THE THAMES AS A TROUT RIVER. 



A DESIRE for quiet and change of air some months 

 ago induced me to take up my residence in one of 

 those picturesque villages that are to be found upon 

 the margin of Britain's most famous river, the 

 Thames. My temporary home was near Chertsey, 

 and within a hundred yards of the stream itself. In 

 October I went« there, and employed the interval 

 between that month and the following April — by far 

 the most interesting half of the year — in studying 

 the instincts, habits, and modes of life of the various 

 species of fish found in the adjoining waters. 



Before writing of the grand Salmo fario that are 

 occasionally captured in the Thames, I will refer to 

 traditions and records that I have gathered in this 

 neighbourhood from fishermen and others whose 

 ancestors lived on its banks 300 years ago. That is 

 a long period to go back, I am well aware, but re- 

 search and inquiry have satisfied me that I am 

 stating what is true, and that no deception has been 

 practised upon me in regard to the progenitors of my 

 instructors, and the information imparted to me by 

 their descendants. A very old man, still hearty and 

 robust, informed me a few days since, on Chertsey 

 Bridge, that his grandfather often told him of tlie 

 quantities of salmon that frequented the Thames in 

 his day. " Not so long ago, neither," said the 

 veteran, *'onIy a hundred years or thereabouts ; but 

 in the French war, in ' Boney's ' time, the river up to 

 London Bridge was so blocked by men-of-war, trans- 



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