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SALMONIA:

OR

DAYS OF FLY FISHING.

IN

A SERIES OF CONVERSATIONS.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HABITS OF FISHES BELONGING
TO THE GENUS SALMO.

BY AN ANGLER. ^^ '^ "^

" Equidem credo quia sit divinitus illis

Ingeniura."

THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

MDCCCXXXII.

Soecia! Collectioft^

MCZ LIBRARY
liARVARD UFliVERSlT*
"'^:?liDGE. MA USA

London :

Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,

New-Street-Square.

TO

WILLIAM BABINGTON,

M.D. F.R.S.

THESE CONVERSATIONS ARE DEDICATED,

IN REMEMBRANCE

OF SOME DELIGHTFUL DAYS PASSED IN HIS

SOCIETY,

AND IN GRATITUDE

FOR AN UNINTERRUPTED FRIENDSHIP OF

A

QUARTER OF A CENTURY.

A 2

PREFACE.

These pages formed the occupation of the
Author during some months of severe and
dangerous illness, when he was wholly in-
capable of attending to more useful studies,
or of following more serious pursuits. They
constituted his amusement in many hours,
which otherwise would have been unoccupied
and tedious ; and they are published in the
hope, that they may possess an interest for
those persons who derive pleasure from the
simplest and most attainable kind of rural
sports, and who practise the art, or patronize
the objects of contemplation, of the Philoso-
phical Angler.

A 3

VI PREFACE.

The conversational manner and discursive
style were chosen as best suited to the state
of health of the Author, who w^as incapable
of considerable efforts and long-continued at-
tention ; and he could not but have in mind
a model, which has fully proved the utility
and popularity of this method of treating the
subject — The Com-plete Angler, by Walton
and Cotton.

The characters, chosen to support these
Conversations, are — Halieus, who is sup-
posed to be an accomplished fly fisher;
Ornither, who is to be regarded as a gen-
tleman generally fond of the sports of the
field, though not a finished master of the art
of angling ; Poietes, who is to be considered
as an enthusiastic lover of nature, and par-
tially acquainted with the mysteries of fly
fishing ; and Physicus, who is described un-

PREFACE. Vll

initiated as an angler, but as a person fond of
inquiries in natural history and philosophy.

These personages are of course imaginary,
though the sentiments attributed to them, the
Author may sometimes have gained from re-
collections of real conversations with friends,
from whose society much of the happiness of
his early life has been derived ; and in the
portrait of the character of Halieus, given
in the last dialogue, a likeness, he thinks,
will not fail to be recognised to that of the
character of a most estimable Physician, ar-
dently beloved by his friends, and esteemed
and venerated by the public.

He has limited his description of fish to
the varieties of the Salmo most usual in the
fresh waters of Europe, and which may be
A 4

Vlll PREFACE.

defined as a genus having eight fins, the one
above the tail fleshy, and without spines.

It is to be hoped M. Cuvier's new work
on fishes will supply accurate information on
this genus, which is still very imperfectly
known.

Lay bach y Illyria,
Sept. 30. 1828.

CONTENTS.

FIRST DAY.

Vindication of fly fishing — Poem in praise of Walton

— Distinguished anglers — Fishing, a natural, philo-
sophical, and scientific pursuit — Scenery — Fish
possessed of little sensibility — Praise of fly-fishing

— Field sports related to natural history — Pro-
posed fishing excursion — Comparison of a river to
human life Page 1 — 18

SECOND DAY.

Trout fishing — Flies — May-fly and gray drake —
Alder fly — Object of fishing — Escape of a fish
after being hooked — Sense of smelling in fish —
Baits — The natural fly — Pricked trout — Local
habits of animals — Trout of the Colne — Throw-
ing the fly — Trout described — Spots on trout —
Perch — Anecdote — Haunts of trout — Evening
fishing — Management of a fish when hooked —
Flies of different seasons — Fishing season — Dif-
ference of the gillaroo from trout — Diminution of
flies in some rivers — Gillaroo trout found only in
Ireland — Par or samlet — Other varieties of trout

— Dr. Darwin — Experiment on trout by Mr.
Tonkin of Polgaron — Cause of the varieties of
trout — Mule fish — Crossing the breed — Impreg-
nation of the ova of fish — Experiment of Mr.
Jacobi on this point — Causes that hasten or retard

X CONTENTS.

the maturity of the ova — Why fish approach shal-
lows to spawn — Admiration of the designs of Pro-
vidence . Page 19 — 86

THIRD DAY.

Morning fishing — EiFect of shadows in fishing-—^
Anecdotes illustrating the effect of sunshine —
Swallows ■ 87—94

FOURTH DAT.

Scenery — Loch Maree — Eagles — The inn — The
river Ewe — Sea trout — Poaching Highlander —
Salmon — Cause of fish being drowned — Salmon

— Death by suffocation — Nature of pain — In-
stances of death without pain — Sea trout — Crimp-
ing— The dinner — The double snipe — Value of
temperance in eating and drinking — Wading in
boots a bad practice — Salmon and trout compared

— Varieties of salmon 95 — 133

FIFTH DAY.

Salmon fishing — Produce of a morning's sport —
Rivers of Norway and Sweden — English rivers —
Salmon rivers — Scotch rivers — Irish rivers — The
Sabbath day — Instincts — Instincts to animals
what revelation is to man 134 — 174

SIXTH DAY.

Flies — Hooks — Salmon of the Ewe — Sense of
smelling in animals — Salmon fishing with pars —
Food of salmon — Indications of rainy weather —
Omens 175—197

SEVENTH DAY.

Grayling — Anatomy of the grayling — Grayling fish-
ing — Scenery — Habits of the grayling — Grayling

CONTENTS. XI

rivers — Baits for grayling — Generation of eels —
Migration of eels — The conger eel Page 198 — 2'So

EIGHTH DAY.

Scenery — Natural history — Origin of the common
house-fly — Bees and ants — The libellula — Ephe-
merae — Michaelmas daisy — Humble bee —
Thoughts on death, suggested by this insect

236—256

NINTH DAY.

Fishing for hucho — Hereditary instinct — Causes of
variety in trout — Salmo hucho — Taking a salmo
hucho — Resemblance of the hucho to trout — In-
terior of the hucho examined — Habits of the hucho
— Pleasure of angling — Cockney fishermen — Lame
boy and his boats — Amusements — Sea serpent —
Kraken — Mermaid — Austrian method of convey-
ing fish — Education — The press — Effect of con-
tinuous fishing — Difference of rivers — Angling
for frogs — Water ouzel — Umbla — Laveret —
Organization of the hucho — Craniology — Fat and
flesh of the hucho — Naturalization of fish — The
Traun — Colour of water — Colour of the ocean —
Waterfalls — Reflections — Tlfe late Mr. B. West

257—327

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Estimable mention of Dr. Wollaston — On the sup-
posed cross breed of the par — On the scolopax

329

DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES.

Denham

- to face

page

20

Loch Maree

-

95

Downton

-

-

236

Fall of the Traun

-

-

257

Hallstatt Lake and Town

.

.

305

Grlindtl Lake

.

.

316

SALMONIA

DAYS OF FLY FISHING,

FIRST DAY.

HALIEUS - POIETES - PHYSICUS - ORNITHER.

INTRODUCTORY CONVERSATION — SYMPOSIAC.

ScerWy London.

Phys. — Halieus, I dare say you know
where this excellent trout was caught: I never
ate a better fish of the kind.

Hal. — I ought to know, as it was this
morning in the waters of the Wandle, not ten
miles from the place where we sit, and it is
through my means that you see it at table.

B

2 SALMONIA.

Phys. — Of your own catching ?

Hal. — Yes, with the artificial fly.

Phys. — I admire the fish, but I cannot
admire the art by which it was taken ; and I
wonder how a man of your active mind and
enthusiastic character can enjoy what appears
to me a stupid and melancholy occupation.

Hal. — I might as well wonder, in my
turn, that a man of your discursive imagina-
tion and disposition to contemplation should
not admire this occupation, and that you
should venture to call it either stupid or
melancholy.

Phys. — I have at least the authority of a
great moralist, Johnson, for its folly.

Hal. — I will allow no man, however great
a philosopher, or moralist, to abuse an occu-
pation he has not tried ; and as well as I re-
member, this same illustrious person praised
the book and the character of the great pa-
triarch of Anglers, Isaac Walton.

Phys. — There is another celebrated man,
however, who has abused this your patriarch,
Lord Byron, and that in terms not very qua-
lified. He calls him, as well as I can recollect,

VINDICATION OF FLY FISHING. 3

"A quaint old cruel coxcomb." * I must say,
a practice of this great fisherman, where he
recommends you to pass the hook through the
body of a frog with care, as though you loved
him, in order to keep him alive longer, cannot
but be considered as cruel.

Hal. — I do not j ustify either the expression
or the practice of Walton in this instance; but
remember,/ fish only with inanimate baits, or
imitations of them, and 1 will not exhume or
expose the ashes of the dead, nor vindicate the
memory of Walton, at the expense of Byron,
who, like Johnson, was no fisherman : but the
moral and religious habits of Walton, his sim-
plicity of manners, and his well-spent life, ex-
onerate him from the charge of cruelty ; and
the book of a coxcomb would not have been
so great a favourite with most persons of re-
fined taste. A noble lady, long distinguished
at court for pre-eminent beauty and grace, and

* From Don Juan, Canto XII. Stanza C VI. : —

" And Angling, too, that solitary vice,

Whatever Isaac Walton sings or says :
The quaint old cruel coxcomb in his gullet
Should have a hook and a small trout to pull it."
B 2

4 SALMONIA.

whose mind possesses undying charms, has
written some lines in my copy of Walton,
which, if you will allow me, I will repeat to
you : —

Albeit, gentle Angler, I

Delight not in thy trade,
Yet in thy pages there doth lie
So much of quaint simplicity,
So much of mind,
Of such good kind.
That none need be afraid,
Caught by thy cunning bait, this book,
To be ensnared on thy hook.

Gladly from thee, I'm lured to bear

With things that seem'd most vile before,
For thou didst on poor subjects rear
Matter the wisest sage might hear.
And with a grace,
That doth efface
More labour'd works, thy simple lore
Can teach us that thy skilful lines,
More than the scaly brood confines.

Our hearts and senses, too, we see,
Rise quickly at thy master hand,
And, ready to be caught by thee,
Are lured to virtue willingly.

POEM IN PRAISE OF WALTON. 5

Content and peace,

With health and ease,
Walk by thy side. At thy command
We bid adieu to worldly care,
And joy in gifts that all may share.

Gladly, with thee, I pace along,
And of sweet fancies dream ;
Waiting till some inspired song.
Within my memory cherish'd long,
Comes fairer forth.
With more of worth ;
Because that time upon its stream
Feathers and chaff will bear away,
But give to gems a brighter ray.

C. C. 1812.

And though the charming and intellectual
author of this poem is not an angler herself,
yet I can quote the example of her lovely
daughters to vindicate fly fishing from the
charge of cruelty, and to prove that the most
delicate and refined minds can take pleasure
in this innocent amusement. One of these
young ladies, I am told, is a most accom-
plished and skilful salmon fisher. And if you
require a poetical authority against that of
B 3

6 SALMONIA.

Lord Byron, I mention the philosophical and
powerful poet of the lakes, and the author of

" An Orphic tale indeed,
A tale divine, of high and passionate thoughts.
To their own music chanted ; " *

who is a lover both of fly fishing and fly fish-
ermen. Gay's poem you know, and his
passionate fondness for the amusement, which
was his principal occupation in the summer
at Amesbury; and the late excellent John
Tobin, author of the Honey Moon, was an
ardent angler.

