7 Us, Se NATIONAL MUSEUM SH ISSUED BY AUTHORITY a \ UY OOK: Lssued tn connection with The GREAT AN TERNATIONAL ssp USHERLES LAHIBITION 1%, GREAT BRITAIN| BY WILLIAM SENIOR (“RED SPINNER”’) AUTHOR OF ‘‘ WATERSIDE SKETCHES”; ‘‘By STREAM AND SEA”; ““TRAVEL AND TROUT IN THE ANTIPODES,” &C, Z=~ = i SS —-z Ss ——e FY WILLIAM CLOWES=AND-SONS~ Liwren aq 4 ==> SS INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION AND 13 CHARING CROSS: SW: ONE SHILLING - OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS. i “The following em crlbeske upon Bee Ginccs cognate to the International Fisheries Exhibition are already published, _or in active preparation :— NOW READY. . Demy 8vo., in Illustrated Wrapper 1s. each ; or bound in cioth 25. each, | HE FISHERY LAWS. | By FREDERICK Pottock, Barrister-at- Law, M.A. (Oxon.), Hon. LL.D. Edin. ; Corpus Christi Professor of Juris- prudence in the University of Oxford. ZOOLOGY AND FOOD FISHES. By Grorce B. Howss, Demonstrator of Biology, Normal School of Science, and Royal School of Mines, “South Kensington. a BRITISH MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES. (Zllustrated.) By W. SAVILLE KENT, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Author of Official Guide- books to the Brighton, Manchester, and Westminster! Aquaria. APPARATUS FOR FISHING. By E. W. H. Hotpswort, - F.L.S., F.Z.S., Special Commissioner for Juries, International Fisheries Exhibition ; 3 Author of “Deep Sea Fisheries and Fishing Boats,” ‘‘ British Industries—Sea Fisheries,” &c. THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. By His Excellency SPENCER WALPOLE, Lieut.-Governor of the Isle of Man. THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. Bv James G. BERTRAM, Author of ‘‘ The Harvest of the Sea.” THE SALMON FISHERIES. (//ustrated.) By C. E. FRYER. Assistant Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, Home Office. SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. (/dlustrated.) By Henry LE, F.L.S. THE ANGLING CLUBS AND PRESERVATION SO- CIETIES OF LONDON AND THE PROVINCES. ByJ.P. WHEELDON, late Angling Editor of ‘‘ Bell’s Life.” INDIAN FISH AND FISHING. | (/élustrated.) By FRancis Day, F.L.S., Commissioner ‘for India to International Fisheries Exhibition. A POPULAR HISTORY OF FISHERIES AND FISHER- MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. By W. M. Avams, B.A., formerly Fellow of New College, Oxford; Author of ‘Zenobia: a Tragedy,’ and inventor of the Ccelometer, FISH CULTURE. (//lustrated.) By Francis Day, F.L.S., Com- missioner for India to International Fisheries Exhibition. SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. By Henry Ler, F.L.S. (///ustrated.) ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. e WILLIAM SENIOR . Red Spinner”). IN THE PRESS. FISH AS DIET. By W. SrePHEN MITCHELL, M.A. (Conteh EDIBLE CRUSTACEA. By W. Savitie Kent, F.LS., F.Z.S., hack of Official Guidebooks to the Brighton, Manchester, and Westminster uaria. THE LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. By JoHN J. MANLEy, M.A. (Oxon.) ' FOLK LORE OF FISHES: their Place in Fable, Fairy Tale, Myth, and Poetry. By PHIL ROBINSON. THE OUTCOME OF THE EXHIBITION. By A. J. R. TRENDELL, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Literary Superintendent for the Fisheries Exhibition. LONDON : WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LimiTep, INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION, & 13, CHARING CROSS, ert bos S47 Lnternational Fisheries FEexhubition [SS = LONDON, 1883 =ISH AENG LIN € eReeEAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM SENIOR (“‘ RED SPINNER”) AUTHOR OF ‘‘ WATERSIDE SKETCHES”; ‘* BY STREAM AND SEA”’; ‘“TRAVEL AND TROUT IN THE ANTIPODES,” &c. if | LONDON WIEEIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LimizteEep INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION AND 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W. 1883 CONTENTS: CHAP. [PPNRGENERATL PO URVEV= «Bel cslat 60 9 “= “orn sean I Il. SPRING on a ee AO OOM ae 5 PS III. SUMMER ey Oe Ree ee ey na: ce NS cle} IWARANUEUMNG ace ee 5) Ua es oe en 7 V. WINTER ee oe er ee re ye 8 Sr oS) ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. CHAE TE Ral. A GENERAL SURVEY. THE opening sentence of this Handbook I should like to be the expression of a belief—to wit that, take it all in all, year in and year out, there is no better sport in the world for the angler than in Great Britain. The affected sighing after the good old times, and the gloomy apprehension that this highly favoured country is going to the dogs, with which we are all but too familiar, are shared in by him, of course, if he would live up to his privileges ; nevertheless, grumbling granted, and too much cause for grumbling granted in the same breath, he has nota great deal to complain of. At a very interesting meeting last year at the Society of Arts, when a goodly congregation of anglers met to hear and discuss a paper by Mr. Marston on the propagation of coarse fish, we were all highly amused at a speech from an eminent American pisciculturist, who dilated upon the excellent qualities of the Black Bass, and suggested the propriety of introducing that sportive fish into certain British waters. He incidentally referred to some of the angling paragraphs which appear week after week in the English sporting papers, and raised an easy laugh by dwelling upon the fuss sometimes made over infinitesimal B ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. N catches of fish. Doubtless, there is an element of absurdity in the published reports of an angling contest carried out upon solemnly promulgated rules, and with all the formality of supervision and directions from a responsible committee, yet which results in the gentleman who bears away the most valuable prize winning by an interesting roachlet seven inches long, and a small eel* to make the weight more imposing. Every week, asa matter of fact, if any one cared to search for them, a dozen reports of angling might be selected to support the one-sided view that in this ancient land we are, in the matter of sport, reduced to a very sorry plight. Since that meeting was held, I have, however, employed myself in carefully noting the corresponding literature of the United States, and I find that the angling records there, where everything is so splendidly new and gloriously big, do not materially differ from our own. Time after time have American sportsmen assured me that the piteous cry, in lamentation for rivers overfished and sport de- stroyed, is familiar under the Stars and Stripes, and that the American angler has continually to push out to fresh fishing grounds. In New Zealand and Tasmania, where the best trout-fishing in the world will probably be found within a few years, that plaintive wail would also be echoed but for the obvious sparsity of population, and it will be heard when there are more fishermen to worry the fish. In the angling waters of Great Britain we may at any rate fairly assume that we know the worst. With us, there is no pushing out west until we reach the Rocky Mountain trout. Our sport is confined within a comparatively tiny * T believe in most angling clubs eels are not recognised as weigh- able game. But I saw a match won in the manner described. AGEN ETAL SOLVE Y. 3} ring fence of island surf. It is not possible for any angler to explore and discover a newriver. But let us be thankful, if we