FISHES 



probably at least a dozen would be required to go to an ounce — say two 

 hundred to a pound. It is no unusual thing to take a ton of elvers in a 

 night, that is over a million and three-quarters. It is true that this is 

 only on the spring tides and for a few nights, but it may be said con- 

 fidently that in an average season from twenty to thirty million elvers are 

 caught. The facilities for catching have been greatly increased by the 

 erection of the weirs, yet surprise is sometimes expressed that the supply 

 of eels diminishes. 



Passing from the division between anadromous and catadromous fish 

 a word should be said on the changes that have been made in the Severn 

 itself so as to render it less fit than formerly for Salmonidce and better 

 adapted for Cyprinidce. Before 1842 the shoals and fords on which fish 

 could spawn began from the point, or perhaps below the point, to which 

 the tide regularly ascended, and continued all the way up the stream. 

 The river was then more fitted for Salmonida than for Cyprinida ; but the 

 improvements required for the navigation have caused all these fords to 

 be dredged out and the river is practically turned into a canal. The result 

 is that there are about twenty miles of canalized river between the head 

 of the tideway and the first ford, all deep water, in no part of which 

 could a salmonoid fish spawn, but in any part of which he could be 

 netted. Further, across the water at intervals are placed four weirs that 

 require a rise in the river for the fish to get over them. This water 

 is now so well adapted for coarse fish that they increase and multiply in 

 it to an unlimited extent, as all netting for fish other than salmon is illegal 

 in the Severn district. The consequence is that certain kinds of fish, not- 

 ably pike and chub, have greatly increased. The increase in the fish food 

 has not been at all in proportion to the increase in numbers, the result 

 being that the fish have largely decreased in size, and although probably 

 in actual numbers there are more fish than there were, the average size 

 has greatly diminished. The lack of food has driven the coarse fish into 

 the tributaries, where they used never to be seen, with the result that 

 they have greatly thrived, and driven the trout higher and higher up the 

 streams so that the area of water now frequented by trout in Worcester- 

 shire is yearly decreasing, and that frequented by coarse fish increasing. 



The Worcestershire fish are therefore undergoing a rapid change. 

 Probably in the course of this century the anadromous fish will have 

 become if not extinct at least only casual visitors, the catadromous fish 

 will be present in lessened numbers, while the streams will be peopled 

 mainly with Cyprinidce. The occurrence of any specimen of the 

 Salmonidce will be a noteworthy event. 



As far as can be made out from any existing evidence the fish that 

 have hitherto been found in the Worcestershire rivers were very much 

 the same as at present. A hst of fish, but probably not an exhaustive one, 

 is given in 1678 by the Statute 30 Car. II., c. 9. There it appears that 

 the fish were salmon, trout, pike, barbel, chub and grayling. Salmon is 

 mentioned as ' salmon, salmon marl and salmon peal.' The salmon peal is 

 {Salmo truttd) the sea trout, but what the ' salmon marl ' is it is impossible 



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