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Essay(s) by Richard Jefferies
The Sacrifice To Trout
Richard Jefferies
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       How much the breeding of pheasants has told upon the existence of other creatures in fur and feathers I have already shown; and much the same thing is true of the preservation of trout. There is this difference, however: that while the pheasant has now produced its utmost effect, the alterations due to trout are increasing. Trout are now so highly and so widely preserved that the effect cannot but be felt. Their preservation in the numbers now considered necessary entails the destruction of some and the banishment of other creatures. The most important of these is the otter. Guns, dogs, traps set under water so as not to be scented; all modes of attack are pressed into the service, and it is not often that he escapes. When traces of an otter were found, a little while since, in the Kennet--he had left his mark on the back of a trout--the fact was recorded with as much anxiety as if a veritable wolf had appeared. With such animosity has the otter been hunted that he is becoming one of the rarest of wild animals here in the south. He is practically extinct on the majority of southern streams, and has been almost beaten off the Thames itself. But the otter is not likely to be exterminated in the sense that the wolf has been. Otters will be found elsewhere in England long after the last of them has disappeared from the south. Next the pike must be ousted from trout-streams. Special nets have been invented by which pike can be routed from their strongholds. Much hunting about quickens the intelligence of the pike to such a degree that he cannot be secured in the ordinary manner; he baffles the net by keeping close to the bank, behind stones, or by retiring to holes under roots. Perch have to go as well as pike; and then comes the turn of birds.
       Herons, kingfishers, moorhens, coots, grebes, ducks, teal, various divers, are all proscribed on behalf of trout. Herons are regarded as most injurious to a fishery. As was observed a century ago, a single heron will soon empty a pond or a stretch of brook. As their long necks give them easy command of a wide radius in spying round them, it is rather difficult to shoot them with a shot-gun; but with the small-bore rifles now made no heron is safe. They are generally shot early in the morning. Were it not for the fact that herons nest like rooks, and that heronries are valued appurtenances in parks, they would soon become scarce. Kingfishers prey on smaller fish, but are believed to eat almost as many as herons. Kingfishers resort in numbers to trout nurseries, which are as traps for them: and there they are more than decimated. Owls are known to take fish occasionally, and are therefore shot. The greatest loss sustained in fisheries takes place in the spawning season, and again when the fry are about. Some students of fish-life believe that almost all wild-fowl will swallow the ova and fry of trout. It must be understood that I am not here entering into the question whether all these are really so injurious; I am merely giving a list of the "dogs with a bad name." Moorhens and coots are especially disliked because they are on or near the water day and night, and can clear off large quantities of fry. Grebes (di-dappers or dabchicks) are similar in habit, but less destructive because fewer. Ducks are ravenous devourers; teal are equally hated. The various divers which occasionally visit the streams are also guilty. Lastly, the swan is a well-known trout-pirate. Besides these. the two kinds of rat--land and water--have a black mark against them. Otter, pike, perch, heron, kingfisher, owl, moorhen, coot, grebe, diver, wild-duck, swan, teal, dipper, land-rat, and water-rat--altogether sixteen creatures--are killed in order that one may flourish. Although none of these, even in the south of England--except the otter--has yet been excluded, the majority of them are so thinned down as to be rarely seen unless carefully sought.
       To go through the list: otters are practically excluded; the pike is banished from trout streams but is plentiful in others; so too with perch; herons, much reduced in numbers; owls, reduced; kingfishers, growing scarce; coots, much less numerous because not permitted to nest; grebes, reduced; wild-duck, seldom seen in summer, because not permitted to nest; teal, same; swan, not permitted on fisheries unless ancient rights protect it; divers, never numerous, now scarcer; moorhens, still fairly plentiful because their ranks are constantly supplied from moats and ponds where they breed under semi-domestic conditions. The draining of marsh-lands and levels began the exile of wild-fowl; and now the increasing preservation of trout adds to the difficulties under which these birds strive to retain a hold upon inland waters. The Thames is too long and wide for complete exclusion; but it is surprising how few moorhens even are to be seen along the river. Lesser rivers are still more empty, as it were, of life. The great osier-beds still give shelter to some, but not nearly so many as formerly. Up towards the spring-heads, where the feeders are mere runlets, the scarcity of wild-fowl has long been noticed. Hardly a wild-duck is now seen; one or two moorhens or a dabchick seem all. Coots have quite disappeared in some places: they are shot on ponds, having an ill reputation for the destruction of the fry of coarse or pond fish, as well as of trout. Not all these changes, indeed, are attributable to trout alone; but the trout holds a sort of official position and leads the van. Other southern rivers, with the exception of the Thames, are for the most part easily preserved.
       They run through cultivated country, with meadows or cornfields, woods or copses, and rarely far through open, unenclosed land. A stranger, and without permission, would often find it difficult to walk half a mile along the bank of such a stream as this. Consequently, if it is desired to preserve it, the riparian owners can do so to the utmost, and the water-fowl considered injurious to fish can as easily be kept down. It is different in the north, for instance, where the streams have a background of moors, mountains, tarns, and lakes. In these their fastnesses birds find some security. From the coast they are also recruited; while on our southern coasts it is a source of lament that wild-fowl are not nearly so plentiful as formerly. Of course in winter it often happens that a flock of wild-fowl alight in passing; but how long do they stay? The real question is, how many breed? Where trout are carefully preserved, very few indeed; so that it is evident trout are making as much difference as the pheasants. Trout preservation has become much more extended since the fish has been studied and found to be easily bred. Advertisements are even put forward recommending people to keep trout instead of poultry, since they can be managed with certainty. It seems reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the influence of trout on wild creatures will continue to extend for some time yet. Already where trout preservation has been carefully carried out it has produced a visible impression upon their ranks. In ten years, if it were abandoned, most of these creatures would be plentiful again on the waters from which they have been driven; I should myself be very glad to see many of them back again.
