March 18, 1893] 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
187 
anir terics 
Ox Thursday, Mr. Heniy Young, of Cleeve, 
Goring, Oson., captured a very fine pike weighing 
251b. loz.; it was a very handsome fish, and was 
caught in Cleeve Mill pool, paternostering. It 
has been sent to London to be set up. The 
length was 38in.; girth, 19|in. 
The presence of an otter in the neighbourhood 
of any stream is easily determined by its foot¬ 
prints, which differ from those of any other ani¬ 
mal. The otter has five toes, and the print of his 
pad ” very much resembles a miniature human 
liand, the “ thumb,” however, being imperfectly 
developed. Should these and an abundance of 
“ foil ” at any time alarm riparian^ owners or 
angling associations, our advice is this—send for 
the nearest pack of otter hounds, turn out in 
earnest, and enjoy what is without doubt one of 
the grandest and most exhilarating of our English 
pastimes—an otter hunt. But be satisfied with 
a few kills—do not extirpate the animal, or you 
as anglers may live to rue the day. 
Hatc iiixg of Fish under Hens ix China. —The 
Chinese have a method of hatching the spawn of 
fish, and thus protecting it from those accidents 
which generally destroy a large portion of it. 
The fishermen collect with care from the margin 
and surface of water all those gelatinous masses 
which contain the spawn of fish, and, after they 
have found a sufiicient quantity, they fill with it 
the shell of a fresh hen’s egg, which they have 
previously emptied, stop up the hole, and put it 
under a sitting fowl. At the expiration of a 
certain number of days they break the shell in 
water warmed by the sun. The young fry are 
presently hatched, and are kept in pure fresh 
water till they are large enough to be thrown into 
the pond with the old fish. The sale of spawn for 
this purpose forms an important branch of trade 
in China.— Gardener's Magazine. 
The protection of public and private rights as 
regards the river Thames is receiving a consider¬ 
able amount of attention. There is the proposal 
of the London County Council to add seven of 
its members to the Board of Thames Conser¬ 
vancy, and in opposition to this has been formed 
the Thames Association at Reading, which is 
more or less officered by the conservators, and 
might be termed a Riparian Owners’ Electioneer¬ 
ing Agency. That association seeks to keep 
things as they are, and does not apparently con¬ 
cern itself with public rights. As a sort of 
counterpoise to this, a committee is at the present 
moment working out the details of an Upper 
Thames Public Rights Association, with head¬ 
quarters at 1, Park-street, Maidenhead, and 
branches in the riverside towns. This association 
would find plenty of work in connection with 
obstructions in back-waters, opposition to the 
use of the towing-path and ferries, the acquisi¬ 
tion of camping-out grounds and landing plac^, 
the preservation of the natural beauties of the 
river and its fisheries, &c. It should and doubt¬ 
less will be largely supported by the people of 
London, who regard the Thames as one of their 
natural treasures. It is interesting to note in 
this connection that at a meeting of anglers in 
London, representing all the up-river fishery 
preservation societies, and some five or six 
thousand members of London angling clubs, a 
strong resolution was unanimously passed calling 
upon the Mayor and Corporation and the County 
Council to petition the Privy Council to disallow 
certain bye-laws proposed by the conservators 
which would have the effect of allowing an almost 
unlimited amount of fish destruction by Thames 
fishery owners and persons imagining themselves 
to be in that position. The chairman (Mr. R. B. 
Marston) informed the meeting that upwards of 
£28,000 of public money had been spent in im¬ 
proving the Thames fisheries, and that, according 
to the opinion of Queen’s counsel which had 
been taken that afternoon, the conservators had 
ample powers to altogether prohibit netting 
in the Thames.— The Daily Graphic, March 15th, 
1893. 
FISHEEIES EXHIBITION AT THE 
ROYAL AQUARIUM. 