know the worst we also know the best. We know that, by careful conservation, by spread of knowledge upon matters connected with fishes and their food, and by the possibilities of applying to their homes some of the sanitary principles which we are beginning to find out ought not to be neglected by human kind, angling in Great Britain has vastly improved, and may in the future be improved to an almost indefinite extent. There are, no doubt, streams once renowned for their sport, that have been as nearly overfished as any streams can be, and there would be room for despair but for the certainty that the evil can and will be remedied. | If a tenth portion, or a twentieth, of the sound advice given in the Papers and discussions of the International Fisheries Exhibition Conferences, and in the Handbooks pub- lished during the summer, were carried out with regard to our lakes and rivers, there would be no necessity to indulge in the unwholesome luxury of sighing after the sleepy old days of our grandmothers. And, in time, theory will ‘have fruition in practice; rivers that are to-day polluted will sparkle clear; trout that are starved, ugly, and unhappy from causes well known zof¢ to be beyond control, will be as merry as the denizens of the Tennysonian brook ; depleted streams will be once more dimpled with rises; and the ’prentice boys may again have the opportunity of protesting against too much salmon, and have that protective clause (purely imaginary, there is every reason to believe), of which so much has been written, inserted in their indentures. In confirmation of the humble belief which is expressed at the beginning of this chapter, let me proceed to the Be2 4 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. recital of a few facts. A deceased statesman, who was himself extremely fond of felling his opponents with statistics, once, when such tough arguments went against him, contemptuously remarked that figures might be made te prove anything. My figures, I hope, will prove simply what they are intended to show, namely, that angling in Great Britain, up to the present moment, is anything but a played-out institution. In the very last month of the present season some magni- ficent takes of salmon have been recorded from nearly all the Scotch rivers. The largest fish appears to have been taken on the Stobhall water, of the Tay, by Lord Ruthven. It weighed 54 lbs., and was of such fine proportions that it was reserved for preservation and setting up in the museum of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science. This, it is said, was not only the heaviest fish killed by the rod in the Tay during the season, but the heaviest since 1870, when a gentleman, on the Stanley Waters, killed a fish of 61 lbs. In one day upon the Stobhall water, thirty-four salmon were killed: and on the following day two rods landed two-and-twenty fish. In the Tweed and Teviot the anglers also obtained sport, sometimes three, sometimes four, and in one instance Col. Vivian and Mr. Arkwright, on the Rutherford Water, killed nearly a dozen fish. On the Mertoun Water the Hon. H. Brougham had twelve fish, and on the Earl of Home’s water (Bingham), a couple of gentlemen used their rods to some purpose, the result of a day’s sport being fish of 24: lbs.,/23 Ibs:, 23 Ibs., 27 Ibs:; 16 lbs. T6lbs trelibse 11 lbs. 8 lbs. and 6 lbs. In another part of the river, a day or two later, Mr. Brougham killed thirteen fish, and on the Floors’ Water the Duke of Roxburghe, in one after- noon, had four—one of 22 lbs., another of 12 lbs., and A GENERAL SORVE Y. 5 two of 1o lbs. Up to the 11th November in the season of 1881 (the Tweed close time being from December Ist to January 31st), I read somewhere that one gentleman at one stand had killed 3,782 lbs. of salmon; while a few days after, 1773 lbs. fell to his rod in a single day, with nine fish. The same angler, in one day, in the next season, took nine fish weighing respectively 25 lbs., 25 lbs., 23 lbs., 193 lbs., 163 lbs., 16 lbs., 16 lbs., 14 lbs., 15 lbs.— total, 170 lbs. The finest sport, probably, in this present season of 1883, was that on the Spey, which, after the removal of the nets, began to afford the rodsters a round of splendid sport. According to a report in the /7ze/d, from which paper I have also taken the figures of this year’s Tweed fishing, General Gipps, on the Ist of October, landed seven; on the 2nd, HWermonethen rd. threes.on the 4th, sevens on (these five; and on the 6th three salmon. On another water, Mr. Todd killed seven fish ; on the 2nd October, six; on the 3rd, six ; and on the 4th, six. On the Gordon Castle Water the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of March, Lord Francis Gordon Lennox, Lady Florence Gordon Lennox, and several visitors every day made most enviable baskets. It is unnecessary to go through all the daily returns in the early part of October, but taking one day I find that the Duke of Richmond to his own rod had six salmon, weighing respectively 27 lbs. 24 lbs. 223 lbs., 22 lbs., 20 lbs., and 19 lbs., besides a brace of. grilse weighing 8 and 10 lbs. respectively. On another day His Grace got a 30 lbs. and a 20 lbs. salmon ; and, on the same day, the Earl of March killed six fish—of 24 lbs., 19 lbs. 15 lbs., 21 lbs., 21 lbs., and 124 lbs. Onanother day the noble earl must have been kept pretty well occupied with his seven salmon—of mips iiselibs, 7 lbs:, 17 lbs. 16 lbs), 18 tbs.and *22) Ibsi} 6 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. and four grilse, three of 10 lbs. and one of 9 Ibs. Evena bishop who was fishing the Water (St. Alban’s) got his three salmon and one grilse, while several ladies were quite as successful. In another part of the country I read that.on the Aboyne section of the Dee a gentleman, in one day, killed his eight salmon—from 8 lbs. to 37 lbs., and on the follow- ing day, with the natural minnow, he had four, the largest of which was 30 lbs. These returns are taken from one paper only, the Fze/d, of October 13th, and they tell of sport that should surely satisfy the most rapacious sportsman. At the same time they convincingly indicate that while such fishing is to be had at home, there is no need to fly to foreign parts, even to try conclusions in the swarming rivers of Canada. As to trout fishing, I do not happen to have on hand a suitable clipping from which to quote, but I can draw upon a recent experience of my own to supply all that is necessary for my argument. Within thirty miles of London, which I did not leave till eleven o’clock in the morning, I killed, mostly with a small alder fly, on one summert’s day, ten brace of trout. The largest, it is true, was a very ugly fish of two pounds and a quarter, but the rest were beyond reproach, and ranged between a pound and a half and half a pound. This, I may be told by some friendly monitor, is nothing to boast about. Nor is it. But it is quite enough to satisfy my wants, and, indeed, the more modest basket of four brace and a half, which on my very last outing in August rewarded seven hours’ hard whipping, made me as happy and contented as a man has a right to be in this vale of tears. The business transacted with the Thames trout appeared in an authentic return prepared by Mr. W. H. Brougham, A GENERAL SURVEY. 