A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



obvious that disease will be cultivated and the 

 stock offish will be reduced to a number that 

 the decreased volume of water is able to 

 support. 



There is another influence at work which 

 is most disastrous in its effects upon fish life 

 and fish reproduction in our rivers and 

 estuaries, viz. the pollution of the water by 

 sewerage and refuse from manufactories, etc. 

 The present conditions of many of our 

 rivers from these causes are bad enough, but 

 with increasing population, unless new 

 measures are adopted, they are certain to grow 

 worse. 



The Eden running into the sea by the 

 straits of the Solway Firth is an object lesson 

 providing the most convincing proof of the 

 damage that sewerage inflicts upon a fishery, 

 and its insanitary condition at the present time 

 reflects discredit on the authorities of Carlisle 

 and the district. 



A mass of filth is poured into the river 

 within a short distance of Carlisle, contamin- 

 ating air and water alike. Lower down it 

 surges to and fro with the tides, being 

 continually augmented by the refuse from the 

 city drains, and what obstruction it causes to 

 running fish may be imagined from one fact 

 alone, viz. that those netting below the main 

 bulk of it are not anxious for its removal. 1 



Several autumn floods are required to sweep 

 away the sewerage and settlement which 

 collect below Carlisle while the Eden is low 

 during the summer months. Thus the ascent of 

 autumn salmon is retarded and the fish sicken 

 with disease, while later on in the year much 

 of the ova shed upon the lower beds is suffo- 

 cated through the want of pure water. 



After a series of floods in the spring or in 

 the autumn, which unfortunately occurs but 

 seldom, the fish are less languid and pay more 

 heed to the angler's lure. Again, of the bulk 

 of the fish sickened by the sewerage below, 

 some few will take the fly after becoming 

 recruited in health, while resting for a week or 

 two in the purer middle waters, having partly 

 shaken off the effects of the poison or disease, 

 but large numbers die. 



Even within recent times angling for both 

 salmon and trout was obtainable in Cumber- 

 land for quite a small annual payment, and 



1 Since these lines were penned a statement 

 was semi-officially made at the meeting of the 

 Eden Fishery Board held in Carlisle in October, 

 1902, to the effect that the town council of 

 Carlisle had plans in their possession for treating 

 the sewerage of the city, and this scheme they 

 hoped to carry out at a cost of 60,000. There 

 would thus seem to be some chance that this 

 question may be dealt with before long. 



466 



fair good fishing it was ; but, in the Eden at 

 all events, many of the rods fished for the 

 markets rather than for sport, and I once saw 

 a man kill a spring fish of 28 Ib. and take it 

 forthwith by train to Carlisle, where he sold 

 it for 2s. per pound and was again fishing the 

 pool within little over two hours. 



According to my judgment but few of such 

 professionals were good salmon anglers, for 

 many of them tried to bully fish into taking 

 by continual casting over them, and when 

 playing a fish they proceeded more as if the 

 market value of the salmon than the fish itself 

 were on the hook. 



At trout-fishing on the contrary many of 

 them were first-rate hands, they fished more 

 freely and were not in such awe of the quarry. 

 In the use of the fly, the creeper and the 

 clear-water worm the old hands were expert, 

 and it was not uncommon for a rod to creel 

 20 Ib. to 25 Ib. weight of trout between the 

 hours of 7 p.m. and early morning in the 

 summer months. 



Until it became illegal, fishing with the 

 otter, or 'jacking' as it was called, was 

 practised on the Eden, and to within recent 

 years some of the old hands were using their 

 big jacking-reels for fly-fishing. 



Circumstances have much changed upon 

 the Eden and the other rivers during the last 

 twenty years, as elsewhere, and there is very 

 little fishing now to be obtained as described 

 above upon small payment, and what little 

 there may be is overfished. 



Angling rents on the Eden and on the 

 other rivers of the county are about on a par 

 with those of the best rivers of Scotland as 

 compared with the number of fish taken by 

 the rod, and the rents paid for trout-fishing 

 are very high also ; however one obtains a vast 

 amount of walking, a great deal of casting and 

 unlimited opportunities of wearing out good 

 gut and flies in the attempt to lure ' dour ' fish 

 into taking. 



Legislation administered with a firm hand 

 might easily improve the situation and without 

 much delay, but at present the fact is not to 

 be denied that the salmon of the Cumberland 

 rivers are very bad takers. 



This trait in their character has unfortu- 

 nately led to the indiscriminate and selfish use 

 of baits, both natural and artificial, by some 

 who, upon finding that they do not obtain 

 sufficient fish (I do not use the word sport 

 advisedly) for their money, become desperate 

 and pelt the pools from morn until eve with 

 baits mounted upon compound tackle. Even 

 before the water has had time to fine down 

 after a flood this class of angler weights 

 his baited cast with heavy leads, he casts the 



