14 SALMON FISHERIES 



penalty of 100, and of 50 for every day during 

 which such offence was continued. 



The provisions of this Act appear to be very 

 wholesome, and it is desirable they should be applied 

 in all similar enactments and extended to the whole 

 country, and the enforcement of them be committed 

 to proper persons to secure the object in view that 

 of cleansing our streams and making them wholesome, 

 with as little injury to the manufacturers and as 

 little expense to the cities and towns adjoining the 

 rivers, as may be practicable. 



I have selected the Thames as the worst case on 

 record : with an area of 5,162 square miles, when 

 compared with the Tay, the Spey, or Waterford, it 

 should produce salmon worth 50,000 a-year. The 

 sewage is now carried into the sea, and the pollutions 

 in the upper streams suppressed. If all the weirs 

 could be abolished, and steam power substituted for 

 water power, and the navigation converted into a 

 canal, then these artificial weirs or cesspools for filth 

 would be removed, and the water would flow in its 

 pure state to London, and the metropolis would have 

 an abundant supply of water from its own river, and 

 save some of the enormous outlay of 8,600,000 in 

 bringing water from the sources of the Severn. We 

 doubt if any one would estimate the cost of substitu- 

 ting steam power in place of the milling power, and 

 altering the navigation to a canal, at an annual charge 

 of 344,000 a-year, the interest at four per cent, on 

 8,600,000 ; and London would then possess an un- 

 limited supply of pure water from the Thames with 

 some salmon in addition. 



In order to explain the condition of the Thames, I 

 have made a few extracts from the Report of the 

 Commissioners on the Prevention of Pollutions of 

 Rivers on the state of the Thames, 1866. " The 

 waters of the River Thames rise in the Cotswold 