7 the Secretary of the Thames Angling Preservation Society, in the summer. He gave the following captures as repre- senting one week’s Thames trouting between Chertsey Weir and Kingston only :—Chertsey Weir, four fish, weighing respectively 72 lbs., 4lbs. 14 oz., 5 lbs., and 3} lbs. ; Shep- perton Weir, four fish, weighing respectively 5}lbs., 44 Ibs., 32 lbs, and 2 lbs.; Sunbury Weir, two fish, weighing respectively 7lbs., and 43 lbs.; opposite the Waterworks Sunbury, one fish weighing 10 lbs. ; Hampton Court Weir four fish, weighing respectively 14 lbs. 10 0z., 7 lbs., 4 lbs., and 2lbs.; Thames Ditton, one fish, weighing 7 lbs. 2 oz. ; Kingston, one fish, weighing 7 lbs. Thus we have a total of seventeen fish, weighing together 99 lbs. 14 oz. The coarse fish have also been kind enough to furnish me with ready examples of the quality of our English sport. Mr. Jardine, who is accepted as the most successful pike angler of the country, as the superb specimens shown by him in the western arcade at the Fisheries Exhibition will indicate, is thus spoken of in a newspaper para- graph :—“ Messrs. A. Jardine and Knechtli had a magni- ficent catch of pike the other day, which were shown at the Gresham Angling Society. Ten fish weighed in the society’s scales. 135 lbs. This represented two days’ fishing. This capture has no parallel in angling history, so far as London clubs are concerned, because the fish shown were only the largest, and they took thirty more, from 3 lbs. to 7 lbs.” In Bells Life of January 7, 1883, I read—* We have seen or heard of some remarkable takes of pike and perch recently. One of the finest shows of pike to be seen this season was that of Mr. H. D. Hughes, jun., last Saturday. Fishing with his brother in a private lake, the united take was forty good fish. The largest, weighing 25 lbs., was 8 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. caught on single gut, and was on view last Monday at Messrs. Alfred and Son’s, Moorgate Street. Equally remarkable was another day’s sport. Mr, Carter Milburn, fishing last week in private water (a lake), took, between eight and ten o’clock on the morning of Thursday, six pike weighing 20 lbs., 17 lbs., 15 lbs, 11 lbs, and 6lbs. This achievement is all the more remarkable when we know that Mr. Milburn has been for years deprived of his left arm. The business was managed entirely with the snap- tackle.” Perch exist in such incredible quantities in many British waters, that we might almost pass them by, and take them, like official reports, as read. In the /7e/d of August 25, however, an account appeared of the capture by two anglers, between eleven and five o'clock, in Slapton Ley, of more than 800 fish. This haul was made on a well-known piece of water which may be fished by all comers on payment of a small fee. The accuracy of the statement was questioned, but the evidence of subsequent correspondents confirmed it, one gentleman stating that he and a friend in five hours fishing took 476 perch. What may be done amongst roach and barbel was duly set forth in the Paper on Freshwater Fishing read at one of the Exhibition conferences by Mr. Wheeldon. In the short space of five hours on a winter day, he killed, in the Hamp- shire Avon—a notable roach river from Ringwood upwards —75 lbs. of roach, numbers of which were considerably over a pound in weight. In another portion of his Paper he stated that he and Mr. Smurthwaite not long ago killed three hundredweight of barbel in one day, near Sonning Weir. In the tidal waters of the Thames during this present autumn, takes of dace of 35 lbs., 26lbs, and 25lbs. have been registered by the Richmond and Twickenham punts- A GAN ENTAUC |S OR VLE 9 men. During the month of July, according to the /’zshzng Gasette, in a lake near Swindon, open on payment to the public, Messrs. Wheatstone and Walker, of the Stanley Anglers’ Club, caught 230 lbs. of tench in five days. One of these anglers, on July 9th, took with rod and line twenty- five fish, nine being over 4 lbs., nine over 3 lbs., and seven over 2 lbs.. The total weight of the days’ angling was 89} lbs. These results, which speak for themselves, I give as they occur to me at the moment, and not by any effort at research. They fairly enough serve the purpose I have in view, and if I wished to extend the list of good baskets, the averages of the last five years, as they may be unearthed from the periodical literature devoted to the subject, would probably show as fine, and much finer sport in some of the branches of angling upon which I have casually touched. But the rapidly increased and increasing number of anglers in Great Britain should be a continual stimulus to exertion in keeping up the stock of fresh-water fish. Such an impetus has been given to the culture of Salmonide of all descriptions (adding latterly to the fish indigenous to British waters, the brook trout of North America), that there is little fear that they will be neglected. Private fish-hatching establishments have sprung up in England as well as in Scotland, from which our colonial rivers are being tenanted, and by which losses and deterio- ration at home may be made good at any time; and the interesting collection of fish cultural appliances at the Exhibition must have been, to hosts of observers during the summer, a serviceable object lesson that cannot fail to produce practical results in time to come. The increase of anglers, however—and this is a point we are too apt to overlook in considering the general question 10 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. —has been chiefly amongst the classes of the population that cannot afford, either in time or money, to fish the best waters for the best fish, The anglers who devote them- selves to salmon and trout can, in the main, look very well after themselves. Give them an adequate legislation that shall ensure fair play against the proprietors and occupiers to whom the netting of salmon is a business, and all other things will, without much trouble, be added unto them. They represent the higher branches of the sport of angling. They are the followers of Cotton rather than Father Izaak, the patron saint of what are termed general anglers ; and the time has gone by when the humble angler, who is content with a modest day’s roach or perch-fishing, is regarded by them with contemptuous indifference. The angling-books of twenty years ago show that the fortunate individuals who could betake themselves to Norway, or atross the St. George’s Channel, or North of the Tweed, were given to looking down from a lofty pedestal upon their less for- tunate brother sportsman, who was dubbed a Cockney, and held up, together with his floats, worms, maggots, and ground-bait, to derision. But that day is past. If space permitted, it would be interesting to trace how the change has been brought about. Broadly speaking, it has been done by the printing-press, and during the last twenty years, not so much by angling-books, as by literature of a more unsubstantial character. The journal- istic fathers in Israel are answerable primarily for the tens of thousands of members of angling clubs, who weekly obtain healthful recreation by the waterside. “ Ephemera” aforetime of Bells Life, Francis Francis, Greville, F., and Cholmondeley Pennell (too young to be a veteran yet, but still ancient enough as an angling writer to come within the category), by their contributions to journals and maga- A GENERAL SURVEY. It zines awakened popular interest ; and it happened that a revolution in the means of communication had come at an opportune