Phys. — I am satisfied with your poetical
authorities.

Hal. — Nay, I can find authorities of all
kinds, statesmen, heroes, and philosophers ;
I can go back to Trajan, who was fond of
angling. Nelson was a good fly fisher f, and
as a proof of his passion for it, continued the
pursuit even with his left hand. Dr. Paley

* The Friend, page 303., by S. T. Coleridge.

f I have known a person who fished with him at
Merton, in the Wandle. I hope this circumstance
will be mentioned in the next edition of that most ex-
quisite and touching Life of our Hero, by the Laureate,
an immortal monument raised by Genius to Valour.

DISTINGUISHED ANGLERS. /

was ardently attached to this amusement ; so
much so, that when the Bishop of Durham en-
quired of him, when one of his most important
works would be finished, he said, with great
simplicity and good humour, " My Lord, I
shall work steadily at it when the fly-fishing
season is over," as if this were a business of
his life. And I am rather reserved in intro-
ducing living characters, or I could give a list
of the highest names of Britain, belonging to
modern times, in science, letters, arts, and
arms, who are ornaments of this fraternity, to
use the expression borrowed from the free-
masonry of our forefathers.

Phys. — I do not find much difficulty in
understanding why warriors, and even states-
men, fishers of men, many of whom I have
known particularly fond of hunting and shoot-
ing, should likewise be attached to angling ;
but I own, I am at a loss to find reasons for
a love of this pursuit amongst philosophers
and poets.

Hal. — The search after food is an instinct
belonging to our nature ; and from the savage
in his rudest and most primitive state, who
B 4

8 SALMONIA.

destroys a piece of game, or a fish with a club
or spear, to man in the most cultivated state of
society, who employs artifice, machinery, and
the resources of various other animals, to
secure his object, the origin of the pleasure is
similar, and its object the same: but that kind
of it requiring most art may be said to cha-
racterise man in his highest or intellectual
state ; and the fisher for salmon and trout with
the fly employs not only machinery to assist
his physical powers, but applies sagacity to
conquer difiiculties ; and the pleasure derived
from ingenious resources and devices, as well
as from active pursuit, belongs to this amuse-
ment. Then as to its philosophical tendency ;
it is a pursuit of moral discipline, requiring
patience, forbearance, and command of temper.
As connected with natural science, it may be
vaunted as demanding a knowledge of the
habits of a considerable tribe of created beings
— fishes, and the animals that they prey upon,
and an acquaintance with the signs and tokens
of the weather and its changes, the nature
of waters, and of the atmosphere. As to its
poetical relations, it carries us into the most

SCENERY. 9

wild and beautiful scenery of nature; amongst
the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely
streams that gush from the higher ranges of
elevated hills, or that make their way through
the cavities of calcareous strata. How de-
lightful in the early spring, after the dull and
tedious time of winter, when the frosts disap-
pear, and the sunshine warms the earth and
waters, to wander forth by some clear stream,
to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud,
to scent the odours of the bank perfumed by
the violet, and enamelled, as it w^ere, with the
primrose and the daisy ; to wander upon the
fresh turf below the shade of trees, whose
bright blossoms are filled with the music of
the bee ; and on the surface of the waters to
view the gaudy flies sparkling like animated
gems in the sunbeams, whilst the bright and
beautiful trout is watching them from below ;
to hear the twittering of the water-birds, who,
alarmed at your approach, rapidly hide them-
selves beneath the flowers and leaves of the
water-lily ; and as the season advances, to find
all these objects changed for others of the
same kind, but better and brighter, till the

10 SALMONIA.

swallow and the trout contend as it were for
the gaudy May-fly, and till, in pursuing your
amusement in the calm and balmy evening,
you are serenaded by the songs of the cheerful
thrush and melodious nightingale, performing
the offices of paternal love, in thickets orna-
mented with the rose and woodbine !

Phys. — All these enjoyments might be ob-
tained without the necessity of torturing and
destroying an unfortunate animal, that the
true lover of nature would wish to see happy
in a scene of loveliness.

Hal. — If all men were Pythagoreans and
professed the Brahmin's creed, it would un-
doubtedly be cruel to destroy any form of
animated life ; but if fish are to be eaten, I
see no more harm in capturing them by skill
and ingenuity with an artificial fly, than in
pulling them out of the water by main force
with the net ; and in general, when taken by
the common fishermen, fish are permitted to
die slowly, and to suffer in the air, from the
want of their natural element ; whereas every
good angler, as soon as his fish is landed,
either destroys his life immediately, if he

FISH POSSESSED OF LITTLE SENSIBILITY. 11

is wanted for food, or returns him into the
water.

Phys. — But do you think nothing of the
torture of the hook, and the fear of capture,
and the misery of struggHng against the pow-
erful rod ?

Hal. — I have already admitted the danger
of analysing, too closely, the moral character
of any of our field sports ; yet I think it can-
not be doubted that the nervous system of
fish, and cold-blooded animals in general, is
less sensitive than that of warm-blooded ani-
mals. The hook usually is fixed in the car-
tilaginous part of the mouth, where there are
no nerves ; and a proof that the sufferings of
a hooked fish cannot be great, is found in the
circumstance, that though a trout has been
hooked and played for some minutes, he will
often, after his escape with the artificial fly in
his mouth, take the natural fly, and feed as
if nothing had happened ; having apparently
learnt only from the experiment, that the ar-
tificial fly is not proper food. And I have
caught pikes with four or five hooks in their
mouths, and tackle which they had broken

12 SALMONIA.

only a few minutes before; and the hooks
seemed to have had no other effect than that
of serving as a sort of sauce jpiquante^ urging
them to seize another morsel of the same kind.
Phys. — Fishes are mute, and cannot plead,
even in the way that birds and quadrupeds do,
their own cause ; yet the instances you quote
only prove the intense character of their ap-
petites, which seem not so moderate as Whiston
imagined, in his strange philosophical romance
on the Deluge ; in which he supposes, that
in the antediluvian world the heat was much
greater than in this, and that all terrestrial
and aerial animals had their passions so ex-
alted by this high temperature, that they were
lost in sin, and destroyed for their crimes ;
but that fish, living in a cooler element, were
more correct in their lives, and were therefore
spared from the destruction of the primitive
world. You have proved, by your examples,
the intensity of the appetite of hunger in fishes ;
Spalanzani has given us another proof of the
violence of a diflPerent appetite, or instinct, in
a cold-blooded animal, that has most of the
habits of the genus — the frog ; which, in the

PRAISE OF FLY FISHING. 13

breeding season, remains attached to the
female, though a limb, or even his head, is
removed from the body.

Hal. — This is likewise in favour of my ar-
gument, that the sensibility of this class of ani-
mals to physical pain is comparatively small.

Phys. — The advocates for a favourite pur-
suit never want sophisms to defend it. I have
even heard it asserted that a hare enjoys
being hunted. Yet I will allow that fly fish-
ing, after your vindication, appears amongst
the least cruel of field sports ; — I can go no
farther ; as I have never thought of trjdng
it, I can say nothing of its agreeableness as
an amusement, compared with hunting and
shooting.

Hal. — I wish that you would allow me to
convince you, that for a contemplative man,
as you are, and a lover of nature, it is far
superior, more tranquil, more philosophical,
and, after the period of early youth, more
fitted for a moderately active body and mind,
requiring less violent exertion ; and, pursued
with discretion, affording an exercise con-
ducive to health. There is a river, only a few

I4f SALMONIA.

miles off, where I am sure I could obtain
permission for you, and our friend Poietes,
to fish.

Phys. — I am open to conviction on all
subjects, and have no objection to spend one
May-day with you in this idle occupation;
premising, that you take at least one other
companion, who really loves fishing.

Hal. — You, who are so fond of natural
history, even should you not be amused by
fishing, will, I am sure, find objects of interest
on the banks of the river.

Phys. — I fear I am not entomologist
enough to follow the life of the May-fly, but I
shall willingly have my attention directed to
its habits. Indeed, I have often regretted that
sportsmen were not fonder of zoology ; they
have so many opportunities, which other per-
sons do not possess, of illustrating the origin
and qualities of some of the most curious forms
of animated nature ; the causes and character
of the migrations of animals; their relations to
each other, and their place and order in the
general scheme of the universe. It has always
appeared to me, that the two great sources of

FIELD SPORTS RELATED TO NAT. HIST. 15

change of place of animals, was the providing
of food for themselves, and resting-places and
food for their young. The great supposed
migrations of herrings from the poles to the
temperate zone have appeared to me to be
only the approach of successive shoals from
deep to shallow water, for the purpose of
spawning. The migrations of salmon and
trout are evidently for the purpose of deposit-
ing their ova, or of finding food after they
have spawned. Swallows, and bee-eaters, de-
cidedly pursue flies over half the globe ; the
scolopax or snipe tribe, in like manner, search
for worms and larvae, — flyingfrom those coun-
tries where either frost or dryness prevents
them from boring, — making generally small
flights at a time, and resting on their travels
where they find food. And a journey from
England to Africa is no more for an animal
that can fly, with the wind, one hundred miles
in an hour, than a journey for a Londoner to
his seat in a distant province. And the mi-
gi'ations of smaller fishes or birds always oc-
casion the migration of larger ones, that prey
on them. Thus, the seal follows the salmon?

16 SALMONIA.

in summer, to the mouths of rivers ; the hake
follows the herring and pilchard ; hawks are
seen in great quantities, in the month of May,
coming into the east of Europe, after quails
and landrails; and locusts are followed by
numerous birds, that, fortunately for the
agriculturist, make them their prey.

Hal. — It is not possible to follow the
amusement of angling, without having your
attention often directed to the modes of life
of fishes, insects, and birds, and many curious
and interesting facts, as it were, forced upon
your observation. I consider you [Physicus)
as pledged to make one of our fishing party ;
and I hope, in a few days, to give you an in-
vitation to meet a few worthy friends on the
banks of the Colne. And you [Poietes), who,
I know, are an initiated disciple of Walton's
school, will, I trust, join us. We will en-
deavour to secure a fine day ; two hours, in a
light carriage with good horses, will carry us
to our ground ; and I think I can promise you
green meadows, shady trees, the song of the
nightingale, and a full and clear river.

PoiET. — This last is, in my opinion, the

PROPOSED FISHING EXCURSION. 17

most poetical object in nature. I will not fail
to obey your summons. Pliny has, as well as
I recollect, compared a river to human life.
I have never read the passage in his works,
but I have been a hundred times struck with
the analogy, particularly amidst mountain
scenery. The river, small and clear in its
origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep
glens, and wantons and meanders through a
wild and picturesque country, nourishing only
the uncultivated tree or flower by its dew or
spray. In this, its state of infancy and youth,
it may be compared to the human mind in
which fancy and strength of imagination are
predominant — it is more beautiful than useful.
When the different rills or torrents join, and
descend into the plain, it becomes slow and
stately in its motions ; it is applied to move
machinery, to irrigate meadows, and to bear
upon its bosom the stately barge ; — in this
mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful.
As it flows on towards the sea, it loses its force
and its motion, and at last, as it were, becomes
lost, and mingled with the mighty abyss of
waters.

