FISHES From the Bells of Ouseley to Lower Inglesham, the Thames, if we omit one small portion, borders the county of Berkshire, a distance of over a hundred miles. Into it flow many tributaries, and thus, so far as river fish are concerned, the county is abundantly supplied. The anadromous fish, namely those which ascend the river from the sea for spawning purposes, are not present owing, it is believed, to the obstructions caused by the weirs and locks, and to the pollution of the estuary. But of the catadromous fish, the eel descends from the river to spawn in the sea, the resulting young returning to the river recently vacated and never revisited by their parents, pollutions and obstructions notwithstanding. An elver can climb over nearly anything which is moist, and makes nothing of a waterfall which would be fatal to the ascent of salmon and sea trout. In the early years of the century Berkshire possessed in the Thames a salmon river. In the second edition of Salter's Angler 's Guide, published in 1 8 1 5, is the remark that the salmon is a fish which is seldom taken by the angler in south Britain, although ' some are found in the Thames,' which the writer believed were justly considered to be superior to any bred in other rivers. He speaks of them being caught in the Thames and Medway with such baits as a raw mussle or cockle taken clear from the shell, and adds that in 1789, which would of course be within his recollection, a salmon was taken from the river Thames that weighed 70 Ib. and was sold ' at Mr. Howell's, the fishmonger opposite America Square in the Minories, at one shilling per pound.' There is no doubt that salmon were getting scarce in Salter's day. In May, 1901, the Thames Salmon Association, of which Mr. W. H. Grenfell, M.P., is the president, turned into the Thames at Tedding- ton 600 salmon smolts. Since that date smolts have been turned in to the number of about 1,500 to 2,000 a year. Some years ago a large number of salmon fry were turned in by Buckland and others, but these small delicate fish were not of a size to insure or even render success probable. The Thames Salmon Association intends to continue turning in fish for five or six years, and if they find that any return from the sea, salmon stocking will in all probability be carried out on an adequate scale. It is just possible therefore that before long we may find Berkshire possessing a salmon river of its own. The writer has seen an old manuscript book kept by Mr. Alnutt, who lived towards the close of the eighteenth century, and was a former clerk of the old Thames Commissioners, in which were instructions how to fish for ' skeggers,' namely with light float tackle baited with a gentle. ' Skegger' was a 132
