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C. J. Cornish - The Naturalist on the Thames
plenty of small pike basking in the sun. The largest and bluest forget-me-nots, and water-mints, and big
water-docks and burdocks flourish in the water, and the hedge beyond is full of sweet elder in flower,
and covered with wild hops. Huge elms, partly decaying, and a dark grove of tall beeches line the park
near the moat, and besides water and flowers there is shade and the motion of leaves. If the proposal to
build on such a site leads to a better knowledge of what this ancient park really is, and its value to the
amenities of the capital, it will have done good, not harm. The late Queen recently presented the cottage
in the reserved part of Kew Gardens and its precincts for the use of the public. It would seem that a
similar sacrifice has been made by Royalty in the case of the Old Deer Park, but that the public are
excluded by the Office of Woods and Forests, which has charge of it, and the park neglected and
disfigured. If it were put on the same footing as Richmond Park upon the hill, and communication were
open between the park and Kew Gardens at proper hours, an unequalled domain, still the property of the
Crown, but enjoyed within reasonable limitations by every subject, would be open from Kew Green
practically to Kingston. The line from the boundary of the Old Deer Park is taken on by Richmond
Green, and the towing-path to the Terrace Gardens, formerly the property of the Duke of Buccleuch, and
now of the Richmond Corporation, thence by the terrace and the open slope under it to Richmond Park,
through Sudbrook Park to Ham Common, a series of varied scenery unrivalled even in the valley of the
Thames.
FISH IN THE LONDON RIVER
The capture of a 4-lb. grilse in the Thames estuary in December, 1901, raised some hopes that we might
in course of time see salmon at London Bridge. Mr. R. Marston, a great authority, in an article on "The
Thames a Salmon River," in the Nineteenth Century, has given many reasons why he fears that
this will not be realised. The question is not so much whether the salmon can come up, as whether the
smolts, or young salmon, could get down through the polluted water. But the experiments made are
interesting and deserve every encouragement, and it may be hoped that money will be forthcoming to
make more.
As regards other fish than salmon, their return has been going on steadily since 1890; and their advance
has covered a distance of some twenty miles - from Gravesend to Teddington. The first evidence was the
reappearance of whitebait, small crabs, and jelly-fish at Gravesend in 1892. In 1893 the whitebait
fishermen and shrimp-boats were busy ten miles higher than they had been seen at work for many years.
The condenser tubes of torpedo-boats running their trials down the river were found to be choked with
"bait," and buckets of the fish were shown at the offices of the London County Council in Spring
Gardens. It was claimed that this evidence of the increased purity of the water was mainly due to the
efforts of the Main Drainage Committee of the London County Council. There is abundant evidence that
this claim was correct, for instead of allowing the whole of the London sewage to fall into the Thames at
Barking and Crossness, the County Council used a process to separate all the solid matter, and carried it
out to sea. The results of the first year's efforts were that over two million tons were shipped beyond the
Nore, ten thousand tons of floating refuse were cleared away, and the liquid effluent was largely purified.
It was predicted at the time that if this process was continued on the same scale it would not be long
before the commoner estuary fishes appeared above London Bridge, even if the migratory salmon and
sea-trout still held aloof. Unfortunately there has been some deviation from the methods of dealing with
the sewage, a change from which we believe that some of the officials concerned with the early
improvements very strongly dissented, that has to some extent retarded the advance of the fish. But in
1895 a sudden "spurt" took place in their return. Whitebait became so plentiful that during the whole of
the winter and spring the results were obvious, not only to naturalists, but on the London market.
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