18 SALMONIA.

Hal. — One might pursue the metaphor
still further, and say, that in its origin, — its
thundering and foam, when it carries down
clay from the bank, and becomes impure, — it
resembles the youthful mind affected by
dangerous passions. And the influence of a
lake, in calming and clearing the turbid water,
may be compared to the effect of reason in
more mature life, when the tranquil, deep,
cool, and unimpassioned mind is freed from
its fever, its troubles, bubbles, noise, and foam.
And, above all, the sources of a river — which
may be considered as belonging to the atmo-
sphere — and its termination in the ocean,
may be regarded as imaging the divine origin
of the human mind, and its being ultimately
returned to, and lost in, the Infinite and
Eternal Intelligence from which it originally
sprung.

TROUT FISHING. 19

SECOND DAY.

HALIEUS - POIETES - ORNITHER - PHYSICUS.

TROUT FISHING, DENHAM. — MAY, 1810.

Jllornlng.

Hal. — I AM delighted to see you, my worthy
friends, on the banks of the Colne ; and am
happy to be able to say, that my excellent
host has not only made you free of the river
for this day's angling, but insists upon your
dining with him, — wishes you to try the even-
ing fishing, and the fishing to-morrow morn-
ing, — and proposes to you, in short, to give
up twenty-four hours to the delights of an
angler's May-day.

PoiET. — We are deeply indebted to him;
and I hardly know how we can accept his
offer, without laying ourselves under too great
an obligation.

Hal. — Fear not : he is as noble-minded a
c 2

20 SALMONIA.

man as ever delighted in good offices ; and so
benevolent, that I am sure he will be almost
as happy in knowing you are amused, as you
can be in your sport; and he hopes for an
additional satisfaction in the pleasure of your
conversation.

PoiET. — So let it be.

Hal. — I will take you to the house ; you
shall make your bow, and then you will be all
free to follow your own fancies. Remember,
the dinner hour is five ; the dressing bell rings
at half-past four ; be punctual to this engage-
ment, from which you will be free at seven.

PoiET. — This is really a very charming villa
scene, I may almost say, a pastoral scene.
The meadows have the verdure which even
the Londoners enjoy as a peculiar feature of
the English landscape. The river is clear,
and has all the beauties of a trout stream of
the larger size, — there rapid, and here still, and
there tumbling in foam and fury over abrupt
dams upon clean gravel, as if pursuing a na-
tural course. And that island with its poplars
and willows, and the flies making it their
summer paradise, and its litde fishing-house,

CA^'':

FLIES. 2 1

are all in character ; and if not extremely pic-
turesque, it is at least a very pleasant scene,
from its verdure and pure waters, for the
lovers of our innocent amusement.

Hal. — It is ten o'clock ; you may put up
your rods, or take rods from the hall : for so
hospitable is the master of this mansion, that
every thing is supplied to our hands. And,
Physicus, as you are the only one of our party
ignorant of the art of fly fishing, I will fit you
with a rod and flies ; and let me advise you to
begin with a line shorter than your rod, and
throw at first slowly and without effort, and
imitate us as well as you can. As for precepts,
they are of little value ; practice and imitation
will make you an angler.

PoiET. — I shall put together my rod, and
fish with my own flies. It may be fancy, but
I always think I do best with tackle with
which I am used to fish.

Hal. — You are right ; for fancy is always
something : and when we believe that we can
do things better in a particulai* way, we really
do, by the influence of imagination, perform
them both better and with less effort. I agree
c 3

22 SALMONIA.

with moralists, that the standard of virtue
should be placed higher than any one can
reach ; for in trying to rise, man will attain a
more excellent state of being than if no effort
were made. But to our business. As far as
the perfection of the material for the angler is
concerned, the flies you find on this table are
as good as can be made, and for this season
of the year, there is no great variety on this
river. We have had lately some warm days,
and though it is but the 1 8th of May, yet I
know the May-fly has been out for three or
four days, and this is the best period of this
destructive season for the fisherman. There
are, I observe, many male flies on the high
trees, and some females on the alders.

Phys. — But I see flies already on the
water, which seem of various colours, —
brown and grey, and some very pale, — and
the trout appear to rise at them eagerly.

Hal. — The fly you see is called by fisher-
men the alder-fly, and appears generally in
large quantities before the May-fly. Imita-
tions of this fly, and of the green and the grey
drake of different shades, are the only ones

FLIES. 23

you will need this morning, though I doubt
if the last can be much used, as the grey
drake is not yet on the water in any quantity.

Phys. — Pray, can you give us any account
of these curious little animals ?

Hal. — We ought to draw upon your stores
of science for information on these subjects.

Phys. — I really know nothing of Entomo-
logy, but lam desirous of acquiring knowledge.

Hal* — I have made few observations on
flies as a philosophical naturalist. What I
know I will state at another time. But see,
the green drake is descending upon the water,
and some are leaving the alders to sport in the
sunshine, and to enjoy the pleasures of their
brilliant though short existence; and their life,
naturally ephemeral, is made one of scarcely
a moment, by the fishes and birds : that which
the swallow or the duck spares is caught by
the fish. The fly is new, and in the imitation,
I recommend the olive tint, or what the Irish
call the green monkey ; that is, an artificial
fly, with awing of dyed yellow drake's feather,
a body of yellow monkey's fur, and a small
quantity of olive mohair for legs. For myself,
c 4

24 SALMONIA.

I shall fish for some time with a large red
alder-fly, and I dare say, with as much suc-
cess ; that is, with a fly with a dark peacock's
harle for body, a red hackle for legs, and wings
of the landrail below, and starling above.

PoiET. — The water is quite in motion :
what noble fish I see on the feed ! I never
beheld a finer sight, though I have often seen
the May-fly on well-stocked waters.

Hal. — This river is most strictly preserved;
not a fish has been killed here since last
August, and this is the moment when the large
fish come to the surface, and leave their cad
bait search and minnow hunting. But I have
hardly time to talk ; I have hold of a good
fish : they take either alder or May-fly, and
having never been fished for this year, they
make no distinction, and greedily seize any
small object in motion on the water. You
see the alder-fly is quite as successful as the
May-fly ; but there is a fish which has refused
it, and because he has been feeding, glutton-
like, on the May-fly : that is the fifth he has
swallowed in a minute. Now I shall throw
the drake a foot above him. It floats down,

OBJECT OF FISHING. 25

and he has taken it. A fine fish ; I think at
least 4 lbs. This is the largest fish we have
yet seen; but in the deep water still lower
down, there are still greater fish. One of
5 lbs. I have known taken here, and once
a fish a little short only of 6 lbs.

PoiET. — I have just landed a fish which I
suppose you will consider as a small one ; yet
I am tempted to kill him.

Hal. — He is not a fish to kill, throw him
back, he is much under 2 lbs., and, as I ought
to have told you before, we are not allowed to
kill any fish of less size ; and I am sure we
shall all have more than we ought to carry
away even of this size. Pray put him into the
well, or rather give him to the fisherman to
turn back into the water.

PoiET. — I cannot say I approve of this
manner of fishing : I lose my labour.

Hal. — As the object of your fishing, I
hope, is innocent amusement, you can enjoy
this, and show your skill in catching the ani-
mal ; and if every fish that took the May-fly
were to be killed, there would be an end to
the sport in the river, for none would remain
for next year.

26 SALMONIA.

Phys. — The number of flies seems to in-
crease as the day advances, and I never saw
a more animated water scene : all nature
seems aUve ; even the water- wagtails have
joined the attack upon these helpless and
lovely creations from the waters.

Hal. — It is now one o'clock; and between
twelve and three is the time when the May-
fly rises with most vigour. It is a very warm
day, and with such a quantity of fly, every fish
in the river will probably be soon feeding.
See, below the wear, there are two or three
large trout lately come out; and from the quiet
way in which they swallow their prey, and
from the size of the tranquil undulation that
follows their rise, I suspect they are the giants
of this river. Try if you cannot reach them :
one is near the bank in a convenient place for
a throw, for the water is sufficiently rough to
hide the deception, and these large fish do
not take the fly well in calm water, though
with natural flies on the hook they might all
be raised.

PoiET. — I have him ! Alas ! he has broken
me, and carried away half my bottom line.
He must have been a fish of 7 or 8 lbs. What

FISH ESCAPE. 27

a dash he made ! He carried off my fly by
main force.

Hal. — You should have allowed your
reel to play and your line to run : you held
him too tight.

PoiET. — He was too powerful a fish for
my tackle ; and even if I had done so, would
probably have broken me by running amongst
the weeds.

Hal. — Let me tell you, my friend, you
should never allow a fish to run to the weeds,
or to strike across the stream ; you should
carry him always down stream, keeping his
head high, and in the current. If in a w^eedy
river you allow a large fish to run up stream,
you are almost sure to lose him. Tliere, I
have hooked the companion of your lost fish
on the other side of the stream, — a powerful
creature : he tries, you see, to make way to
the weeds, but I hold him tight.

PoiET. — I see you are obliged to run with
him, and have carried him safely through the
weeds.

Hal. — I have him now in the rapids on
the shallow, and I have no fear of losing him,
unless he strikes the hook out of his mouth.

28 SALMON! A.

PoiET. — He springs again and again.

Hal. — He is off; in one of these somersets
he detached the steel, and he now leaps to
celebrate his escape. We will leave this place,
where there are more great fish, and return to
it after a while, when the alarm produced by
our operations has subsided.

Phys. — That fish take the artificial fly at
all is rather surprising to me, for in its most
perfect form it is but a rude imitation of na-
ture ; and fi'om the greedy manner in which
it is seized, fish, I think, cannot possess a re-
fined sense of smell, or any nervous system
corresponding to the nasal one in animals that
breathe air : no scent can be given to water
by an artificial fly, or, at least, none like that
of the natural fly.

Hal. — The principal use of the nostrils in
fishes, I believe, is to assist in the propulsion
of water through the gills for performing the
office of respiration ; but I think there are
some nerves in these organs which give fishes
a sense of the qualities of the water, or of sub-
stances dissolved in, or diffused through it,
similar to our sense of smell, or, perhaps,

BAITS. 29

rather our sense of taste, for there can be no
doubt that fishes are attracted by scented
pastes and scented worms, which are some-
times used by anglers that employ ground-
baits ; and in old angling books there are usu-
ally receipts for attracting fish in this manner;
and though the absurdity of many of these
prescriptions is manifest, yet I do not think this
proves that they are entirely useless ; for, upon
such principles, all the remedies for diseases
in the old pharmacopoeias would be null.

With respect to the fly, as it usually touches
the stream by a very small surface, that of the
air-bubbles on the fringes on its legs, it can
scarcely affect the water so as to give it any
power of communicating smell. And as you
have seen a ripple. or motion on the water is
necessary to deceive fishes ; and as they look
at the fly from below, they see distinctly only
the legs and body, which, when the colours are
like those of the natural fly, may easily de-
ceive them ; the wings, which are the worst
imitated parts of the artificial fly, seldom ap-
pear to them, except through the different
refractive power of the moving water and the

30 SALMONIA.

atmosphere, and when immersed, they form
masses not unhke the wings of a drowned
fly, or one wetted in rising.

It is now a quarter of an hour since we left
the large pool : let us return to it ; I see the
fish are again rising.

PoiET. — I am astonished ! It appears to
me that the very same fish are again feeding.
There are two fish rising nearly in the same
spot where they rose before : can they be the
same fish ?

Hal. — It is very possible. It is not likely
that three other fish of that size should oc-
cupy the same haunts.

PoiET. — But I thought after a fish had been
hooked he remained sick and sulky for some
time, feeling his w^ounds uncomfortable.

