230 SALMON FISHING 



the medium fish, from 8 to 20 Ibs., are more 

 plentiful. On the whole it may be said that, in 

 consequence of the abstraction of water for Liver- 

 pool, fewer salmon are bred, and the total number 

 of salmon in the river is smaller than it was. There 

 are no grilse, and only a few old salmon. Whether 

 the increase of salmon on the second return is 

 enough to compensate for the decrease in the two 

 other classes it is almost impossible to say. Where 

 the fish now taken in the Severn are chiefly bred is 

 one of the questions on which no trustworthy infor- 

 mation has been found. The change in the river is, 

 I believe, wholly, or to a very great extent, due to the 

 abstraction of the water by Liverpool." Mr. Willis 

 Bund, however, is not, I take it, quite certain that 

 the change is to be eventually ruinous. He is 

 pleased at the increase of "gillings," and seems to 

 feel it possible that as regards salmon of other classes 

 remedies may yet be found. 



The WYE, like the Severn, has come under the 

 influences incidental to municipal enterprise in 

 supplying a great town with water. It seems far, 

 however, from being ruined. In a bright and in- 

 forming letter, Mr. L. J. Graham Clarke, of Glan- 

 rhos, Rhayader, Wales, who has fished the river for 

 thirty-five years, says : 



" The Upper Wye may be roughly considered to 

 be the stretch of water between Three Cocks and 

 Rhayader, and comprises the finest angling water 

 of the river. For many years say from 1880 to 

 1900 the river had been steadily going back, 



