i 



ll 



82 



THE TIIAMl'.S AS A TROUT RIVER. 



ports, and store ships, pumping; night and day their 

 filthy bilge water into the stream, that the salmon 

 commenced to fight shy of facing the stinking water, 

 so gradually got more and more scarce. After that 

 time came new plans for drainage, which took all the 

 sewage into the river ; soon after steamboats fol- 

 lowed with their slashing paddles or infernal screws, 

 stirring up all the mud and slush by the ground 

 swell that they created, and, last of all, iron ships 

 came into fashion, which could only be kept afloat 

 by pumping out of their insides the most ' cussed ' 

 poison — for it was all a wash from rusted rotten iron 

 — that could a'most be found, so the salmon quitted 

 the river, and since those days one has not been 

 seen above Gravesend. For you see, sir, he's a 

 cleanly fish, is a salmon, and no way like a barbel or 

 a ' h'eel,' or any of that dirty-feeding kind." 



My informant was unquestionably right, for, as I 

 wended my way from Walton to Shepperton, from 

 Shepperton to Chertsey, and from thence on to 

 Penton Hook, I could not help exclaiming to myself, 

 " Did ever mortal man see a river so admirably con- 

 stituted as a breeding place for the gamest and finest 

 of known fish in the world, as this one certainly 

 is ?" But in spite cf what the most enthusiastic may 

 anticipate, the most ardent desire, and the greatest 

 scientists prophesy, I very much fear that the Thames 

 will never again become a salmon river. 



However, those very qualities which make it so 

 eminently suitable as the temporary residence of 

 Salmo salary fit it pre-eminently to become the per- 

 manent home of its near, and almost equally 

 esteemed relation, Salmo far iu, for an annual visit to 

 the sea is not necessary to the welfare of the last- 

 mentioned species. 



But do the uppei ^.aters of this grand river pro- 

 duce trout in such quantities as would naturally be 

 anticipated from its adaptability to such a purpose } 



J 