Hal. — The fish that I hooked is not rising
in the same place, and therefore, probably, was
hurt by the hook ; but one of these fish seems
to be the same that carried off your fly, and it
is probable that the hook only struck him in a
part of the mouth where there are no nerves ;

THE NATURAL FLY. 31

and that he suffered Httle at the moment, and
does not now feel his annoyance.

PoiET. — I have seen him take four or five
flies : I shall throw over him. There, he
rose, but refused the fly. He has at least
learnt, from the experiment he has made, to
distinguish the natural from the artificial fly.

Hal. — This, I think, ahvays happens after
a fish has been hooked with an artificial fly.
He becomes cautious, and is seldom caught
that year, at least with the same means in the
same pool : but I dare say that fish might be
taken with a natural fly, or, what is better,
two upon the hook.

PojET. — Pray try him.

Hal. — I am no artist at this kind of an-
gling, but Ornither I know has fished in June
with the clubs at Stockbridge, where this
method of fishing is usual. Pray let him try
his fortune, though it is hardly fair play ; and
it is rather to endeavour to recover your
tackle, than for the sake of the fish, that I
encourage him to make the essay.

PoiET. — Pray make no apologies for the
trial. Such a fish — certainly a monster for

32 SALMONIA.

this river — should be caught by fair means,
if possible, but caught by any means.

Orn. — You lost that fish, and you over-
rate his size, as you will see, if I have good
luck. I put my live flies on the hook with
some retjret and some disffust. I will not
employ another person to be my minister of
cruelty, as I remember a lady of fashion once
did, who was very fond of fishing for perch,
and who employed her daughter, a little girl
of nine years of age, to pass the hook through
the body of the worm ! Now there is a good
wind, and the fish has just taken a natural fly.
I shall drop the flies, if possible, within a few
inches of his nose. He has risen. He is
caught ! I must carry him down stream to
avoid the bed of weeds above. I now have
him on fair ground, and he fights with vigour.
Fortunately, my silk worm gut is very strong,
for he is not a fish to be trifled with. He
begins to be tired ; prepare the net. We have
him safe, and see your link hangs to his lower
jaw : the hook had struck the cartilage on the
outside of the bone, and the fly, probably, was
scarcely felt by him.

PRICKED TROUT. 33

Phys. — I am surprised ! That fish evi-
dently had discovered that the artificial fly
was a dangerous bait, yet he took the natural
fly which was on a hook, and when the silk-
worm gut must have been visible.

Hal. — I do not think he saw either the
gut or the hook. In very bright weather and
water, I have known very shy fish refiise even
a hook baited with the natural fly, scared pro-
bably by some appearance of hook or gut.
The vision of fishes when the surface is not
ruffled is sufficiently keen. I have seen them
rise at gnats so small as to be scarcely visible
to my eye.

Phys. — You just now said, that a fish
pricked by the hook of an artificial fly would
not usually take it again that season.

Hal. — I cannot be exact on that point : I
have known a fish that I have pricked retain
his station in the river, and refuse the artificial
fly, day after day, for weeks together ; but his
memory may have been kept awake by this
practice, and the recollection seems local and
associated with surrounding objects ; and if a
pricked trout is chased into another pool, he

34 SALMONIA.

will, I believe, soon again take the artificial
fly. Or if the objects around him are changed,
as in Autumn, by the decay of weeds, or by
their being cut, the same thing happens ; and
a flood, or a rough wind, I believe, assists the
fly-fisher, not merely by obscuring the vision
of the fish, but, in a river much fished, by
changing the appearance of their haunts:
large trouts almost alw^ays occupy particular
stations, under, or close to, a large stone or
tree ; and, probably, most of their recollected
sensations are connected with this dwelling.

Phys. — I think I understand you, that the
memory of the danger and pain does not last
long, unless there is a permanent sensation
with which it can remain associated, — such
as the station of the trout ; and that the re-
collection of the mere form of the artificial
fly, without this association, is evanescent.

Orn. — You are diving into metaphysics;
yet I think, in fowling, I have observed that
the memory of birds is local. A woodcock,
that has been much shot at and scared in a
particular wood, runs to the side where he has
usually escaped, the moment he hears the

TROUT OF THE COLNE. 35

dogs; but if driven into a new wood, he
seems to lose his acquired habits of caution,
and becomes stupid.

PoiET. — This great fish, that Ornither
has just caught, must be nearly of the weight
I assigned to him.

Hal. — O no ! he is, I think, above 5 lbs.,
but not 6 lbs. ; but we can form a more cor-
rect opinion by measuring him, which I can
easily do, the but of my rod being a mea-
sure. He measures, from nose to fork, a very
little less than twenty-four inches, and, con-
sequently, upon the scale which is appropriate
to well-fed trouts, should weigh 5 lbs. 10 oz.
— which, within an ounce, I doubt not, is his
weight.

Phys. — O ! I see you take the mathema-
tical law, that similar solids are to each other
in the triplicate ratio of one of their dimen-
sions.

Hal. — You are right.

Phys. — But I think you are below the
mark, for this appears to me an extraordi-
narily thick fish.

Hal. — He is a well-fed fish, but, in pro-
D 2

36

SALMONTA.

TROUT FROM THE COLNE.

portion, not so thick as my model, which was
a fish of 1 7 inches by 9 inches, and weighed
2 lbs. ; — this is my standard solid. We will
try him. Ho ! Mrs. B. ! — bring your scales,
and weigh this fish. There, you see, he
weighs 5 lbs. 10^ oz.

Phys. — Well, I am pleased to see this
fish, and amused with your sport ; but though
I have been imitating you in throwing the fly,
as well as I can, yet not a trout has taken no-
tice of my fly, and they seem scared by my
appearance.

Hal. — Let me see you perform. There
are two good trout taking flies opposite that

THROWING THE FLY. 37

bank, which you can reach. You threw too
much line into the water, and scared them
both ; but I will take you to the rapid of the
Tumbling Bay, where the river falls ; there
the quickness of the stream will prevent your
line from falling deep, and the foam will con-
ceal your person from the view of the fish.
And let me advise you to fish only in the
rapids till you have gained some experience
in throwing the fly. There are several fish
rising in that stream.

Phys. — I have raised one, but he refused
my fly.

Hal. — Now you have a fish.

Phys. — I am delighted ; — but he is a
small one.

Hal. — Unluckily, it is a dace,

Phys. — I have now a larger fish, which
has pulled my line out.

Hal. — Give him time. That is a good
trout. Now wind up ; he is tired, and your
own. I will land him. He is a fish to keep,
being above 2 lbs.

Phys. — I am well pleased.

Hal. — There are many larger trouts here:
D 3

38 SALMONIA.

go on fishing, and you will hook some of
them. And when you are tired of this rapid,
you will find another a quarter of a mile be-
low. And continue to fish with a short line,
and drop your fly, or let it be carried by the
wind on the water, as lightly as possible.
Well, Poietes, what success ?

PoiET. — I have been fishing in the stream
above ; but the flies are so abundant, that the
large fish will not take my artificial fly, and
I have caught only three fish, all of which the
fisherman has thrown into the water, though
I am sure one of them was more than 2 lbs.

Hal. — You may trust his knowledge : with
a new angler, our keeper would be apt rather
to favour the fisherman than the fish. But
we will have all fish you wish to be killed,
and above 2 lbs., put into the well of the boat^
where they can be examined, and, if you de-
sire, weighed and measured, and such kept as
are worth keeping. No good angler should
kill a fish, if possible, till he is needed to be
crimped ; for the sooner he is dressed after
this operation the better ; — and I assure you,
a well-fed trout of the Colne, crimped and

TROUT DESCRIBED. 39

cooled ten minutes before he is wanted for the
kettle or the gridiron, is a fish little inferior to
the best salmon of the best rivers. It is now
nearly two o'clock, and there is a cloud over
the sun; the fly is becoming less abundant;
you are now likely, Poietes, to have better
sport. Try in that deep pool, below the Tum-
bUng Bay ; I see two or three good fish rising
there, and there is a lively breeze. The
largest fish refuses your fly again and again ;
try the others. There, you have hooked him ;
now carry him down stream, and keep his
head high, out of the weeds. He plunges and
fights with great force ; — he is the best-fed
fish I have yet seen at the end of the line, and
will weigh more, in proportion to his length.
I will land him for you. There he is, — and
measures 19 inches ; and I dare say his weight
is not much short of 3 lbs. We will preserve
him in the well.

PoiET. — He has hardly any spots, and is
silvery all over ; and the whole of the lower
part of his body is beautifully clean.

Hal. — He is likewise broad-backed ; and
you may observe his few spots are black, and
D 4

40 SALMONIA.

these are very small. I have always remarked,
in this river, that the nearer the fish approach
to perfection, the colour of the body becomes
more uniform, — pale olive above, and bright
silver below ; and these qualities are always
connected with a small head, — or rather, an
oval body, and deep red flesh.

PoiET. — May not the red spots be marks
of disease — a hectic kind of beauty ? For I
observed in a very thin and poor fish, and
great-headed, that I caught an hour ago,
which had leeches sticking to it, a number of
red spots, and a long black back, and black
or bluish marks even on the belly.

Hal. — I do not think red spots a symptom
of disease ; for I have seen fish in other rivers,
and even small fish in this river, in perfectly
good season, with red spots ; but the colours
of fish are very capricious, and depend upon
causes which cannot be easily defined. The
colouring matter is not in the scales, but in
the surface of the skin immediately beneath
them, and is probably a secretion easily affected
by the health of the animal. I have known
fish, from some lakes in Ireland, mottled in a

SPOTS ON TROUT. 41

TROUT FROM THE WANDI.E.

most singular way, — their colour being like
that of the tortoise : the nature of the water,
exposure to the light, and probably the kind
of food, produce these effects. I think it pos-
sible, when trout feed much on hard sub-
stances, such as larvae and their cases, and
the ova of other fish, they have more red spots,
and redder fins. This is the case with the
gillaroo and the char, who feed on analogous
substances ; and the trout, that have similar
habits, might be expected to resemble them.
When trout feed most on small fish, as min-
nows, and on flies, they have more tendency
to become spotted with small black spots, and

42 SALMONIA.

are generally more silvery. The Colne trout
are, in their advanced state, of this kind; and
so are the trout called in Ireland buddocks
and dolochans, found in Loch Neah. Par-
ticular character becomes hereditary, and the
effects of a peculiar food influence the appear-
ance of the next generation. I hope, Ornither,
you have had good sport.

Orn. — Excellent ! Since you left me, below
the wear, I have hooked at least fifteen or
twenty good fish, and landed and saved eight
above 2 lbs. ; but I have taken no fish like the
great one which I caught by poaching with
the natural flies. The trout rose wonderfully
well within the last quarter of an hour, but
they are now all still ; and the river, which
was in such active motion, is now perfectly
quiet, and seems asleep and almost dead.

Hal. — It is past four o'clock, and some
dark heavy clouds are come on, — the fly is
off". It is almost the hour for the signal of
the dressing bell ; and there is nothing more
to be done now till evening. But see ! our
host is come to examine our fish in the well,
and to inquire about our sport ; and, I dare

PERCH. 43

say, will order some of our fish to be dressed
for the table.

Host. — I hope, gentlemen, you have been
amused ?

Hal. — Most highly, sir. As a proof of it,
there are in the fish-well eighteen good trout,
— and one not much short of 6 lbs. ; three
above 4 lbs., and four above 3 lbs. in weight.
I hope you will order that great fish for your
dmner.

