4 6 SOUTHERN ESTUARIES 



is so fortunate as to be present when the capture 

 is made may purchase it at from is. to is. 6cl. per 

 pound cheaper than would be paid in a Bond Street 

 shop. Fifty-two pounds is, we believe, the weight 

 of the largest taken in the Christchurch river ; three 

 fish of 38^ Ibs., 26 Ibs., and 22 Ibs. at one haul 

 fell to the lot of one fortunate fisherman quite early 

 last season towards the end of April. But the fish 

 are few and captures rare ; rarer, it is said, than in 

 former days, when one of the oldest men boasts that 

 he once took nine great salmon in a single haul. 1 

 But if these scarce southern fish can still be caught 

 in sufficient number to pay, what might not be the 

 value of a restored Thames salmon fishery in which 

 the catch would be numbered by hundreds, delivered 

 fresh and unspoilt by ice at London Bridge ? 



The few Christchurch salmon which find their way 

 into the London shops, are sold at one-third above 

 the price asked for those from more distant waters. 

 These fish are caught so fresh from the sea that 

 the salt is hardly washed from their scales ; in the 

 very mouth of the swift fresh river, yet within a 

 stone's-throw of the breakers, and so near to London 

 by rail that the epicure may see the fish upon his 

 dinner-table within a few hours of the time that it 

 was thrown glittering upon the white sea-sand. Their 



1 Mr. M. D. Barton informs me that inside the harbour great 

 hauls of flounders are made. " I once saw," he adds, " one haul 

 of nearly 200 flat-fish, the greater part flounders. They took the 

 appearance of one immense heaving flat-fish, in which live 

 flounders took the place of scales." 



