Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/170

A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE and down the river should be unobstructed. To intercept their passage, to catch them when migrating, all sorts of devices have been used and invented, and the statute book is one long story of the attempts of Parliament to secure a free passage for the anadromous fish. From Magna Charta to the present reign, Act after Act has been passed for this purpose, and it is not too much to say that none of them have been effectual. In Worcestershire a great change as to anadromous fish has been made in the last sixty years by the erection of weirs under the Severn Navigation Acts, which have had the effect of retarding the passage of fish up the river, partly by restricting the flow of the tide to below the county boundary, partly by preventing the free run of the fish at all times. Another cause that has operated on the supply of the anadromous fish has been the erection of the large reservoir on the upper waters of the Verniew, one of the Welsh tributaries of the Severn. This reservoir, by impounding the rain-water, has diminished the number of spring and summer freshets, with the result that the anadromous fish have so many fewer opportunities of passing from the tidal to the fresh water, and are detained in the upper tidal water for a length of time instead of merely passing through it, and so are not only unable to come up but are caught there in greater numbers than was formerly the case. A further cause that has tended to decrease the number of the anadromous fish is the fact that the law still allows the undiluted efiluent from sewers to be discharged into a tidal river. The city of Gloucester discharges not only all its sewage but also all its manufacturing refuse, and after a storm, when the fish should be ascending the river, the sewers are washed out by the storm-water, and this efiluent meeting the ascending fish turns them back again to the estuary. These three causes — the obstructions, the decrease of summer freshets and the pollutions — have affected the stock of migratory fish in the Severn, causing it to decrease largely. The flounder, which used to ascend to Shrewsbury and beyond, is not now found above Worcester. Shad and twaite are only casual visitors as far as Worcester, instead of coming as formerly in cartloads. The number of lampreys is very small, and the supply of lamperns is largely reduced. As to salmon and sea trout, the same causes have diminished their numbers, but as to these fish there are special reasons for their decrease ; but for the other anad- romous fish the three causes above mentioned are the reasons they are rapidly ceasing to be Worcestershire fish. As to the catadromous fish, they too are largely decreasing in number, but this is not from the same causes. No doubt the cessation of summer floods has something to do with the catch being less than it used to be, for more eels were caught in a number of summer freshets than are now caught in one or two high floods. But the great cause of this falling off is the capture of the young eels when they are ascending the river in the spring. March, April and May, according to the weather, is the time for the elvers to ascend, and they then ascend in millions. To give some idea of the quantity caught, an elver would be about three inches long, and 132