Host. — We will see. He is a fine fish,
and fit for a present, even for a prince — and
you shall take him to a prince. Here is a
fish, and there another, of the two next sizes,
which I am sure will cut red. Prepare them,
fisherman. And, Halieus, you shall catch two
or three perch for another dish ; I know there
are some good ones below the piles of the
wear; I saw them hunting small fish there
yesterday morning. Some minnows, ho ! —
and the perch rods !

Hal. — I am tired, sir, and would willingly
avoid minnow fishing after such a morning's
sport.

Host. — Come, then, I will be a fisher, for

44? SALMONIA,

the table. I have one — and another, that will
weigh nearly a pound apiece. Now, there is
a cunning perch that has stolen my minnow ;
I know he is a large one. He has robbed me
again and again ; and if I fish on in this way,
with the hook through the upper lip, will, I
dare say, carry away all the minnows in the
kettle. I shall put on a strong small hook, on
a stout, though fine, gut, with slender wire
round the top, and pass the hook through the
back fin of the minnow, and try my sagacity
against his. Lo ! I have him ! — and a very
strong fish he is, and gone to the bottom; but
even though the greatest perch in the river, he
cannot bite the gut, — he will soon be tired
and taken. He now comes up, and is landed.
He must be above 3 lbs. — amagnificentperch !
Kill him and crimp him, fisherman ; take our
two trout, and the three perch, to the kitchen,
and let them be dressed as usual. You shall
have a good dish of fish, worthy of such de-
termined anglers. But I see one of your party
coming up by the side of the river, who seems
tired and out of spirits.

Hal. — It is Physicus, who has this day

PERCH. 45

commenced his career as a fly fisher ; and
who, I dare say, has been as successful as the
uninitiated generally are. I hope you have
followed my advice, and been fortunate ?

Phys. — I caught two trout in the rapid
where you left me ; but they were small, and
the fisherman threw them in. Below the
wear, in the quick stream, I caught two dace,
and, what astonished me very much, a perch,
which you see here, and which I thought
never took the fly.

Hal. — O yes, sometimes ; and particu-
larly when it is below the surface : and what
more ?

Phys. — By creeping on my knees, and
dropping my fly over the bank, I hooked a
very large fish which I saw rising, and which
was like a salmon ; but he was too strong for
mv tackle, ran out all mv line, and at last
broke off by entangling my link in a post in
the river. I have been very unlucky ! I am
sure that fish was larger than the great one
Ornither took with the natural fly.

Hal. — Come, you have been initiated, and
I see begin to take an interest in the sport.

46 SALMONIA.

and I do not despair of your becoming a
distinguished angler.

Phys. — With time and some patience :
but I am sorry I tortured that enormous fish
without taking him.

Hal. — I dare say he was a large fish ;
but I have known very correct, and even
coolj reasoners in error on a point of this
kind. You are acquainted with Chemicus ;
he is not an ardent fisherman, and certainly
not addicted to romance : I will tell you
an anecdote respecting him. He accompa-
nied me to this very spot last year, on a visit
to our host ; and preferred angling for pike
to fly fishing. After the amusement of a
morning, he brought back with him to the
house one pike ; and with some degree of dis-
appointment complained that he had hooked
another of an enormous size, which carried off
his tackle by main force, and which he was
sure must have been above 1 0 lbs. At dinner,
on the table, there were two pikes ; one the
fish that Chemicus had caught, and another
a little larger, somewhat more than 3 lbs. We
put some questions as to who had caught this

PERCH. 47

second pike, which we found had been taken
by our host, who smihng, and with some kind
of mystery, asked Chemicus if he thought it
weighed 10 lbs. Chemicus refused to acknow-
ledge an identity between such a fish and the
monster he had hooked ; when my friend took
out of his pocket a paper containing some
hooks and tackle carefully wrapped up, and
asked Chemicus if he had ever seen such an
apparatus. Chemicus owned they were the
hooks and tackle the great fish had carried
away. " And I found them," said our friend,
" in the mouth of that very little fish which
you see on the table, and which I caught half
an hour ago."

Host. — I answer for the correctness of
this anecdote, but I do not sanction its ap-
plication to the case of our novitiate in angling,
I have seen a fish under that bank where he
was so unfortunate, which I am sure was
above four pounds, and which I dare say was
the subject of his unsuccessful experiment.

PoiET. — From what our host has j ust said,
I conclude, Halieus, that fish do not usually
change their stations.

48 SALMONIA.

Hal. — Large trouts unquestionably do not ;
— they always hide themselves under the same
bank, stone, stock, or weed, as I said this
morning before, and come out from their per-
manent habitations to feed ; and when they
have fled to their haunt, they may be taken
there by the hand ; and on this circumstance
the practice of tickling trout is founded. A
favourite place for a large trout in rivers is an
eddy behind a rock or stone, where flies and
small fishes are carried by the force of the
current: and such haunts are rarely unoc-
cupied ; for if a fish is taken out of one of
them, his place is soon suppHed by another,
who quits for it a less convenient situation.

(They go to dinner.)

* * * *

(They return from the house.)

EVENING.

Hal. — You have, I am sure, gentlemen,
dined well; no one ever dined otherwise in
this house. It is a beautiful calm evening,
and many fish might be caught where we
fished in the morning ; but I will take you to

EVENING FISHING. 49

another part of the river ; you shall each catch
a fish, and then we will give over; for the
evening's sport should be kept till a late sea-
son, — July or August, — when there is little
fly on in the day-time : and it would be spoil-
ing the diversion of our host, to catch or prick
all the fish in the upper water ; and with a
gentleman so truly liberal, and so profuse of
his means of giving pleasure to others, no im-
proper liberties should be taken. 1 shall not
fish myself, but shall have my pleasure in
witnessing your sport. It must be in a boat,
and you must steal slowly up the calm water,
and glide like aerial beings on the surface,
making no motion in the water, and showing
no shadow. Your fly must be an orange or
brown palmer with a yellow body ; for the
grey drake is not yet on the water. The fish
here are large, and the river weedy ; so you
must take care of your fish and your tackle.

PoiET. — We have at least passed over half
a mile of water, and have seen no fish rise ;
yet there is a yellowish or reddish fly in the
air, which moves like a drake ; and there are
clouds of pale brown flies encircling the alders.

E

50 SALMONIA.

Now I think I see a large trout rise below
that alder.

Hal. — That is not a trout, for he rises in
a different place now, and is probably a large
roach or chub ; do not waste your time upon
him. You may always know a large trout
when feeding in the evening. He rises con-
tinuously, or at small intervals, — in a still
water almost always in the same place, — and
makes little noise — barely elevating his
mouth to suck in the fly, and sometimes show-
ing his back-fin and tail. A large circle
spreads around him, but there are seldom
any bubbles when he breaks the water, which
usually indicate the coarser fish : we will wait
a few minutes ; I know there must be trout
here, and the sun is setting, and the yellow
fly, or dun cut, coming on the water. See,
beneath that alder is a trout rising, and now
there is another thirty yards higher up. Take
care ; get your line out in another part of the
water, and in order, for reaching the fish, and
do not throw till you are sure you can reach
the spot, and throw at least half a yard above
the fish.

EVENING FISHING. 51

Orn. — He rose, I suppose, at a natural
fly, the moment before my fly touched the
water.

Hal. — Try again. You have hooked him,
and you have done well not to strike when he
rose. Now hold him tight, wind up your
line, and carry him down the stream. Push
the boat down stream, fisherman. Keep
your fish's head up. He begins to tire, —
and there is landed. A fine well-fed fish, not
much less than 4 lbs. Throw him into the
well. Now, Poietes, try that fish rising
above, — and there are two more.

PoiET. — I have him !

Hal. — Take care. He has turned you,
and you have suffered him to run out your
line, and he is gone into the weeds under the
willow : let him fall down stream.

PoiET. — I cannot get him out.

Hal. — Then wind up. I fear he is lost ;
yet we will try to recover him by taking the
boat up. The line is loose : he has left the
link entangled in the weeds, and carried your
fly with him. He must have been a large
fish, or he could not have disentangled him-
E 2

52 SALMONIA.

self from so strong a gut. Try again, there
are fish now rising above and below ; where
the water is in motion, opposite that willow,
there are two fish rising.

PoiET. — I have one of them.

Hal. — Now you are doing well. Down
with the boat, and drag your fish downwards.
Continue to do so, as there are weeds all
round you. You can master him now ; keep
him high, and he is your own. Put the net
under him, and bring him into the boat ; he
is a well-fed fish, but not of the proper size
for a victim : about 2 lbs. Now, Physicus,
try your fortune with the fish above that rises
so merrily still. You have him ! Now use
him as Poietes did the last. Very well ; I
see he is a large fish, — take your time. He
is landed ; a fish nearly of 3 lbs., and in ex-
cellent season.

Phys. — Anche lo son Pescatore — I am,
too, a fisherman — a triumph.

Hal. — Now we have finished our fishing,
and must return to the light supper of our
host. It would be easy now, and between
this hour and ten, to take half-a-dozen large

FLIES. 53

fish in this part of the water ; but, for the
reason I have ah'eady stated, it would be
improper.

PoiET. — Pray would not this be a good
part of the water for day-fishing ?

Hal. — Undoubtedly, a skilful angler might
take fish here in the day; but the bank is
shaded by trees, there is seldom any sensible
wind on the water, and the apparatus and the
boat in motion are easily perceived in the day-
light ; and the water is so deep, that a great
quantity of fly is necessary to call up the fish ;
and in general there is a larger quantity of
fly in hot summer evenings than even in the
brightest sunshine.

Phys. — The fly appears to me like a moth
that is now on the water.

Hal. — It is.

PoiET. — What flies come on late in the
season here ?

Hal. — Flies of the same species ; some

darker, and some with a deeper shade of red ;

and there are likewise the true moths, the

brown and w^hite, which, in June and July,

E 3

64 SALMONIA.

are seized with avidity by the fish ; and being
large flies, take large fish.

Orn. — Surely the May-fly season is not
the only season for day-fishing in this river ?

Hal. — Certainly not. There are as many
fish to be taken perhaps in the spring fishing ;
but in this deep river they are seldom in good
season till the May-fly has been on ; and a
fortnight hence they will be still better than
even now. In September there may be good
fish taken here; but the autumnal flies are
less plentiful in this river than the spring flies.

Phys. — Pray tell me what are the species
of fly which take in these two seasons.

