A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE MALACOPTERYGII 12. AUis Shad. C/upea alosa, Linn. Frequent the Wye and Lugg, but are not common ; numerous near Ross, and the Rev. T. W. W. Trumper has taken them at Clifford 13. Thwait Shad. Ckpeajinta, Cxv. These come in shoals, and their noise on the streams soon attracts attention ; they are found in the Lugg up to Tidnor Mill and in the Wye, but not so abundantly as in the Severn ; they are also taken in the Teme at Powick below the weir. In 1906 they were excep- tionally numerous at Hereford, and at Builth great quantities were found dead in the river after spawning. 1 4. Salmon. Salmo salar, Linn. This ' aristocrat of the waters,' as Mr. Gathorne- Hardy calls it, has ever been the Wye's piscatorial glory, and is very plentiful ; but its cultivation for many generations past has been the anxious study of landed proprietors, sportsmen, lessees of fisheries, boards of conservators and literary men, and much angry con- troversy has occasioned varied legislative and local regulations to prevent absolute annihilation of the species, which at one time appeared imminent. Salmo salar chiefly breeds in the upper reaches of the Wye above Clifford, and in the counties of Radnor and Brecon, where serious lawless destruction of the fish on the breeding redds occurs every winter. Many, how- ever, breed near Hereford, and if long frost and drought in winter occur large areas of gravel are exposed and salmon ova destroyed. Mr. David Miller, late of the firm of Miller Brothers, who so long pursued the im- portant fishery industry at the estuary at Chepstow, agrees with me in thinking that many salmon after being in our middle waters in summer months become very much deteriorated for the market, and descend the river at the first important flush to recover them- selves in the sea. They soon return to breed, but certainly not all of them, and those which remain and go up to breed are most likely those which are frequently found dead. In the year when the terrible fungus Sapriolegnia ferax attacked them, large quantities were seen floating down at the estuary, and were avoided by fishermen. Grilse are fairly numerous in August and ascend the river far beyond this county boundary, many of them being small enough to escape the loin, mesh nets; these return to the sea after the netting season is over, and ascend as fine fish in February and March following. As regards lastspring, that beautifiil little fish with five finger marks, my own experience in pisciculture, in hatching, rearing, and keeping them in a little spring for two years, assures me they do not all go down the first year. They however vary as salmon do in spawning, some early in October and some as late as February. After the winter months the little fish develop, or very slowly progress, according to temperature and food. Many no doubt find their way to sea during the following year after hatching, but not in large quantities. Sir Richard Harington has lately found young Salmo salar in his moat at Whitbourne Court from f lb. to i^ lb. weight — probably of three years' growth. His moat tributaries are connected with the Teme, from which the last- spring have doubtless found their way. I reared salmon from ova in the winter of 1856, preserved them a year in a spring pond, and took them in various sizes to the Monnow River at Kentchurch in March 1857. In the following year in March I caught two almost entirely without finger marks. These were probably smaller grown fish, which were just following the rest to the sea. Salmon cannot ascend the mill weirs on this Wye tributary, so my experiment was futile for another breeding tributary. Sir William Jardine and Mr. Jenkins writing in 1856 were both in doubt as to whether the parr or last- spring assumed the migratory dress within 12 or 13 months, and looked forward to the experiments at Stormon field to prove it. Many thousands of salmon have been taken as kelts in the Wye and Severn, marked with fixed labels on the adipose fin, and put back, with the view of ascertaining when and in what condition they came back from the sea, but their recapture with labels is of yzry rare occurrence. The chairman of the Severn Fishery Board, however, records an interesting case this summer.' In June last, at Wellhouse Bay, Lydney, a fine salmon, labelled No. 1019, was recaptured, and turned the scale at 30J lb. It had been marked and put back at Lydney, 31 October 1905, when it weighed 25 lb. The "^y^ Fishery Board reports that last season (1907) twenty-seven heavy fish were killed of 27 lb. weight or over, and three of 401b., the largest being 44-^ lb., length 50 ins., girth 26 ins. 15. Bull Trout. Sa/mo eriox, ]irdme. So slight a difference is there between this species and Sa/mo salar that they are often not distinguished by the angler or purchaser. It is not numerous in the Wye or its tributaries. I caught one at Letton in 1857, and the next morning discerned a remark- able change in colour and numerous spots, more or less dark, all over the fish exactly where trout marks would be, even on the gill shields. In a very interesting correspondence which was published in the Hereford Times of I November 1856, between Sir William Jardine and Mr. T. Jenkins, at Hereford, for the • benefit of the Woolhope Field Club, Sir William Jardine expresses his surprise that the migratory salmon other than Salmo salar should be such rare visitors to the Wye as stated by Mr. Wheatley ; he also regards the name of Sewin as indiscriminately ap- plied to Salmo trutta and Salmo er'tox, and says they are equivalent to the Annan Sea Trout. He concludes by saying that, notwithstanding all he had written, he had still difficulty in making out the geographical distribution of the common salmon. ' Plenty of notices over all the world, but what are they f cer- tainly all are not our British Salmo salar.' Mr. T. : Jenkins in his reply in reference to Sir William Jardine's scepticism as to the rare habitats of Salmo eriox, or Sewin, states that it is the Sewin of South and North Wales, attaining in the Teviot 41 lb. weight, and called 'square tails.' He considers that the salmon trout, though the least distributed of the tribe, prevails in North Wales ; its flesh is equal to the true salmon, but it is shorter than the other two species — the vertebrae of S. trutta being 58, S. eriox 59, S. salar 60. All are occasional visitors to the Wye, but never so numerously or so importantly as Salmo salar. Mr. Lee ^ Hereford Journ. 22 June, 1907. See also an account in the Times, I Aug. 1 907, as to movements of salmon, by Mr. Calder- wood, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries in Scotland. 124
