|
C. J. Cornish - The Naturalist on the Thames
stomach five times in eighteen days. Unfortunately, in the hatching jars there is no such store of natural
food as in the sea. The result is that the young lobsters have to eat each other, which they do with a
cheerful mind, if they are not at once liberated. When they have reached their fifth month they go to the
bottom and "settle down" in the literal sense to the serious life of lobsters.
I believe no one ever saw trout spawning in the Thames, though there are plenty of shallows where they
might do so. Consequently the Thames trout must be regarded as a fish which was born in the tributaries
and descended into the big river, and as the mouths of these trout-holding tributaries, such as the Kennet
at Reading, the Pang, the lower Colne, and others, become surrounded with houses and the trout no
longer haunt the embouchure, so the tendency is for fewer trout to get into the Thames. Still,
places like the Windrush, the Evenlode, and the other upper tributaries hold rather more trout than they
did, as they are better looked after; and the Fairford Colne is still a beautiful trout stream. For some
reason, however, the Thames trout do not seem fond of the upper waters, where if found they seem to
keep entirely in the highly aerated parts by the weirs, but mainly haunt the lower ones from Windsor
downwards, and one was recently caught in the tidal waters below the bridge. It is very difficult to see
why there are so few above Oxford, or from Abingdon to Reading. It is not because they are caught, for
very few are caught. A friend of mine who had lived on the river near Clifton Hampden for some eight
years, could only remember eight trout being caught in that time. I thought I was going to have one once.
I was fishing for chub with a bumble bee, and a great spotted trout rose to it in a way which made me
hope I was going to have a trophy to boast of for life. But he "rose short," and I saw him no more. I
believe all the brooks which rise in the chalk hills of the Thames Valley have trout in them. One
runs under the railway line at Steventon. A resident there had quite a number of tamed trout in the
conduit which took the stream under the line, and used to feed them with worms as a show. At the head
waters of the Lockinge brook, close to the springs, I saw the trout spawning on New Year's Day. The big
fish had wriggled up into the very shallowest water, and were lying with their back fins and tails out, I
suppose from some instinct either that this water is the most highly aerated, or because floods do less
harm on a shallow, or for both reasons combined. At Long Wittenham, though I never saw a trout in the
river (they are, however, taken there), Admiral Clutterbuck recently had a fine old stew pond in the
picturesque old grounds of the Manor House cleaned out, and stocked it with rainbow trout. They did
well and grew fast, and so far as I know, none died. The water was not suited for their breeding, but the
fish were very ornamental, and rose freely to the fly.
FOUNTAINS AND SPRINGS
Is it true that our fountains and springs of sweet water are about to perish? A writer in Country
Life says "Yes," that in parts of the Southern counties the hidden cisterns of the springs are now
sucked dry, and that the engineers employed to bring the waters from these natural sources to the village
or the farm lament that where formerly streams gushed out unbidden, they are now at pains to raise the
needed water by all the resources of modern machinery. When the old fountains fail new sources are
eagerly sought, and where science fails the diviner's art is called in to aid. At the Agricultural Show the
water-diviner sits installed, surrounded by votive tablets picturing the springs discovered by his magic
art; and County Councils quarrel with the auditors of local expenditure over sums paid for the successful
employment of his mysterious gift.
It is not strange that the springs of England should still suggest a faint echo of Nature-worship. If rivers
have their gods, fountains and springs have ever been held to be the home of divinities, beings who were
by right of birth gods, even though, owing to circumstances, they did not move exactly in their circle.
|
