SOUTHERN ESTUARIES 



SALMON-NETTING AT CHRISTCHURCH 



WITH the exception of the coracle-fishing in the 

 Welsh rivers, the salmon-netting at Christ church is 

 perhaps the most ancient and primitive method of 

 taking the fish which still survives in England. More- 

 over, the site of the fishery is unique, with surroundings 

 of sea, land, harbour, river, and town of a kind without 

 parallel or analogy on all the long line of British coast. 

 The waters of the Hampshire Avon and the Dorset- 

 shire Stour which meet at Christchurch, and hurry in 

 great swirling pools past the grey towers and arches of 

 the ancient priory, and under the many bridges of the 

 town, are cut off from their natural impetuous entry to 

 the sea by the long ironstone ridge of Hengistbury 

 Head. Between the town and the sea this great dyke 

 thrusts itself across the sky-line, and at flood-tide 

 ponds back the whole of the tidal and river water into 

 a broad lake, the exit from which into the sea might, 

 for all that can be seen from this inland harbour, be by 

 some subterranean passage beneath the cliff itself. The 



