140 SALMON FOR THE THAMES 



taken so kindly to our climate and soil as to propagate 

 itself far more freely than our one native maple (Acer 

 campestre). 



XXXIV 



It appears that a serious attempt is about to be made 

 to restore salmon to the Thames. Doubts 



Sctlmon 



fortiie have been expressed first, as to the possi- 

 bility of this noble fish revisiting a river of 

 such dubious purity; and, secondly, as to the view 

 which Thames anglers for coarse fish will take of the 

 advantage of a proceeding which some of them imagine 

 will override their undoubted rights. Well, to take the 

 last objection first, there is not the slightest ground for 

 apprehension. The example of the Trent might carry 

 reassurance in that respect. Nottingham anglers are 

 proverbially the most skilled practitioners in coarse 

 fishing, and the presence of salmon in that river does 

 not interfere in the slightest degree either with the 

 abundance of coarse fish, or with the sport of those who 

 take them. 



Then as to the condition of the river who that 

 knows the Tyne at Newcastle, which in its upper 

 course is one of the best salmon-angling rivers in 

 England, can doubt that the Thames estuary is 

 limpidity itself compared to the sable current that 

 flows through the northern town ? It is argued that 

 the tidal portion of the Thames is far longer than that 

 of the Tyne, and that, whereas salmon might pass 

 through a short course of greater pollution, they would 