Hal. — You know that trout spawn or de-
posit their ova and seminal fluid in the end of
the autumn or beginning of winter, from the
middle of November till the beginning of Ja-
nuary, their maturity depending upon the tem-
perature of the season, their quantity of food,
&c. For some time (a month or six weeks)
before they are prepared for the sexual func-
tion, or that of re-production, they become less
fat, particularly the females; the large quantity

FLIES. 55

of eggs, and their size, probably affecting the
health of the animal, and compressing ge-
nerally the vital organs in the abdomen. They
are at least six weeks or two months after
they have spawned before they recover their
flesh : and the time when these fish are at the
worst is likewise the worst time for fly-fishing,
both on account of the cold weather and be-
cause there are fewer flies on the water than
at any other season. Even in December and
January there are a few small gnats or water-
flies on the water in the middle of the day, in
bright days, or when there is sunshine. These
are generally black ; and they escape the in-
fluence of the frost by the effects of light on
their black bodies, and probably by the ex-
treme rapidity of the motions of their fluids,
and generally of their organs. They are found
only at the surface of the water, where the
temperature must be above the freezing point.
In February a few double-winged water-flies
which swim down the stream are usually found
in the middle of the day, — such as the willow-
fly; and the cow-dung-fly is sometimes carried
on the water by winds. In March there
E 4

56 SALMONIA.

are several flies found on most rivers. The
grannam or green-tail-fly, with a wing like
a moth, comes on generally morning and
evening, from five till eight o'clock a. m. in
mild weather in the end of March and through
April. Then there are the blue and the brown,
both ephemerae, which come on, the first in
dark days, the second in bright days ; these
flies, when well imitated, are very destructive
to fish. The first is a small fly with a palish-
yellow body, and slender beautiful wings,
which rest on the back as it floats down the
water. The second, called the cob in Wales,
is three or four times as large, and has brown
wings, which likewise protrude from the back,
and its wings are shaded like those of a par-
tridge, brown and yellow brown. These three
kinds of flies lay their eggs in the water, which
produce larvae that remain in the state of
worms, feeding and breathing in the water till
they are prepared for their metamorphosis and
quit the bottoms of the rivers, and the mud
and stones, for the surface, and the light and
air. The brown fly usually disappears before
the end of April, likewise the grannam ; but

FLIES. 57

of the blue dun, there is a succession of dif-
ferent tints, or species, or varieties, which ap-
pear in the middle of the day all the summer
and autumn long. These are the principal
flies on the Wandle — the best and clearest
stream near London. In early spring these
flies have dark olive bodies; in the end of
April and the beginning of May they are
found yellow; and in the summer they be-
come cinnamon-coloured ; and again, as the
w^inter approaches, gain a darker hue. I do
not, however, mean to say that they are the
same flies, but more probably successive ge-
nerations of ephemerae of the same species.
The excess of heat seems equally unfavour-
able, as the excess of cold, to the existence
of the smaller species of water-insects, which,
during the intensity of sunshine, seldom ap-
pear in summer, but rise morning and evening
only. The blue dun has in June and July a
yellow body ; and there is a water-fly which in
the evening is generally found before the moths
appear, called the red spinner. Towards the
end of August, the ephemerae appear again
in the middle of the day ; a very pale small

58 SALMONIA.

ephemera, which is of the same colour as that
which is seen in some rivers in the beginning
of July. In September and October this kind
of fly is found with an olive body, and it be-
comes darker in October, and paler in No-
vember. There are two other flies which
appear in the end of September, and continue
during October if the weather be mild: a large
yellow fly with a fleshy body and wings like
a moth ; and a small fly with four wings, with
a dark or claret-coloured body, that when it
falls on the water has its wings, like the great
yellow fly, flat on its back. This, or a claret-
bodied fly, very similar in character, may be
likewise found in March or April, on some
waters. In this river I have often caught
many large trout in April and the beginning
of May, with the blue dun, having the yellow
body ; and in the upper part of the stream
below St. Albans, and between that and Wat-
ford, I have sometimes, even as early as April,
caught fish in good condition : but the true
season for the Colne is the season of the May-
fly. The same may be said of most of the
large English rivers containing large trouts,

FLIES — FISHING SEASON. 59

and abounding in May-fly : — such as the Test
and the Kennet ; the one running by Stock-
bridge, the other by Hungerford. But in the
Wandle, at Carshalton and Beddington, the
May-fly is not found ; and the little blues are
the constant, and, when well imitated, killing
flies on this water ; to which may be joined
a dark alder-fly, and a red evening fly. In
the Avon, at Ringwood and Fordingbridge,
the May-fly is likewise a killing fly ; but as
this is a grayling river, the other flies, par-
ticularly the grannam and blue and brown, are
good in spring, and the alder-fly or pale blue
later, and the blue dun in September and
October, and even November. In the streams
in the mountainous parts of Britain, the spring
and autumnal flies are by far the most killing.
The Uskwas formerly a very productive trout
stream ; and the fish, being well fed by the
worms washed down by the winter floods,
were often in good season, cutting red, in
March and the beginning of April : and at
this season the blues and browns, particularly
when the water was a little stained after a
small flood, afforded the angler good sport.

60 SALMONIA.

In Herefordshire and Derbyshire, where trout
and grayling are often found together, the
same periods are generally best for angling ;
but in the Dove, Lathkill, and Wye, with the
natural May-fly, many fish may be taken ; and
in old times, in peculiarly windy days, or high
and troubled water, even the artificial May-fly,
according to Cotton, was very killing.

PoiET. — I have heard various accounts of
the excellent fishing in some of the great lakes
in Ireland. Can you tell us any thing on the
subject, and if the same flies may be used in
that island ?

Hal. — I have been several times in Ire-
land, but never at this season, which is con-
sidered as best for lake-fishing. I have heard
that in some of the lakes in Westmeath very
large trout, and great quantities, maybe taken
in the beginning of June, with the very flies
we have been using this day. Wind is neces-
sary; and a good angler sometimes takes in
a day, or rather formerly took, from ten to
twelve fish, which weighed from 3 to 10 lbs.,
and which occasionally were even larger. In
the summer after June, and in the autumn,

FISHING SEASON. 61

the only seasons when I have fished in Ire-
land, I have seldom taken any large trout;
but in the river Boyle, late in October, after
a flood, I once had some sport with these fish,
that were running up the river from Loch
Key to spawn. I caught one day two above
3 lbs. that took a large reddish-brown fly of
the same kind as a salmon fly; and I saw
some taken that weighed 5 lbs., and heard of
one that equalled 9 lbs. These fish w^ere in
good season, even at this late period, and had
no spots, but were coloured red and brown —
mottled like tortoise-shell, only with smaller
bars. I have in July, likewise, fished in Loch
Con, near Ballina, and Loch Melvin, near
Ballyshannon. In Loch Con the party caught
many small good trout, that cut red ; and in
the other I caught a very few trout only, but
as many of them were gillaroo or gizzard trout
as common trout.

PoiET. — This must have been an interest-
ing kind of fishing. In what does the gillaroo
differ from the trout?

Hal. — In appearance very little, except
that they have more red spots, and a yellow

62 SALMONIA,

or golden-coloured belly and fins, and are ge-
nerally a broader and thicker fish ; but inter-
nally they have a different organization, pos-
sessing a large thick muscular stomach, which
has been improperly compared to a fowl's,
and which generally contains a quantity of
small shell-fish of three or four kinds : and
though in those I caught the stomachs were
full of these shell-fish, yet they rose greedily
at the fly.

PoiET. — Are they not common trout which
have gained the habit of feeding on shell-
fish?

Hal. — If so, they have been altered in a
succession of generations. The common trouts
of this lake have stomachs like other trouts,
which never, as far as my experience has
gone, contain shell-fish ; but of the gillaroo
trout, I have caught with a fly some not
longer than my finger, which have had as
perfect a hard stomach as the larger ones,
with the coats as thick in proportion, and the
same shells within ; so that this animal is at
least 710W a distinct species, and is a sort of
link between the trout and char, which has a

GILLAROO. 63

Stomach of the same kind with the gillaroo,
but not quite so thick, and which feeds at the
bottom in the same way. I have often looked
in the lakes abroad for gillaroo trout, and
never found one. In a small lake at the foot
of the Crest of the Brenner, above 4000 feet
above the level of the sea, I once caught some
trout, which, from their thickness and red
spots, I suspected were gillaroo, but on open-
ing the stomach I found I w^as mistaken; it
had no particular thickness, and was filled
with grashoppers : but there were cliar^ which
fed on sJiell-Jish^ in the same lake.

PoiET. — Are water-flies found on all rivers?

Hal. — This is a question which I find it
impossible to answer ; yet from my own ex-
perience I should suppose, that in all the
habitable parts of the globe certain water-flies
exist wherever there is running water. Even
in the most ardent temperature, gnats and
musquitoes are found, which lay their con-
geries of eggs on the water, which, when
hatched, become first worms, afterwards small
shrimp-like aurelia, and lastly flies. There
are a great number of the largest species of

64 SALMONIA.

these flies on stagnant waters and lakes,
which form a part of the food of various fishes,
principally of the carp kind: but the true fish-
erman's flies — those which are imitated in
our art — principally belong to the northern, or
at least temperate part of Europe, and I believe
are nowhere more abundant than in England.
It appears to me, that since I have been a
fisherman, which is now the best part of half
a century, I have observed, in some rivers
where I have been accustomed to fish habit-
ually, a diminution of the numbers of flies.
There were always some seasons in which the
temperature was favourable to a quantity of
fly ; for instance, fine warm days in spring for
the grannam, or brown fly ; and like days in
May and June for the alder-fly, May- fly, and
stone-fly ; but I should say that within these
last twenty years I have observed a general
diminution of the spring and autumnal flies,
except in those rivers which are fed from
sources that run from chalk, and which are
perennial, — such as the Wandle, and the
Hampshire and Buckinghamshire rivers ; in
these streams the temperature is more uni-

FLIES. 65

form, and the quantity of water does not vary
much. I attribute the change of the quantity
of flies in the rivers to the cultivation of the
country. Most of the bogs or marshes which
fed many considerable streams are drained ;
and the consequence is, that they are more
likely to be affected by severe droughts and
great floods, — the first killing, and the second
washing away the larvae and aurelias. May-
flies, thirty years ago, were abundant in the
upper part of the Teme river in Hereford-
shire, where it receives the Clun : they are
now rarely seen. Most of the rivers of that
part of England, as well as of the west, with
the exception of those that rise in the still
uncultivated parts of Dartmoor and Exmoor,
are rapid and unfordable torrents after rain,
and, in dry summers, little more than scanty
rills; and Exmoor and Dartmoor, almost
the only considerable remains of those moist,
spongy, or peaty soils, which once covered
the greatest part of the high lands of Eng-
land, are becoming cultivated, and their
sources will gradually gain the same cha-
racter as those of our midland and highly-

ee SALMONIA.

improved counties. I cannot give you an
idea of the effects of peat mosses and grassy
marshes on the water thrown down from the
atmosphere, better, than by comparing their
effects to those of roofs of houses of thatched
straw, as contrasted with roofs of slate, on a
shower of rain. The slate begins to drop
immediately, and sends down what it receives
in a rapid torrent, and is dry soon after the
shower is over. From the sponge-like roof
of thatch, on the contrary, it is long before
the water drops ; but it continues dropping
and wet for hours after the shower is over
and the slate dry.

PoiET. — You spoke, just now, of the gilla-
roo trout, as belonging only to Ireland. I

GILLAROO LOCH MELVIX.

^^^S^'^^F'-' <^:i^^-'

GILLAROO. 67

can, however, hardly bring myself to believe,
that such a fish is not to be found elsewhere.
For lakes with shell-fish and char are com-
mon in various parts of Europe ; and as the
gillaroo trout is congenerous, it ought to exist
both in Scotland and the Alpine countries.

Hal. — It is not possible from analogies of
this kind to draw certain inferences. Subter-
raneous cavities and subterranean waters are
common in various countries ; yet the Pro-
teus Anguinus is only found in two places in
Carniola ■ — at Adelsburg and Sittich. As I
mentioned before, I have never yet met with
a gillaroo trout except in Ireland. It is true,
it is only lately that I have had my attention
directed to the subject, and other fishermen
or naturalists may be more fortunate-

PoiET. — Have you ever observed any
other varieties of the trout kind, which may
be considered as, like the gillaroo, forming a
distinct species ?

Hal. — I think the par, samlet, or brand-
ling, common to most of our rivers which
communicate with the sea, has a claim to be
considered a distinct species ; yet the history
F 2

68

SALMONIA.

of this fish is so obscure, and so little under-
stood, that, perhaps, I ought not to venture
to give an account of it. But in doing so,
you will consider me as rather asking for new
information, than as attempting a satisfactory
view of this little animal.

