FISHES The rivers of Herefordshire are a great feature of the county. The Lugg, with its tributaries the Arrow and the Frome, waters the north and eastern parts ; in the south the Monnow, into which, through the Golden Valley, runs the Dore, forms the boundary between Herefordshire and Mon- mouth ; in the east the Leddon flows through Bosbury and Ledbury, and thence out of the county to join the Severn at Gloucester ; while in the north-eastern corner the Teme divides Herefordshire from Worcestershire. The very beautiful Wye, which enters the county at Hay, in the parish of Clifford, traverses the county for about 80 miles and leaves it at a point known as ' Biblins ' within two miles of Monmouth, where it is joined by the Monnow. The river has a natural fall of about 4 ft. per mile in this distance, and its rapid flow has proved itself capable in flood time of raising the normal level at Hereford Bridge in one night by 14 ft. The upper waters of the Wye above Clifford being upon rocky Silurian strata formation, abound in rapid runs over miles of stony beds with no still pools to break its swift course ; here, where ground-produced food and certain favourite flies are absent, it is scarcely to be expected that trout and grayling will be found ; these species find their way to the smaller streams and more congenial sur- roundings of the tributaries of the Wye. As regards coarse fish, of which so many are named in this article, an interesting list is given by Mr, Willis Bund in Country Life, 31 March, 1906. After a three months' drought, when our rivers were remarkably low, he was present at a pump-out of a weir on the Teme below Powick. The following varieties of fish were found : two salmon, 18 lb. and 10 lb. ; dace, bleak, roach — a large number over i lb.; three sackfuls of chub over Jib., and many smaller ; six bream ; one samlet ; ruff, pike, 3 lb. and 7 lb. ; eels, but none large ; loach, bullheads, and a few flounders ; no trout nor grayling. The late Mr. Stephens used to invite his friends to witness a small mesh netting of coarse fish in the Wye in the month of June, when the fish con- gregate for breeding, and he would net 2 tons of them in a day, contending that he benefited the salmon and trout varieties in so doing — a contention which, however, is very disputable. He certainly captured a few large pike and some few large chub ; of roach and dace, none very large; of salmon and trout very rarely either sort, and if any, they were restored to the river at once. The descriptions in the following list are confirmed by the various industrious writers whose life-long studies and abundant literature on Sal- monidae and coarse fish afford most valuable and interesting information, especially the works of Sir William Jardine, Yarrell, and Houghton. 122