With the title of “ The Fisheries,” an exhibi¬ 
tion relating to angling was opened on Thursday 
afternoon at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, 
which, it will be remembered, was the scene of 
the late Piscatorial Exhibition. The present 
exhibition has, according to the catalogue, been 
organised by Mr. E. A. du Plat, B.A., of St. 
John’s College, Cambridge, and promises to be 
of a very successful character. Requisites for 
the angler are well to the front, nearly all the 
fishing tackle manufacturers who exhibited last 
March having taken stands, whilst the presence 
of new comers is also noted, and there is much 
to interest the angler in the collection of 
fishing yachts, boats, and punts, which is 
ranged on the floor of the building. Amongst 
the fishing-tackle manufacturers exhibiting may 
be mentioned Messrs. Hardy Bros., of Alnwick ; 
Mr. D. Slater, Hewark-on-Trent; Mr. J. R. 
Richardson, Kingston-on-Thames; Mr. G. C. 
Cooper, High Holborn; Mr. Enright, Castle- 
connell; Mr. Hearder, Plymouth; Messrs. Bernard 
and Son, Piccadilly; Messrs. Ogden and Scot- 
ford, Cheltenham; Mrs. Ogden Smith, Clapham 
Junction, and Mr. Page Wood, Huntingdon. 
The display of tackle promises to be on a much 
more extensive scale than that at the recent 
Piscatorial Exhibition; for, late on Thursday 
afternoon, little more than half the rods, winches, 
creels, and files had been exposed to the public eye, 
yet there was a perfect forest of rods towering 
overhead, and the show cases seemed to be 
rapidly filling with the fisherman’s impedimenta. 
Our representative was informed that one well- 
known tackle dealer alone had brought with him 
close upon 500 rods, and the show will be quite 
a record one when completed. One of the stands 
is devoted to sea-fishing tackle, and here, no 
doubt, many members of the newly-formed 
British Sea Anglers’ Society will gather, whilst 
at the other stalls the trout and salmon anglers, 
and those who follow up the roach and other 
coarse fish, will find ample to entertain them. 
There is an absence of stuffed specimen fish; but 
of the implements used in their capture there is 
a grand assortment, to which we shall refer in 
the next issue of the Fishing Gazette. 
THAMES FISHERY BYE-LAWS. 
the petition to her majesty in council. 
The bye-laws, as many of our readers are 
doubtless aware, were published in the London 
Gazette early in the month. 'The conservators 
have no power to send them in to the Privy 
Council until a month has elapsed after such 
publication. After they have been sent in to the 
Privy Council there will be a month during 
which petitions against them may be preseiRed. 
Possibly the conservators may revise the bye¬ 
laws in consequence of the strong expression of 
opinion on the subject which has been made by 
the two great associations of London anglers and 
the Thames Fishery Preservation Associations. 
Until we know the exact form in which the 
bye-laws are sent to the Privy Council, it is 
hardly necessary to consider further than has 
been already done the petition which was 
explained at the public meeting last week. We 
shall, of course, keep our readers posted up in 
the movements of the conservators, and will 
inform them when the time comes to consider 
the petition and sign it. Should the conservators 
make further alterations in the bye-laws it may 
be necessary to alter the petition. Possibly, one 
might not be required. But if the conservators 
adhere to the determination of stieking to the 
bye laws in their present form, the time for 
senting petitions would probably be between the 
middle of April and the middle of May. That is, 
of course, assuming the conservators send the 
bye-laws to the Privy Council at the earliest date 
they may do so by the Act of Parliament. 
Those who are interested in this matter are 
strongly advised not to come to a, hasty decision 
should the conservators make any fresh proposals. 
It would be most advisable to consult a lawyer 
as to the exact effect of any new or altered bye¬ 
law, and woulu be most unwise to give any pledge 
not to oppose the bye-laws or to express 
unqualified approval of them until full time had 
been taken for discussion and consideration. 
A HAY ON A NORTH-WEST 
YORKSHIRE STREAM. 