       But if preservation has excluded many creatures, it has also saved many. Badgers, in all probability, would be extinct--really extinct, like the wolf--were it not for the seclusion of covers. Without the protection which hunting affords them, foxes would certainly have disappeared. The stag and fallow-deer are other examples; so, too, the wild white cattle maintained in a few parks. In a measure the rook owes its existence to protection; for although naturalists have pointed out its usefulness, the rook is no favourite with agriculturists. Woodcocks, again, are protected, and are said to have increased, though it is open to question if their increased numbers may not be due to other causes. Cultivation banishes wild geese and snipe, but adds to the numbers of small birds, I fancy, and very probably to the number of mice. When the country was three-fourths champaign--open, unenclosed, and uncultivated--it cannot be supposed that so many grain-eating birds found sustenance as now. The subject is capable of much development Enough, however, has been said to show that Nature at present is under artificial restraints; but her excluded creatures are for the most part ready to return if ever those restraints are removed.
       [The end]
       Richard Jefferies's essay: The Sacrifice To Trout
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'County-Court Day'
After The County Franchise
An Agricultural Genius-Old Style
An Ambitious Squire
Among The Nuts
April Gossip
The Bank. The Old Newspaper
A Barn
The Bathing Season
Beauty In The Country
Birds Climbing The Air
Birds Of Spring
Birds' Nests
Bits Of Oak Bark
The Borrower And The Gambler
The Breeze On Beachy Head
A Brook
Buckhurst Park
By The Exe
Choosing A Gun
Churchyard Pheasants: Before The Bench
Cicely's Dairy. Hilary's Talk
Cicely. The Brook
Clematis Lane
The Coming Of Summer
The Coombe-Bottom
The Cottage Charter. Four-Acre Farmers
Cottage Ideas
Country Literature
Country Places
The Country Sunday
The Country-Side: Sussex
The Crows
The Cuckoo-Fields
The Dawn
Downs
Egg-Time: A 'Gip'-Trap
An English Deer-Park
An English Homestead
An Extinct Race
The Farmer At Home
A Farmer Of The Olden Times
Farmer Willum's Place: Snipe Shooting
The Farmers' Parliament
Ferreting: A Rabbit-Hunter
Field Sports In Art: The Mammoth Hunter
Field Words And Ways
Field-Faring Women
The Field-Play
The Fine Lady Farmer. Country Girls
Fleeceborough. A 'Despot'
Flocks Of Birds
Footpaths
Forest
The Gig And The Four-In-Hand. A Bicycle Farmer
Going Downhill
Golden-Brown
The Golden-Crested Wren
Grass Countries
Hamlet Folk
The Haunt Of The Hare
Haunts Of The Lapwing
Haymaking. 'The Juke's Country'
Heathlands
Herbs
Hodge's Fields
Hodge's Last Masters
Hours Of Spring
House-Martins
The Hovering Of The Kestrel
The Idle Earth
January In The Sussex Woods
John Smith's Shanty
The July Grass
Just Before Winter
A King Of Acres
The Labourer's Children, Cottage Girls
The Labourer's Daily Life
Landlords' Difficulties. The Labourer As A Power. Modern Clergy
Leaving His Farm
The Lions In Trafalgar Square
Locality And Nature
A London Trout
The Low 'Public' Idlers
Luke, The Rabbit-Contractor: The Brook-Path
Lurcher-Land: 'The Park'
Mademoiselle, The Governess
Magpie Fields
The Makers Of Summer
A Man Of Progress
Marlborough Forest
Meadow Thoughts
Mind Under Water
Mixed Days Of May And December
A Modern Country Curate
The Modern Thames
My Old Village
Nature And Books
Nature And Eternity
Nature And The Gamekeeper
Nature In The Louvre
Nature Near Brighton
Nature On The Roof
Nightingale Road
Notes On Landscape Painting
Nutty Autumn
Oby And His System: The Moucher's Calendar
Okebourne Chace. Felling Trees
The Old Punt: A Curious 'Turnpike'
On The Downs
On The London Road
One Of The New Voters
Orchis Mascula
Out Of Doors In February
Outside London
A Pack Of Stoats. Birds
The Pageant Of Summer
The Parson's Wife
The Pigeons At The British Museum
The Pine Wood
The Plainest City In Europe
Red Roofs Of London
The River
Round A London Copse
The Sacrifice To Trout
Saint Guido
Sea, Sky, And Down
The Single-Barrel Gun
Skating
The Solicitor
Some April Insects
The Southdown Shepherd
Sport And Science
The Spring Of The Year
The Squire's 'Round Robin'
Steam On Country Roads
The Story Of Swindon
Summer In Somerset
The Sun And The Brook
Sunlight In A London Square
Sunny Brighton
Swallow-Time
The Time Of Year
To Brighton
Tree-Shooting: A Fishing Expedition
Trees About Town
A True Tale Of The Wiltshire Labourer
Under The Acorns
Unequal Agriculture
Venice In The East End
Vignettes From Nature
Village Churches
The Village Factory. Village Visitors. Willow-Work
Village Miners
Village Organization
Walks In The Wheat-Fields
The Water-Colley
The Water-Mill. Field Names
A Wet Night In London
A Wheat Country
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Wild Flowers
The Wiltshire Labourer
Wiltshire Labourers
Wind-Anemones. The Fishpond
Winds Of Heaven
A Winter Night: Old Tricks: Pheasant-Stalking: Matchlock Versus Breech-Loader
A Winter's Morning
Woodland Twilight: Traitors On The Gibbet
Woodlands