time, to add to their teachings the necessary opportunities of putting them into practice. Anglers have now an organ of their own in the Fishing Gazette ; Mundella’s Act was passed for the especial behoof of bottom-fishers ; railway companies are recognizing the brotherhood as of sufficient influence to be considered in the granting of special privileges; and the Fish Culture Association, of which the Marquis of Exeter is President, would never have been started, had not the necessity been felt of looking after the stock of coarse-fish in rivers frequented by the many. It must suffice, however, to take these things for granted, and so I pass on with the hearty wish that all societies, and all movements which aim at assisting and encouraging the fair general angler, may prosper abundantly. The man who is a fair fisher- man, though his ambition soar no higher than a plate of gudgeon from the well-raked gravel, has his place in the common confraternity, and is deserving of consideration. The general angler at the present time is not altogether without his apprehensions. Angling Associations have befriended him, but the awakened interest which he has himself helped to extend, threatens to curtail his privileges. Claims to the ownership of waters hitherto considered public are being advanced with the view of keeping him at a distance. As, however, the Defence Associations should be able to prevent wrong-handed or high-handed proceed- ings, this, though a vexatious sign of the times, is a dif- ficulty that will be removed, one way or another, by appeal to the law. Still, it should be mentioned in a general survey of the English angler’s present position. I confess I see most cause for alarm in the snapping-up of 12 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. every available bit of water by societies of gentlemen who can afford to pay for it. For this there is no help. We live in a free country, and if the owner of a stream, which his forefathers permitted to be fished by his neighbours, chooses to let it at a rental, he has the right to do so. Equally have a dozen city gentlemen, who love the amuse- ment of angling, and can, by their purses, command the means of indulging in it under agreeable conditions, the right, morally and legally, of securing it for a consideration, or without one if they have the chance. Nevertheless, the effect is to limit the waters available to the masses of anglers. The larger rivers beloved of general anglers are open, under easy and equitable regulations. The Thames, Trent, Ouse, and others of that class, are not yet parcelled out into subscription waters, and of smaller streams, like the Lea, and portions of the Colne, it should not be forgotten that the small fee demanded for a day-ticket is more than counterbalanced by the advantages gained by watching and preservation. In the immediate vicinity of large towns, indeed, there is something to be said for the oft-heard complaint that open waters are scarcely worth fishing, unless they are under the charge of some such model guardians as the Thames Angling Preservation Society. The cutting down of ancient privileges is suffered mostly in rural or semi-rural districts, to which town anglers were wont to issue, attracted as much by the pleasures of the country surroundings, as the more direct operations of fish capture. Of the joys of angling I have nothing at present to say, except to remark that it is a sport which, more than any other, owes much of its fascination to features that are only indirectly connected with it. Some years ago a A GENERAL SURVEY. 13 masterly essay (by its editor) appeared in the Mew Quarterly upon trout fishing, and this sentence at once challenged my attention: “One apologist will talk of wandering amid pleasant scenery, rod in hand. The hypocrite! As if the scenery were the inducement, and not the rod, which he affects to speak of so lightly. The best of all apologies is Shakespeare’s, and yet it is a poor one: ‘The pleasant’st angling is to see the fish Cut, with her golden oars, the silver stream, And greedily devour the treacherous bait.’” In a couple of angling books which I had at that time cast upon the waters, I had endeavoured to remind the reader of the countless charms to be found in the lanes and hedgerows through which, on an angling excursion, we pass to the cornfield ; and the objects of interest visible from the footpath amongst the waving grain; and the meadows “painted with delight’? over which we brush through the grass to the river’s brink ; tosay nothing of the harvest which the eye may gather in the intervals of fishing. Wherefore I began to hold court of justice upon myself, if haply it were true, after all, that we were indeed the hypocrites thus described. The verdict was one of “Not Guilty,” and much was I comforted upon taking up the magazine, in fear and trembling as to what would follow, to find the accusing article itself flavoured with a very pretty sprinkling of poetry and sentiment. All in sweet form came the fine summer day, and the rill trickling down the remote hillside “among club rushes and the blue water-grasses, till it reaches the valley, finding its way along, a mere thread, half lost to sight at times beneath the herbage, then stagnating for a space into a little pool,’ &c. It was my turn now. “The hypocrite! 14 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. mused I. “As if he climbed the hillside to catch trout in the thread-like trickle!” The old names by which the pastime of angling is known are, it will be noticed, significant on this head. It is “The Gentle Craft,’ and “The Contemplative Man’s Recreation.” To be sure, there are plenty of anglers of all ranks who are pot-hunters pure and simple. They take their surly way to the water, doggedly settle down to slay, and are deaf and blind to the compensations which Nature, in her kindlier mood, offers against that too frequent ill-luck for which the angler in Great Britain, in Greater Britain, and all the world over, must be pre- pared. But the rule is otherwise ; the majority of anglers in this country, at all events, do take appreciative note of the scenery ; do keep a friendly eye upon bird, beast, and insect ; do delight in the foliage of the coppice, the whisper- ing of the sedges, and the long gay procession of flowers, even from the curious blossom of the coltsfoot, which is probably the first to greet him in the earliest spring days, to the yellow stars of the solitary ragwort, which shivers in the late October days. It stands to reason that it should be so. Amongst out- of-door sportsmen the angler is peculiar. The deer-stalker has little to look at but barren hills misnamed a forest, or the broad sky above him; the fox-hunter has his horse and his own neck to study, and the briskness of impetuous advance to divert his thoughts; the fowler’s eye has a definite duty to perform. The angler, if using a fly-rod, has frequently-recurring “waits,” what time he moves from stream to stream; the bottom-fisher, too, has a superfluity of enforced leisure at his disposal. And over and above all the British angler lives in a country whose rural parts are unique in their winsomeness. Walton’s A GENERAL SURVEY. i famous old book savours of honeysuckles, hawthorn hedges, sycamore trees, and crystal streams. He was a typical angler, and the type remains. We may now pass to a more practical branch of our general survey, and having