Glimpses, from the railway, of some lovely 
pools and streams, in one of the Yorkshire rivers, 
so admirably described in the Fishing Gazette 
last year, by Mr. T. Bradley, led me to try my 
luck there early in July last._ 
Having obtained permission from the various 
landowners, I started by the first train, one dull 
morning, and, after a two hours’ journey, the 
tedium of which was considerably enlivened by 
the varying opinions of my fellow-travellers as to 
the probability of the weather proving “ fine.” I 
reached the little wayside station of B- at 8 
o’clock. A short stroll brought me to the 
prettily-situated village, from which I speedily 
found my way across the bridge to the southern 
bank of the weir-pool, in which I commenced 
operations. A few quiet rises in the head of the 
pool decided me upon trying the effect of a 
floater.” Putting up one of WalbraiTs pale 
olive duns, I rose and pricked, at the first cast, a 
good fish, which rapidly made its way down 
stream. Casting was by no means an easy task, 
owing to the overhanging boughs on either hand, 
but at length, after being “ hung up ” several 
times, and after pricking and losing a brac^ of 
small fish, I managed to secure two brace of half- 
pounders. Soon the heat became intense, and as 
all signs of rising fish, except smelts, had disap¬ 
peared, I substituted a worm tackle for the fly, 
and fished slowly up stream, through some of the 
most charming river scenery I have ever seen, pick- 
ing up here and there a trout worth basketing, but 
more often returning than retaining them. 
At one point, a pair of kingfishers attracted 
my attention, their brilliant colouring contrasting 
so vividly with the moss-covered stones on which 
they perched. One of them shortly entered a hole 
in the bank amongst the roots of a tree, but 
almost immediately came out again. On wading 
across stream, and scrambling up the I®im, 
found, for the first time in my life, a kingfisher s 
nest; it was composed almost entirely of small 
fish-bones, but contained neither eggs nor young. 
A little further along a heron, in splendid pm- 
mage, stood in a rocky pool, motionless, save for 
his crest and breast tuft, which were gently 
stirred by the breeze, and so intently watching 
the pool that I was enabled to creep up within 
cast of him. Twice I saw him strike before i 
disturbed him, and each time a small silvery form 
quivered in his grasp for a second or two and 
then vanished. Never did I regret my inability 
to sketch from nature so much as, when turning 
from this pool, I came upon a series of miniature 
waterfalls, hemmed in ny high, fern-clad rocky 
banks, forming one of the most beautiful spots 
through which it has been my privilege to wander. 
Whilst trying to reach a splendid specimen of 
a crested hart’s tongue fern, my foot slipped and 
down I slid on my side, right under one of those 
small cascades—the effect was cooling! fortu¬ 
nately I had the whole afternoon before me, so 
that by train time I was thoroughly dried by the 
action of wind and sun. At the mouth of a dry 
drain I saw very recent traces of an otter the 
footprints were quite wet, so that he must have 
bolted up just before I came in sight. 
The character of the stream now changed 
entirely, from a rapid-running rocky one with 
well-wooded banks, to a deep sluggish one with 
alder-fringed clayey banks. Wading here was 
almost out of the question, so changing again to 
the dry fly and taking a cast where practicable, 
I sauntered slowly along through a perfect bota¬ 
nist’s paradise, in which meadow-sweet, valerian, 
yellow iris, forget-me-nots, bog-bean, willow- 
herbs, and numberless other plants unknown to 
me by name, lent colour to the scene and perfume 
to the warm summer air. 
A closer study of the flora of this swampy 
land was prevented by the too marked attention 
of a vicious-looking bull which came floundering 
after me. Leaving him deeply mired, I made tor 
the nearest fence, crossed it quickly, and in a 
little while reached C-- station, in ample time 
to catch the afternoon train home, where i 
arrived about 6 o’clock tired, hungry, and sun¬ 
burnt, but thoroughly pleased with my day s 
sport. In all, I basketed ten brace of as hand¬ 
some little trout as one could hope to see on a 
broiling summer’s day; they weighed ]ust a tnfie 
over eleven pounds. • 
