HINDRANCE TO SALMON BY WEIRS. II 



their rise at 1,500 to 1,900 feet above the sea level, 

 and are pure. They extend as follows : The Dove 

 and Churnet, 63 miles ; Wye and Derwent, 67 miles ; 

 the Soar and Wrecke (Leicestershire), 65 miles ; the 

 Idle, 45 miles ; the Blythe and Anker, 35 miles; the 

 Terme, 25 miles ; the Tame, 25 miles ; the Erewash, 

 Sow (Staffordshire), and Devon river, each 20 miles. 

 The whole of the above streams, owing to the rapid 

 fall in most cases, and the purity and cool tempera- 

 ture of their waters, were the annual resort of salmon 

 and other migatory fish in immense numbers a few 

 generations back. What do we find to be the case 

 to-day ? The salmon are debarred from ascending 

 even the main river, except during heavy floods, by 

 senselessly contrived weirs at different points, and 

 with the same exception, the passage up the Derwent 

 is entirely shut off by weirs below Derby. In 

 respect to the Dove, being swift and of excessively 

 rapid fall, it was originally the favourite resort of 

 Trent salmon, many of which would ascend as high 

 as Dovedale. There are some four or five weirs that 

 are rendered passable only when the river is bank- 

 full, after a very heavy shoot of water from the hills, 

 until Rocester is reached, where there is situated a 

 weir that is impassable at all times from its peculiar 

 construction. All this may seem strange to those of 

 our readers who have been led to imagine that the 

 natural buoyancy and strength of jMKtemw*99> fish 

 enables them to overcome both ordinary and extra- 

 ordinary difficulties in the way of impediments to 

 their upward course. It is, nevertheless, the fact 