glanced at some of the characteristics of the situation as concerning the angler, may take a birdseye view of the inland waters of Great Britain. I do not, however, pretend to attempt anything like a guide to the rivers, nor even to furnish a com- prehensive -list. Zhe Angler's Diary deals in brief with all the fishing districts of the United Kingdom, and, indeed, of the world, so far as they are known, and to that useful little book shall the inquiring reader be referred. All that I am able to do is to hint at the main features of our chief angling resorts. A bulky handbook might, for example, be written upon the one section comprising the lochs and rivers of the “Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood.” Placing, as is but meet, the migratory Salmonidze at the top of the list, Scotland naturally first claims our notice. To the ordinary angler, however, all but a few of the prime waters, which are a source of rich revenue to Scotland, are close boroughs. The fishings, like the shootings, are rented at enormous figures, although there are, here and there, given to the sojourner at particular hotels, the privilege of wetting his line in odd reaches of well-known salmon rivers. There is never so much difficulty in obtaining per- mission to fishfor Salmo fario, or, as our Scotch friends call it, the yellow trout, and if some travellers complain of persistent refusals to applications for permission, I must personally say that I have always had reason to be grateful for ready kindness in various parts of the country. 16 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. On the whole, the angler visiting Scotland cannot do better than take his technical instructions about salmon fishing from Francis Francis’s ‘Book on Angling.’ Perhaps no English angler has had more experience of the Scotch rivers, from the angler’s point of view, than he. It is no secret to the initiated that the list of salmon and sea- trout flies, which he gives for the various rivers and lakes of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, cost him years of labour, and that in compiling them he received the assistance of some of the most experienced of British anglers. What the principal Scotch rivers produce I have already illustrated by figures. The Tweed is held in high esteem as an angling river, though it is not so long, and does not form so large a watershed as the Tay. The Kirkcudbright- shire Dee, the Cree, and the Luce, are small rivers in the south of Scotland, and the Annan and Nith, the former famous for its sea-trout and herling, also run into the Solway Firth. The Tay is a superb salmon river, and like the Tweed has, in its lower part, to be commanded from a boat. It yields, with its many tributaries, good spring fishing. Aberdeenshire is a famous county for the angler, for it can boast of its Dee and Don, and a number of smaller streams. Inverness, also, is a notable angling county, containing as it does the magnificent Spey. This river has peculiar characteristics for the angler, having high banks and much rough, rapid water, demanding the exercise of all his skill. In this county is also the Ness, where the public have access on given days to a portion of the water near the Highland capital. In the Beauly, some years ago, Lord Louth killed to his own rod 146 salmon in five days, and this beautiful river is still first-rate for fish. Upon the Thurso, in the extreme north, the fishing opens earlier than in any other portion of the United Kingdom. A GENERAL SURVEY. 17 Argyllshire, the country of the Mac Callum More, has, in addition to its lochs, a number of small salmon rivers, such as the Awe, the Orchy, and the Leven. In Banffshire the best salmon rivers are the Deveron and Fiddich. In Ber- wickshire are the Blackadder and the Whitadder, two good trouting streams. The Findhorn, once a phenomenal salmon river, is in Elginshire, and it is on record that years ago 360 salmon were caught in the same pool in one day. This, however, was exceeded by another miraculous draught of fishes described by the Earl of Moray, who wrote to his countess that 1,300 salmon had been taken ina night. There is fair fishing occasionally even now in the Findhorn, but ruthless nettings below have considerably spoiled it. The Lossie, in the same county, is good for sea-trout and yellow trout. Forfarshire has the North and South Esk. The Clyde, whose falls are fatal to the ascent of salmon, is in its upper waters excellent for trout, and it is of additional interest to anglers since the experiment of introducing erayling into Scotland has there been successfully carried out. The best rivers of Perthshire are the Garry, the Tummel, the Lyon, the peerless Tay already referred to, and the Teith. Roxburghshire, besides the Tweed, which is famous for both trout and salmon, many of its casts being historical, and which has romantic historical associa- tions with Melrose, Dryburgh, Norham, and Kelso, has also the Teviot, which, like the Ale; the Bowmont, the Jed, the Kale, the Rule, and other such minor streams, are of excellent repute for trout. Sutherlandshire, the paradise of loch fishers and the stronghold of the Salmo ferox, has the Brora, an early salmon river, where the fish run large ; the Borgie, excellent for grilse and sea-trout ; the Inver, where the wandering angler staying at Loch Inver can fish, for a daily payment ; the Lexford, a short river, but that still is C 18 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. the second best salmon river in the county, and the Shin one of the best rivers in the Highlands. As for the lochs, one might almost be pardoned for using the familiar expression that their name is legion. Loch Lomond, between Dumbarton and Stirlingshire; Loch Awe, in Argyllshire; Lochs Tay, Rannoch, Earn, and Katrine, in Perthshire; Lochs Ness, Lochie, and Lagan, Inverness-shire ; Lochs Maree, Luichart, and Fannich, in Ross-shire, at once occur to us 3; while below the Grampians there are Loch Leven, with its wonderful fishing, and St. Mary’s Loch in the Yarrow country. Some of these grand sheets of water contain the destructive pike, and perch, which are only less fatal to trout by reason of their smaller size. But in the hundreds of lochs which lie twinkling within the hollows of the bonny Scotch mountains there is an abundance of small trout, and heavy specimens of the Salmo fario, while many are inhabited by the great lake trout, the night prowler that so seldom takes a fly, and to which the name of fervor has been aptly given. Ireland is not so much patronised by English anglers as Scotland, though there is more and cheaper general sport at his command. The Green Island, manifold as are its physical beauties and angling capabilities, has been not a little neglected. Of late years there has been some excuse, perhaps, for timorous tourists, though surely never was fear more ungrounded ; but to the angler, for some incomprehensible reason, Ireland has never been such an attraction as Scotland, though, as I have hinted, a stranger who can only afford to expend a moderate amount of money in his amusements, and desires‘a variety of fishing, would do much better in Ireland than in Scotland. The largest pike in Europe, I believe, are roaming in the depths of the big lakes ; it is the land par excellence of the white trout ; A GENERAL SURVEY. 