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C. J. Cornish - The Naturalist on the Thames
oldest salesman in that curious survival of antiquity, the free eel market held at Blackfriars Stairs on
Sunday mornings; and, in addition, he has added to his original industry another branch of "fishing" of a
different kind, of which he is acknowledged to be the greatest living exponent. He is an expert at
grappling and "creeping" for objects lying on the bed of the river, work for which his life-long
acquaintance with the contours of the bottom and the tides and currents makes him particularly well
fitted. Consequently he is now regularly employed by many firms and shipping companies to fish up
anything dropped overboard, whether gear or cargo, which is heavy enough to sink. The oddest thing
about this double business is that all the summer, while he lies and sleeps in his "Peter-boat" at Chiswick,
he is in receipt of telegrams whenever an accident of this kind chances to happen, summoning him down
river, to the Docks or the Pool, and these telegrams are delivered to him (I think by the ferryman) on his
"Peter-boat." But the regular time for this other Thames "fishery" is in winter. Then the eels "bed,"
i.e., bury themselves in the mud, and the eel man goes either "gravelling," that is, scooping up gravel
from the bottom to deepen any part of the channel desired by the Conservancy, or doing these odd
salvage jobs. Getting up sunken barges is one side of the business. These are raised by fastening two
empty barges to them at low tide, when the flood raises all three together, owing to the increased
buoyancy. But of "fishing" proper he has had plenty. He hooked and raised the steamship
Osprey's propeller, which weighed six tons. This was done by getting first small chains and then
large ones round it, and fastening them to a lighter. Half-ton anchors, casks of zinc, pigs of lead, copper
tubes, ironwork, ship-building apparatus, and the like, are common "game" in this fishery. Other
commodities are casks of pitch, cases of pickles, boxes of champagne, casks of sardines in tins, bales of
wool, and even cases of machinery.
This form of Thames fishery increases rather than diminishes. Years ago he picked up under London
Bridge a case of watches valued at L1,500. He was only paid for the "job," as the loss was known and it
was not a chance find. Another and more sportsmanlike incident was an "angling competition," among
himself and others in that line, for some cases of rings which a Jew, who became suddenly insane, threw
into the river off a steamer. He caught one case, and another man grappled the other. Sometimes in
fishing for one thing he catches another which has been in the water for months, as, for instance, a whole
sack of tobacco, turned rotten. I do not know who "that young woman who kept company with a
fishmonger" was, though he assumes that I do. But he certainly rescued her, and a gentleman who
jumped off London Bridge, and several upset excursionists on various parts of the river. Also, as will be
guessed, he has caught or picked up a good many corpses. I hear, though not from him, that on the Surrey
side five shillings is paid for a body rescued, and on the Middlesex side only half-a-crown; so Surrey gets
the credit of the greater number of the Thames dead. His life-saving services have been very
considerable, though he does not make much account of them. He was instrumental in saving two women
and six men on one occasion, and on another "three men and a soldier." The distinction is an odd one, but
it holds good in the riverine mind.
[1] At the close of the season 1901-1902 in March, one of the men tells me that it has been the best year
he has known. He caught sixteen eels one night with the net only. Very fine bream have also appeared as
low as Hammersmith.
BIRDS ON THAMES RESERVOIRS
Now that every large town and many small ones are adding new reservoirs, often of great size, to hold
their water supply, these artificial lakes play an important and increasing part in the wild life, not only of
the country, but of cities, and even of London itself. Immense reservoirs have been made near Staines,
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