of salmon is less. There is an increase 

 in the number of ' gil lings,' salmon on their second 

 return from the sea. These are fine large fish ; but 