19 and all round the coast, from the merry but much pre- served Bush, within easy hail of Giant’s Causeway, to the early Lee, in county Cork, the salmon come and go with beautiful regularity. One of the most delightful angling tours I ever had was in Ireland, fishing my journey from Sligo through Connemara to Galway by easy stages, and taking whatever came in my way—perch, pike, brown trout, white trout, and salmon—with praiseworthy impartiality. Rivers, mountains, land and sea, the courteous people, even the pigs and wretched hovels—everything, in short, but the too freely weeping skies, contributed to the sum total of a pleasant holiday. The angling in Ireland, though very good, is not what it was when the chapters of ‘Wild Sports of the West’ were written. The fish are, generally speaking, of the same class as those to be found in the Scotch rivers—salmon and trout everywhere, and in the larger lakes leviathan pike, and here and there bream. There are gillaroo in Lough Erne, and pollan in Lough Neagh. It goes without saying in these days, when the taste for angling has ex- tended so much, that the free fishings are not numerous. Still there are many bits of open salmon fishing, and lakes that are to all intents and purposes free ; and the sea and brown trout fishing is plentiful enough to satisfy the most rapacious appetite. Boats are cheap and the boatmen very modest in their demands, and what is more, the latter are always satisfied with the treatment they receive, while their humorous sayings and doings are a source of continual amusement. One salmon fishing licence will do for the whole of Ireland, which is a great advantage. The open season, as elsewhere, is from February 2nd to October 31st, with the usual exceptions of special districts. The prin- cipal rivers in the south are the Blackwater, the Lee, and € 2 20 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. the Bandon, while upon the wild shores of Bantry Bay and by Glengariff there are plenty of trout streams. Close by, in county Kerry, there are the Killarney lakes, overrun during periods of the year by tourists, spoiled by the use of cross lines, but still, in early months, not hopeless for the rodster. Continuing our way up the western coast, we come to the estuary of the magnificent river Shannon, which con- tains samples of most of the fish to be found in Ireland. Songs have been sung in praise of the salmon of this river, and it has obtained more prominence in the literature of sport than any other Irish river, which is but natural, seeing that it runs from Leitrim in the north, passing through a number of lakes, the last of which is the prolific fishing ground of Lough Derg. County Clare, being some- what out of the way, and not much written or talked about, is but little frequented by anglers, but the best pike fishing in Ireland is probably to be obtained in some of its lakes. Galway, according to its angling value, should have been mentioned first. In this county is the famous fishery of Ballynahinch, the white trout station of Glendalough, and the Galway river, in which the salmon fishery has been brought to a high pitch of perfection ; it drains Corrib and Mask, in the latter of which trout of the phenomenal pro- portions of twenty pounds are very occasionally taken. From Galway the angling tourist makes his way through Connemara by Westport to Ballina, a famous centre on the Moy, with Lough Conn not far distant. Mayo is the country of which Maxwell wrote, and there are privileges in connection with its fisheries that make this station the most attractive of all for the man of moderate means, though the upper portions of the Moy are strictly pre- served. Lough Arrow is in the next county, Sligo, but A GENERAL SURVEY. 21 the best fishing is in the river which runs from Lough Gill through the county town. Still further north, in wild and beautiful Donegal, we have on the southern boundary of the county the river Erne, with the grand lough of that name stretching down by Enniskillen into Fermanagh. The short length of water between Lough Erne and Ballyshannon used to be, and, for aught I know to the contrary, now is, one of the favourite salmon reaches in the country; and hard by, in Leitrim, we have the Bundrowes river and Lough Melvin, in which some good fish, at reasonable charges, may be obtained, especially during April and May. Across, in the other corner of Ulster, there is the Bann, with Lough Neagh. These are the principal angling resorts in the sister island; but we should not forget the Blackwater, the Suir, the Slaney, and the pretty trout streams within convenient distance of Dublin. Asa rule, it may be taken that the angler, more particularly the angler who will be satisfied with sea-trout, brown trout, occasionally gillaroo, and lively pike fishing, can never very well do wrong in going to Ireland. The principality of Wales is a delightful country for the trout angler who will be asa rule content with small fish, and who can make up for the rest with the most pic- turesque and beautiful scenery. In North Wales the principal rivers are the Conway (good occasionally for salmon), the Dee, the Dovey, the higher waters of the Severn, the Clwyd, and the Verniew; while in South Wales, where the sewin gives spirited sport in the autumn, and the brown trout run to a larger size than in the small lakes and mountain streams of the north country, we have the Ogmore, Taff, Taw, Teme, Towy, Usk, Monnow, and Wye. The salmon fishing of the Usk is proverbial, and I 22 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. have in my possession a photograph given to me by the late Mr. Crawshay, of Cyfarthfa Castle, at the close of a day’s successful trout fishing, during a frosty day in the month of February a few years ago, representing nine salmon killed by him on October 22nd, 1874, with the fly ; and a singular thing in connection with this day’s sport was that the three largest fish, one of 22 lbs., one of 19 lbs. and one of 16 lbs., were hooked foul, the salmon being, as they too often are, in a more playful than feeding humour ; yet carried their gambols too far, and were nicked accordingly—two in the pectoral fin, and a third in the side. These fish were placed upon an unhinged door, which was tilted up by a couple of men to allow Mr. Crawshay, who was a very skilful amateur photographer, to take their likenesses. Considering the amount of poaching to which the English rivers, up to within ten or fifteen years, were subjected, and the gross neglect from which they long suffered, it is marvellous that in all parts of the country the commoner kinds of fishing should be so good as they are at the present time ; and considering the number of anglers who test their value upon every available day of the year, it would not be surprising if the rule was to toil all day and catch nothing, and if the language of every English angler was that of the prophet of old, “ The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks.” But, as I have remarked on a previous page, we have more to be thankful for than to complain of. It would be invidious to single out one county as better than another, were it not that our best. trouting districts are limited. There is probably no county in England that has not a trout stream of some kind ; and tributary streams and brooklets known only to a few, and very naturally A GENERAL SURVEY. 