33 
FISHES OF THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE TRENT IN 1622, 
RECORDED BY MICHAEL DRAYTON IN THE *POLY-OLBION °; 
WITH NOTES ON THEIR PRESENT OCCURRENCE. 
Ji. W. CARR; MAA. EELS. 
Professor of Biology in University College, Nottingham. 
[IN the 26th Song of Drayton’s Poem the ‘ Poly-Olbion,’ published in 
1622, reference is made to the fishes then known to occur in the Trent 
near Nottingham, and as this enumeration constitutes, as far as I can 
learn, the earliest record of Nottinghamshire fishes, it is perhaps of 
sufficient interest to reproduce here, together with notes on the present 
occurrence of the species mentioned. In spite of the enormous growth 
of the city since Drayton wrote, and the pouring into the river of great 
volumes of foul water from the numerous dyeing, bleaching, tanning, 
and other works, as well as the effluent from the sewage Senin, the ee 
sh-fauna seems to have undergone comparatively little change during 
the interval of 275 years since the publication of the ‘ Poly-Olbion. | 
In her peculiar praise, lo thus the River sings: 
hat should I care at all from what my name I take, 
That 7hzrty doth import, that thirty rivers make 
My greatness what it is, or thirty abbeys great, 
That on my fruitful banks times formerly did seat: a. 
Or thirty kinds of fish, that in my streams do live, i 
To me this name of 7ren¢ did from that number give. 
And of the British Floods, though but the third I be, 
Yet Thames and Severne both in this come short of me, 
For that I am the Mere of England, that divides . 
The North part from the South, on my so either sides, 
That reckoning how these tracts in compass be extent, 
Men bound them on the North, or on the South of Zren¢; 
Their banks are barren sands, if but compar’d with mine, 
Through my perspicuous breast the pearly pebbles shine ; 
I throw my crystal arms along the flow’ry valleys, 
Which lying sleek and smooth as any garden-alleys, 
Do give me leave to play, whilst they do court my stream, 
And crown my winding banks with many an anadem: 
My silver scaléd skuls ' about my streams do sweep, 
Now i in the shallow fords, now in the falling deep: 
: Sku 1, skull, or scull ; all used for ‘school’ or tioat? and at derived 
deli Anglo-Saxon seoln, which meant both a ‘school’ and a ‘ multitude.’ 
; A hiegty 1898. 
