THE BEEAM. 277 



prolific Thames, which holds almost every fresh-water 

 fish in this country., also has its bream. But in the 

 last-named river they are distributed sporadically, some 

 districts being entirely without them. They are taken in 

 the tideway as low down as Kichmond ; but upwards I 

 cannot remember having ever heard of them above Marlow. 

 The best district for them is between Hampton and 

 Chertsey, the Walton and Shepperton waters being the 

 most productive of all. They are a comparatively recent 

 introduction into the river; and my idea is that they 

 originally got into it from some overflowing of the Way, as 

 the carp did, not so many years ago, owing to an overflow- 

 ing of Virginia Water. Not long ago two consignments of 

 fine bream were brought from the Bedfordshire Ouse and 

 safely deposited in the Thames in the deep water above 

 Boulter's Lock at Maidenhead, through the kindness of 

 the Bedford Angling Club, which in return was presented 

 with some barbel by the Maidenhead fishermen for trans- 

 portation to the Ouse. This is a movement in the right 

 direction, and might most advantageously be extended. 

 There must, too, be scores of private ponds within easy 

 distance of the Thames overstocked with bream, the 

 owners of which, I am sure, would readily give permission 

 to the Thames Angling and other Associations to take 

 some of the fish and turn them into the river. There are 

 many Thames districts now untenanted by bream, having 

 deep and comparatively slow waters admirably suited for 

 this fish. It might also be advisable to net a few bream 

 in the districts where they already most abound, and 

 transfer them to others not yet so colonized. 



Here let me add a curious fact in the natural history of 

 the bream which I had almost forgotten. In the spawn- 