PAR, OR SAMLET.

Orn. — I have seen this fish in the rivers of
Wales and Herefordshire, and have heard it
asserted, on what appeared to me good au-
thority, that it was a mule, — the offspring of
a trout and a salmon.

Hal.— -This opinion, I know, has been
supported by the fact, that it is found only

PAR, OR SAMLET. 69

in streams, which are occasionally visited by
salmon; yet I know no direct evidence in
favour of the opinion, and I should think it
much more probable, if it be a mixed race,
that it is produced by the sea trout and com-
mon trout. In a small river, which runs into
the Moy, near Ballina in Ireland, I once
caught in October a great number of small
sea trout, which were generally about half a
pound in weight, and were all males; and
unless it be supposed, that the females were
in the river likewise, and would not take the
fly, these fish, in which the spermatic system
was fully developed, could only have impreg-
nated the ova of the common river trout.
The sea trout and river trout are, indeed, so
like each other in character, that such a mix-
ture seems exceedingly probable ; but I know
no reason why such mules should always
continue small, except that it may be a mark
of imperfection. The only difference between
the par and common small trout is in the
colours, and its possessing one or two spines
more in the pectoral fin. The par has large
blue or olive bluish marks on the sides, as if
F 3

70

SALMONIA.

they had been made by the impression of the
fingers of a hand; and hence the fish is
called in some places Jingerling, The river
and sea trout seem capable of changing per-
manently their places of residence ; and sea
trout appear often to become river trout. In
this case they lose their silvery colour, and
gain more spots ; and in their offspring these
changes are more distinct. Fish, likewise,
which are ill-fed remain small ; and pars are
exceedingly numerous in those rivers where
they are found, which are never separated
fi'om the sea by impassable falls ; from which
I think it possible that they are produced by
a cross between sea and river trout. The
varieties of the common trout are almost in-
finite; from the great lake trout, which

GREAT LAKE TIIOUT.

VARIETIES OF TROUT. 71

weiijhs above 60 or 70 lbs., to the trouts of
the Httle mountain brook or small mountain
lake, or tarn, which is scarcely larger than
the finger. The smallest trout spawn nearly
at the same time with the larger ones, and
their ova are of the same size ; but in the
large trout there are tens of thousands, and
in the small one rarely as many as forty, —
often from ten to forty. So that in the ph}--
sical constitution of these animals, their pro-
duction is diminished as their food is small in
quantity ; and it is remarkable, that the ova
of the large and beautiful species which exist
in certain lakes, and which seem always to as-
sociate together, appear to produce offspring,
which, in colour, form, and power of growth
and reproduction, resemble the parent fishes;
and they generally choose the same river for
their spawning. Thus, in the lake of Guarda,
the Benacus of the ancients, the magnificent
trout, or Salmo fario, which in colour and
appearance is like a fresh run salmon, spawns
in the river at Riva, beginning to run up for
that purpose in June, and continuing to do
F 4

72 SALMON I A.

SO all the summer; and this river is fed
by streams from snow and glaciers in the
Tyrol, and is generally foul : whilst the small
spotted common trouts, which are likewise
found in this lake, go into the small brooks,
which have their sources not far off, and
in which, it is probable, they were originally
bred. I have seen taken in the same net
small fish of both these varieties, w^hich
were as marked as possible in their cha-
racters: — ^one silvery, like a young salmon,
blue on the back, and with small black spots
only ; the other, with yellow belly and red
spots, and an olive-coloured back. I have
made similar observations in other lakes, par-
ticularly in that of the Traun near Gmiinden,
and likewise at Loch Neah in Ireland. In-
deed, considering the sea trout as the type of
the species tr^cmt^ I think all the other true
trouts may not improperly be considered as
varieties, where the differences of food and
of habits have occasioned, in a long course of
ages, differences of shape and colours, trans-
mitted to offspring in the same manner as in

VARIETIES OF TROUT. 73

the variety of dogs, which may all be referred
to one primitive type.*

Phys. — I am somewhat amused at your
idea of the change produced in the species of
trout by the formation of particular charac-
ters by particular accidents, and their here-
ditary transmission. It reminds me of the
ingenious but somewhat unsound views of
Darwin on the same subject.

Hal. — I will not allow you to assimilate
my views to those of an author, who, however
ingenious, is far too speculative ; whose poetry
has always appeared to me weak philosophy,

* I have known the number of spines in the pectoral
fins different, in different varieties of trout; I have
seen them 12, 13, and 14 : but the anal fin always, I
believe, contains 11 spines, the dorsal 12 or 13, the
ventral 9, and the caudal 21. The smallest brook trout,
when well and copiously fed, will increase in stews to
four or five pounds in weight, but never attains the
size or characters of lake trout.

Mr. Tonkin of Polgaron put some small river trout,
2i inches in length, into a newly-made pond. He took
some of these out the second year, and they were above
1 2 inches in length ; the third year, he took one out
that was 16 inches; and the fourth year, one of 25
inches : this was in 1 734. {Carew's Survey of Cornwall,
p. 87. Lord de Dunstanville's edition.)

74 SALMONIA.

and his philosophy indifferent poetry : and to
whom I have been often accustomed to apply
Blumenbach's saying, that there were many
things new and many things true in his doc-
trines ; but that what was new was not true,
and what was true was not new.

PoiET. — I think HaUeus is quite in the
right to be a Httle angry at your observation,
Physicus, in making him a disciple of a writer,
who, as well as I can recollect, has deduced
the genesis of the human being, by a succes-
sion of changes dependant upon irritabilities,
sensibilities, and appetencies, from the Jish ;
blending the wild fancies of Buffon with the
profound ideas of Hartley, and thus endea-
vouring to give currency to an absurd ro-
mance, by mixing with it some philosophical
truths. I hope your parallel will induce him
to do us the favour to state his own notions
more at large.

Hal. — Physicus has mistaken me ; and I
will explain. What I mentioned of the varieties
of dogs as sprung from one type, he will, I
am sure, allow me to apply, with some modi-
fications, to all our cultivated breeds of ani-

VARIETIES OF TROUT. 75

mals, whether horses, oxen, sheep, hogs, geese,
ducks, turkies, or pigeons ; and he will allow,
that certain characters gained by accidents,
either from peculiar food, air, water, or do-
mestic treatment, are transmitted to, and often
strengthened in, the next generation ; the qua-
lities being, as it were, doubled when belong-
ing to both parents, and retained in spite of
counteracting causes. It will be sufficient for
me to mention only a few cases. The blood-
horse of Arabia is become the favourite of the
north of Europe, and the colts possess all the
superior qualities of their parents, even in the
polar circle. The offspring of the Merino
sheep retain the fineness of their wool in Eng-
land and Saxony. Poultry, bantams, tumbling
and carrier pigeons, geese, ducks, turkies, &c.,
all afford instances of the same kind ; and in
the goose and duck, not only is the colour
of the feathers changed, but the form of the
muscles of the legs and wings ; those of the
wings, being little employed, become weak and
slender ; those of the legs, on the contrary, being
much used, are strong and fleshy ; and it is
well to know this, as, in the young birds, the

76 SALMONIA.

muscles of the legs and thighs are the best
parts for the epicure, a large quantity of flesh
being developed there, but not yet hardened
or rendered tough by exercise. These facts
are of the same kind, and depend on the same
principles, as the peculiarity of the breeds or
races in trouts. Fish in a clear cool river, that
feed much on larvae, and that swallow their
hard cases, become yellower, and the red spots
increase so as to outnumber the black ones ;
and these qualities become fixed in the young
fishes, and establish a particular variety. If
trout from a lake, or another river of a different
variety, were introduced into this river, they
would not at once change their characters; but
the change would take place gradually. Thus
I have known trout from a lake in Scotland,
remarkable for their deep red flesh, introduced
into another lake, where the trout had only
white flesh, and they retained the peculiar red-
ness of their flesh for many years. At first they
all associated together in spawning in the brook
which fed the lake, but those newly introduced
were easily known from their darker backs
and brighter sides. By degrees, however,

VARIETIES OF TROUT. 77

from the influence of food and other causes,
they became changed ; the young trout of the
introduced variety had flesh less red than
their parents ; and in about twenty years the
variety was entirely lost, and all the fish were
in their original white state. A very specula-
tive reasoner might certainly defend the hy-
pothesis, of the change of species in a long
course of ages, from the establishment of par-
ticular characters as hereditary. It might be
said, that trout, after having thickened their
stomachs by feeding on larvae with hard cases,
gained the power of eating shell-fish, and were
gradually changed to gillaroos and to char ;
their red spots and the yellow colour of their
belly and fins increasing. In the same manner
it might be said, that the large trout which feed
almost entirely on small fishes gained more
spines in the pectoral fins, and became a new
species ; but / shall not go so far, and I know
no facts of this kind. The gillaroo and the
char appear always with the same characters ;
and I have never seen any fish that seemed
in a state of transition from a trout to a gillaroo
or a char ; which, I think, must have been the

78 SALMONIA.

case if such changes took place. I hope, after
this explanation, Physicus will not find any
analogy between my ideas and those of a school
to which I am not ambitious of being thought
to belong ; and that he will allow my views to
be sound, or at least founded upon correct
analogies.

PoiET. — Do you know any facts of a simi-
lar kind in confirmation of your idea that the
par is a mule ?

Hal. — I have heard of similar instances,
but I cannot say I have myself witnessed them.
The common carp and the cruscian are said to
produce a minced race, and likewise the rud and
the roach; but I have never paid much at-
tention to varieties of the carp kind. A friend
of mine informed me, that in a branch of the
Test, into which graylings had recently been
introduced, his fisherman caught a fish, which
appeared to be from a cross between the trout
and grayling, having the high back fin of the
grayling, and the head and spots of the trout :
this is the more remarkable, if correct, as the
grayling spawns in the late spring, and the
trout in the late autumn or winter : yet I ^

VARIETIES OF TROUT. 79

recollect that I once took a grayling in the end
of November, in which the ova were so large,
as nearly to be ready for protrusion. The
fisherman of the Griindtl See, in Styria, in-
formed me, that he had seen a fish which he
believed to be a mule between the trout and
char, the fins of which resembled those of a
trout, though the body was in other respects
like that of a char. The seasons at which these
two species spawn approach nearer to each
other; but the char spawns in still and the
trout in running water. In general the trout
are mature before the char, yet I have seen in
the Leopoldstein See, in Styria, a female char,
of which the eggs were almost fully developed
as early as June: the fisherman of the Griindtl
See said, that these peculiar fish were very
rare, and that he caught only one in about
500 char. It is not, I think, impossible, that
it may be an umbla, a fish that might be ex-
pected to be found in that deep, cold, Alpine
lake, a peculiar species and not a mixed variety.
It is a fertile and very curious subject for new
experiments, that of crossing the breeds of
fishes, and offers a very interesting and un-

80 SALMONIA.

touched field of investigation, which I hope
will soon be taken up by some enlightened
country gentleman, who in this way might
make not only curious but useful discoveries.

PoiET. — So much science would be re-
quired to make these experiments with suc-
cess, and there would be so many difficulties
in the way of preserving fishes at the time
they are proper for reproduction, that I fear
very few country gentlemen would be capable
of prosecuting the inquiry.