23 kept secret by them, sometimes keep up very ample stores of surreptitious trout. But the true trouting counties are comparatively few. Beginning with the south, Cornwall may be passed by with a brief reference, although all the streams trickling down from the backbone of the hills which constitute the Cornish highlands, contain more or less of trout. Devonshire is quite another matter. Its larger trout rivers are numerous, and salmon are taken in Taw and Torridge, in Exe and Tavy, while the interior is intersected in all directions with lively little streams. There are a few strictly preserved trout streams in Dorset- shire, and a good salmon river in the Stour, which joins itself with the Avon at Christchurch, the Avon itself being swelled by a famous grayling river, the Wiley, from the Salisbury Plain region. The largest river in Great Britain, and the one to which most importance is attached by the main body of general anglers, is, of course, the Thames, with its magnificent watershed representing a basin of over six thousand miles. It is not so long as the Severn by some twenty odd miles, but it is fed by a rich array of tributaries right and left. In its higher portions, under the influence of the Cotswold hills, there are the Windrush and Coln, both capital trout streams. In the Kennet, the most important of its southern tributaries, the richest specimens to be found in England of the Salmo fario are taken. To all London anglers the Roden, the Lea, the Colne, Wick, and Thame are familiar, while the trout and trout fishing of the Wandle and Darenth, the one on the west and the other on the east side of southern London, but both almost within hearing of the roar of its. traffic, are traditional. In the midlands there are the brilliant Derbyshire streams, which may be considered midway, in physical characteristics, between the 24. ANGLING IN. GREAT BRITAIN. pastoral rivers of the Hampshire lowlands (the Itchen and the Test) and the mountain burns of Wales and Scotland. The Derbyshire streams, being for the most part open to the purchasers of day tickets, are a good deal fished, but there are plenty of respectable trout and grayling yet to be taken, and the anglers of the big cities—London in the south, and Manchester and Liverpool in the north—have in them splendid opportunities of exercising the art of fly- fishing from spring, to the close of the grayling season, when spring comes again. The Derwent, Wye, and the Dove rising in the mountains that characterise the peak country, are tributaries of the Trent, from which a few salmon are taken, and which affords everlasting sport to the Notting- ham anglers, who have founded a school of their own, and whose reserves of coarse fish seem to be little affected by the contributions levied upon them. A kindred river to the Trent, though running in a southerly instead of a northerly direction, and delivering its tribute, like the Trent, into the Humber, is the Yorkshire Ouse, into which, galloping down from the Pennine chain, are delivered a succession of first-rate trout and grayling streams, the Swale, the Yore, the Nid, and the Wharfe; and on the other side, easily commanded from Scarborough, and in its earlier waters running under the north wolds, is the Yorkshire Derwent, the grayling fishing of which is not inferior to that of the Wharfe. Lancashire, in days long since passed, was probably an excellent angling county throughout, but the Mersey and the Irwell have been years ago pressed into the service of manufacture and commerce, and we have to go into north Lancashire to the Ribble, Lune, Hodder, and the waters of Ribblesdale, before anything like adequate sport can be obtained. The lakes of Cumberland, and its fine river the A\GENERAL SORVEY. 25 Eden, still maintain their long-established character ; and on the other side of the country, the north and south Tyne have not entirely lost their salmon, and certainly not their trout. Above Newcastle, the Wansbeck, the Coquet, Breamish and Till, keep up the reputation of the border streams for trout angling. The Severn I have not passed by intentionally. But it is as much a Welsh as an English stream, having a decidedly Welsh origin, and by its tributaries watering a good deal of Welsh country. At any rate, I do not mention it last because it is least, for we have to thank the Severn for some of the unsurpassed grayling rivers of Worcestershire and Herefordshire. The Teme and the Arrow, with the Lugg, a tributary of the Wye, are not second to those of any part of England for the quality and quantity of their grayling. On the eastern coast of England, other than the trout streams of the border, there are some coarse fish rivers in Essex and Suffolk, and three particularly good general angling streams, namely, the Ouse (Bedfordshire and Huntingdon- shire), which is famous for its bream and pike, the Nen, and Welland. In east Anglia there is a special description of angling, to which reference will be made in another portion of this pamphlet, while beyond the Wash there is the fen country, with the Ancholme and Witham; upon these the Sheffield anglers swoop in their hundreds, and, when fishing matches are arranged, by their thousands, during the summer season, and, spite of the rows of rods, un- commonly good baskets are occasionally taken away. The angling of England is more prosaic, taking it as a whole, than in either of the other countries that compose the national union. Until we get considerably north of the Trent, and within measurable distance of the lakes and mountains of Cumberland, our landscape scenery is softly 26 ANGLING IN GREAT BRITAIN. pleasing rather than imposingly wild and romantic. Our rivers for the most part flow tranquilly through fat meadows, upon which the mildest mannered kine graze their fill. They are at every turn brought under tribute by the millowner, sometimes becoming hopelessly de- moralised as a reward for the service they render. They do not thunder through gloomy granite gorge as, in some portion of their career, do the rivers of Scotland. With impetuous torrent they do not dash around massive boulders, as do well-remembered Irish salmon streams. They flow to the sea, seldom leaping, or boiling, or switling, after the manner of rivers cradled in mountain heights. Thanks, however, to the liberally distributed tributaries, and the drainage of the hill countries, the English angler has, in the wide variety of waters from which he may take his choice when meditating a piscatorial excursion, the opportunity of forming acquaintance with many a bright, swift-running river, making music in such solitary dales as those of Derbyshire, or amongst the rocky walls and over- hanging foliage characterising many of the Devonshire streams. ‘There is, in short, some sort of angling in every part of the country. Even the Isle of Wight has a trout stream if the tourist only knew it, and the trout of the Isle of Man have certainly outlived the animal which is the sign manual of the Manxman. In an essay of this description the writer is confronted with the difficulty of deciding how to act, without dwelling too much or too little upon any one subject. Clearly the orthodox method of dealing with the many-sided topic of angling will not answer. Space would altogether fail me to deal in detail with the various methods of angling, or with the thousand-and-one appliances which are recom- A GE INE IA ey SiC VLEs 27 mended for the successful prosecution of the art, and which have of late multiplied to a bewildering extent. I have already declined the duties of guide to localities, and in the same spirit I must put aside the pleasant functions of tutor in the rudiments. Nor would such a ré/e be neces- sary even if it were expedient. There is nothing new to be said about practical angling, after such past masters as Francis Francis, Stewart, Stoddart, Cholmondeley Pennell, Manley, Greville F., Keene, Foster, Alfred, Martin, and others too numerous to mention have had their say. Easy, therefore, is my conscience in shaking off the temptations which have beset me to attempt a technical disquisition upon the best method of tying a fly, making and fitting up rod and line, handling it from bank or boat, impaling a worm, or compounding ground bait, except so far as may point a moral or adorn a tale. These are most essential subjects to study and master let no man gainsay, but I will courteously ask the reader to permit me to deal with the subject, in what space remains, in the spirit—if I may employ the expression—rather than in the letter. This, after not a little cogitation, I have resolved to do by endeavouring, so far as in me lies, to conduct the reader through the Angler’s Year, making spring, summer, autumn and winter develop the essential types of angling in Great Britain. CHAPTER EL SPRING. THE boundary lines between the seasons, into which we will take the liberty of separating the angler’s year, must for our present purposes be somewhat more elastic than those of the calendar. At the very beginning, for example, we shall find it convenient to assume that spring begins in February, for in that month both salmon and trout anglers have a legal right to commence operations ; and we are bound by all considerations of honour and tradition to deal with them in the forefront. There is no British freshwater fish absolutely out of season in February. On the con- trary, some of the coarse fish—a designation which, spite of its unsatisfactory character, we may continue to use for want of a better—are at this period in good condition, more particularly if winter continues to have a firm grip upon the infant year. It sometimes, but of late rarely, happens that February is a tolerably pleasant month, and in that case general angling is prosecuted with the ardour which comes of knowing that the fence months are hurrying on apace. The coarse fish just now, however, must bide their time, and be content with swimming about in other chapters. Besides, who would forgive the heretic who suggested a thought of the common herd, while the kings and princes of our watery realm were at hand? It is a moot point with many anglers whether salmon or trout fishing be the SPRING. 29 highest order of sport. For myself, I hold the salmon to be the king of fish, but trouting to be the choicest form of angling ; in the word salmon, including all the migratory species, and by trouting meaning also fly-fishing for erayling. This predilection for the trout rod is a whim of my own, I am aware, in which few will probably give me countenance. At the same time, there are foolish folks of some experience on lake and river who take a like view, and I mention the matter here to justify the statement that the point with some is an open one. But there can be no question that salmon and trout between them represent the science, ethics, poetry, rhetoric (and all the rest) of the delicious sport of angling. Had every salmon-fisher a record to show like some of those transcribed in the preceding chapter, he might sing everlasting anthems in praise of that phase of angling. We should then all be salmon fishers according to our opportunities. But it is weary work toiling through the day with one “fish” as a result, and as often as not with nothing to show for the pains. That day, in the first weeks of the season, will probably be cold and wet and blustering, and the play uncommonly like downright hard work. Still the big rod is plied, the long cast essayed upon every likely pool, the fly changed (changed too often by some men), and every tactic observed. The angler loves his work, and when it runs in the direction of salmon there are many special breezes that keep his zeal alive. , « R. W. Macsetu, A.R.A. 2.—Running Ashore « «© « « e« « CoLIn HuntTEeER. 3.—A Fisher Girl Sie tet \ehican 6 teil) er ONWATISON: 4.—Fishing Boats off Hastings . . Davip Law. 5.—Going for Bait . .... » Otto LeEypg, R.S.A, 6.—Boat Building on the Yare . . C.J. Warts. 7.—Preparing for Sea—Hastings . C. P. SLOcoMBE. 8.—Ramsgate Harbour. . .. » J. P. HESELTINE, 9.—Fisherman’s Haven . . . « « J. MacWHIRTER, A.R.A. 10.—Stranded—Rye. . . . , + » WILFRID W. BALL Price 15s. the complete set. Lonpon : WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, LIMITED, INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION, & 13 CHARING CROSS. PAPERS oF THE CONFERENCES Held in connection with the GREAT INTERNATIONAL ___ FISHERIES EXHIBITION. NSTITUTION LIBRARIES eavoserrceress (UT INU At | H.R.H. the Princz or WALES (Presid: 3 9088 00723 NOTES ON THE SEA FISHHE WW 2s ata 5 UE —_— OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. By H.R.H tue Duke of EpinsurGH, K.G. 1s. THE FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. By Pro- fessor Brown Goope, M.A. OYSTER CULTURE AND OYSTER FISHERIES IN THE NETHER- LANDS. By Professor HuBRECHT. . PRINCIPLES OF FISHERY LEGISLATION. By Right Hon. G. SHaw- LEFEVRE, M.P. ON THE CULTURE OF SALMONIDAE AND THE ACCLIMA- TISATION OF FISH. By Sir James Ramsay Gipson MAITLAND, Bart. FISH DISEASES, By Professor HUXLEY, P.R.S. THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF FISHERMEN, By Professor LEONE Levi. THE FISHERIES OF CANADA. By L. Z. Joncas. PRESERVATION OF FISH LIFE IN RIVERS BY THE EXCLU- SION OF TOWN SEWAGE. By the Hon. W. F. B. Masszy MAINWARING. - MOLLUSCS, MUSSELS, WHELKS, &c., USED FOR FOOD OR BAIT. By CHARLES HARDING. COARSE FISH CULTURE. By R. B. Marston. ON THE FOOD OF FISHES. By Dr. F. Day. THE HERRING FISHERIES OF SCOTLAND. By R. W. Durr, M.P. LINE FISHING. ByC.M.MuNDAHL., | FISH TRANSPORT AND FISH MARKETS. By His Excellency SPENCER WALPOLE. FOREST PROTECTION AND TREE CULTURE ON WATER FRONTAGES. By D. Howitz, Esq. SEAL FISHERIES. By Captain TEMPLE. FISH AS FOOD. By Sir HENry THomMPsoNn. STORM WARNINGS. By R. H. Scort. ON THE DESTRUCTION OF FISH AND OTHER AQUATIC ANIMALS BY INTERNAL PARASITES. By Professor CopBoxp, F.R.S., F.L.S. See RESULTS OF THE EXHIBITION. By Professor E. RAY AMKESTER A aoe FISHERY SOCIETY FOR GREAT BRITAIN. By RYER CRUSTACEANS. By T. Cornisu. TRAWLING. By ALFRED ANSELL. ee BASIC EOF, LEGISLATION ON FISHERY QUESTIONS, By 1eut.-Co OLA, MACKEREL AND PILCHARD FISHERIES. By T. Cornisu. ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF LOBSTERS. By W. Savitie KENT. FRESHWATER FISHING (other than Salmon). By J. P. WHEELDON. SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES. By Davip MILNE HomgE, F.R.S.E. THE FISHERIES OF IRELAND. By J. C. BLoomriEp. ON IMPROVED FACILITIES FOR THE CAPTURE, ECONOMIC TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SEA FISHES, AND ON THESE MATTERS AFFECT IRISH FISHERIES, By R. F. Wats, of Kinsale. IN THE PRESS. THE FISHERIES OF OTHER COUNTRIES. By Commissioners for Sweden, Norway, Spain, &c., who took part in the Conference. LONDON: WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, Limitep, INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION, & 13, CHARING CROSS, LONDON ; PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.