Hal. — The science required for this object
is easily attained, and the difficulties are quite
imaginary. The impregnation of the ova of
fishes is performed out of the body, and it is
only necessary to pour the seminal liquor from
the melt upon the ova in water. Mr. Ja-
cobi, a German gentleman, who made many
years ago experiments on the increase of trout
and salmon, informs us, that the ova and melt
of mature fish, recently dead, will produce
living offspring. His plan of raising trout
from the egg was a very simple one. He had
a box made with a small wire grating at one
end in the cover, for admitting water from a

VARIETIES OF TROUT. 81

fresh source or stream, and at the other end
of the side of the box there were a number of
holes to permit the exit of the water : the
bottom of the box was filled with pebbles and
gravel of different sizes, which were kept co-
vered with water that was always in motion.
In November or the beginning of December,
when the trout were in full maturity for
spawning, and collected in the rivers for this
purpose upon beds of gravel, he caught males
and females in a net, and by the pressure of
his hands received the ova in a basin of water,
and suffered the melt or seminal fluid to pass
into the basin ; and after they had remained
a few minutes together, he introduced them
upon the gravel in the box, which was placed
under a source of fresh, cool, and pure water.
In a few weeks the eggs burst, and the box
was filled with an immense number of young
trout, which had a small bag attached to the
lower part of their body, containing a part of
the yolk of the egg, which was still their nou-
rishment. In this state they were easily car-
ried from place to place in confined portions
of fresh water for some days, requiring appa-

G

82 SALMONIA.

rently no food ; but, after about a week, the
nourishment in their bag being exhausted, they
began to seek their food in the water, and
rapidly increased in size. As I have said before,
Mr. Jacobi assures us, that the experiment
succeeded as well with mature fish, that had
been killed for the purpose of procuring the
roe and melt, these having been mixed to-
gether in cold water immediately after they
were taken out of the body. I have had this
experiment tried twice, and with perfect suc-
cess ; and it offers a very good mode of in-
creasing to any extent the quantity of trout in
rivers or lakes ; for the young ones are pre-
served from the attacks of fishes, and other
voracious animals or insects, at the time when
they are most easily destroyed, and perfectly
helpless. The same plan, I have no doubt,
would answer equally well with grayling or
other varieties of the salmo genus. But in
all experiments of this kind, the great prin-
ciple is, to have a constant current of fresh and
aerated water running over the eggs. The
uniform supply of air to the foetus in the egg
is essential for its life and growth ; and such

VARIETIES OF TROUT. 83

eggs as are not supplied with water saturated
with air are unproductive. The experimenter
must be guided exactly by the instinct of the
parent fishes, who take care to deposit the im-
pregnated eggs that are to produce their off-
spring only in sources continually abounding
in fresh and aerated water.

Phys. — But as every species offish has a
particular and usually different time for spawn-
ing, I do not see how it could be contrived to
cross their breeds, or how the ova of a trout,
which spawns in December, could be impreg-
nated by the seminal fluid of the grayling,
which spawns in May ; for I conclude it would
be impossible to preserve the eggs of a fish out
of the body in a state in which they could
retain or recover their vitality.

Hal. — I believe I mentioned before, that I
had found instances, in which the ova offish
were developed at a different period from their
natural one ; and I have no doubt, that a little
inquiry respecting the habits of fishes would
enable us to acquire a knowledge of the cir-
cumstances which either hasten or retard their
maturity. Plenty of food and a genial season
G 2

84 SALMONIA. •

hasten the period of their reproduction, which
is delayed by want of proper nourishment, and
by unfavourable weather. Males and females
likewise, confined from each other, have their
generative powers impeded ; and trout, gray-
ling, and salmon, will not deposit their ova
except in running water ; so that by keeping
them in tanks, the period of their maturity
might be considerably altered. I have seen
char even, which had been kept in confined
water from September till July ; and so slow
had been the progress of the ova, that they ap-
peared to be about this time fit for exclusion,
though, in the natural course of things, they
would have been ripe in the end of October
of the year before. By attending to and con-
trolling all these circumstances, I have no
doubt many interesting experiments might be
made, as to the possibility of modifying the
varieties of the salmo, by impregnating the
ova of one species with the seminal fluid of
another. With fishes of other genera the task
would be still more easy. Carp, perch, and
pike, deposit their ova in still water in spring
and summer, when it is supplied with air by

VARIETIES OF TROUT, 85

the growth of vegetables : and it is to the
leaves of plants, which afford a continual sup-
ply of oxygen to the water, that the impreg-
nated eggs usually adhere ; so that researches
of this kind might be conducted within doors
in close vessels, filled with plants exposed to
the sun. I have myself kept minnows and
sticklebacks alive for many months in the
same confined quantity of water, containing
a few confervae ; and their ova and melt in-
creased in the same manner, as if they had
been in their natural situation.

Orn. — I conclude, from your statements,
Halieus, that nothing more is required for the
production of fishes from impregnated eggs
than a constant supply of water of a certain
temperature furnished with air ; and of course
the same principles will apply to fishes of the
sea.

Hal. — There can be no doubt of it : and
fishes in spawning time always approach great
shallows, or shores covered with weeds, that,
in the process of their growth, under the
influence of the sunshine, constantly supply
pure air to the water in contact with them.
G 3

86 SALMONIA.

PoiET. — In every thing belonging to the
economy of nature, I find new reasons for
wondering at the designs of Providence, — at
the infinite intelligence by which so many
complicated effects are produced by the most
simple causes. The precipitation of water from
the atmosphere, its rapid motion in rivers, and
its falls in cataracts, not only preserve this
element pure, but give it its vitality, and render
it subservient even to the embryo life of the
fish ; and the storms which agitate the ocean,
and mingle it with the atmosphere, supply at
once food to marine plants, and afford a prin-
ciple of life to the fishes which inhabit its
depths. So that the perturbation and motion
of the winds and waves possess a use, and
ought to impress us with a beauty higher
and more delightful even than that of the
peaceful and glorious calm.

MORNING FISHING. 87

THIRD DAY.

H ALIEUS - POIETES - ORNITHER - PHYSICUS.
SCENE — DENHAM.

Mor7iing.

Hal. — You will soon take your leave, gentle-
men, of this agreeable villa, but we must catch
at least two brace of trout, to carry with us to
London as a present for two worthy patrons
of the ansfle. For thouf^h I know our liberal
host will have a basket of fish packed up for
each of our party, yet fish taken this morning
will be imagined a more acceptable present
than those caught yesterday. The May-fly is
already upon the water, though not in great
quantity, and it will consequently be more easy
to catch the fish, which I see are rising with
great activity. I advise you to go to the deep
G 4

88 SALMONIA.

water below, where you will find the largest
fish, and I will soon follow you.

PoiET. — I hope I shall catch a large fish,
— a companion to that which Ornither took
yesterday with a natural fly.

[Halieus leaves them Jshing, and returns
to the house ; but soon comes back and joins
his companions, ivhom he Jinds Jishing below
in the river."]

Hal. — Well, gentlemen, what sport?

PoiET. — The fish are rising every where ;
but though we have been throwing over them
with all our skill for a quarter of an hour, yet
not a single one will take, and I am afraid we
shall return to breakfast without our prey.

Hal. — I will try; but I shall go to the
other side, where I see a very large fish rising.
There ! — I have him at the very first throw.
Land this fish, and put him into the well.
Now I have another ; and I have no doubt
I could take half a dozen in this very place,
where you have been so long fishing without
success.

SHADOWS. 89

Phys. — You must have a different fly ; or
have you some unguent or charm to tempt
the fish?

Hal. — No such thing. If any of you will
give me your rod and fly, I will answer for it
I shall have the same success. I take your
rod, Physicus. — And, lo ! I have a fish !

Phys. — What can be the reason of this?
It is perfectly inexplicable to me. Yet Poietes
seems to throw as light as you do, and as well
as he did yesterday.

Hal. — I am surprised that you, who are
a philosopher, cannot discover the reason of
this. Think a little.

All. — We cannot.

Hal. — As you are my scholars, I believe
I must teach you. The sun is bright, and
you have been, naturally enough, fishing
with your backs to the sun, which, not being
very high, has thrown the shadows of your
rods and yourselves upon the water, and you
have alarmed the fish, whenever you have
thrown a fly. You see I have fished with
my face towards the sun, and though incon-

90 SALMONIA.

venienced by the light, have given no alarm.
Follow my example, and you will soon have
sport, as there is a breeze playing on the
water.

Phys. — Your sagacity puts me in mind
of an anecdote which I remember to have
heard respecting the late eloquent statesman,
Charles James Fox ; who, walking up Bond
Street from one of the club-houses with an
illustrious personage, laid him a wager, that
he would see more cats than the Prince in
his walk, and that he might take which side
of the street he liked. When they got to the
top, it was found that Mr. Fox had seen thir-
teen cats, and the Prince not one. The royal
personage asked for an explanation of this
apparent miracle, and Mr. Fox said, " Your
Royal Highness took, of course, the shady
side of the way, as most agreeable ; I knew
that the sunny side would be left to me, and
cats always prefer the sunshine."

Hal. — There ! Poietes, by following my
advice you have immediately hooked a fish ;
and while you are catching a brace, I will

SUNSHINE. 91

tell you an anecdote, which as much relates
to fly-fishing as that of Physicus, and affords
an elucidation of a particular effect of light.

A manufacturer of carmine, v/ho was aware
of the superiority of the French colour, went
to Lyons for the purpose of improving his
process, and bargained with the most cele-
brated manufacturer in that capital for the
acquisition of his secret, for which he was
to pay a thousand pounds. He was shown
all the processes, and saw a beautiful colour
produced, yet he found not the least differ-
ence in the French mode of fabrication and
that which he had constantly adopted. He
appealed to the manufacturer, and insisted
that he must have concealed something! The
manufacturer assured him that he had not,
and invited him to see the process a second
time. He minutely examined the water and
the materials, which were the same as his
own, and, very much surprised, said, " I have
lost my labour and my money, for the air of
England does not permit us to make good
carmine." — "Stay," says the Frenchman, "do
not deceive yourself: what kind of weather

92 SALMONIA.

is it now ?" — "A bright sunny day," said
the Englishman. — "And such are the days,"
said the Frenchman, " on which I make my
colour. Were I to attempt to manufacture
it on a dark or cloudy day, my result would
be the same as yours. Let me advise you,
my friend, always to make carmine on bright
and sunny days."^" I will," says the En-
glishman ; " but I fear I shall make very little
in London."

PoiET. — Your anecdote is as much to the
purpose as Physicus's ; yet I am much obliged
to you for the hint respecting the effect of
shadow, for I have several times in May and
June had to complain of too clear a sky, and
wished, with Cotton, for

A day with not too bright a beam ;

Hal. — Whilst we have been conversing,
the May-flies, which were in such quantities,
have become much fewer ; and I believe the
reason is, that they have been greatly dimi-
nished by the flocks of swallows, which every
where pursue them : I have seen a single

THE SWALLOWS. 93

swallow take four, in less than a quarter of a
minute, that were descending to the water.

PoiET. — I delight in this living landscape !
The swallow is one of my favourite birds,
and a rival of the nightingale ; for he cheers
my sense of seeing as much as the other
does my sense of hearing. He is the glad
prophet of the year — the harbinger of the
best season : he lives a life of enjoyment
amongst the loveliest forms of nature : winter
is unknown to him ; and he leaves the green
meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle
and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms
of Africa:— he has always objects of pursuit,
and his success is secure. Even the beings
selected for his prey are poetical, beautiful,
and transient. The ephemerae are saved by
his means from a slow and lingering death in
the evening, and killed in a moment, when
they have known nothing of life but pleasure.
He is the constant destroyer of insects, —
the friend of man ; and, with the stork and the
ibis, may be regarded as a sacred bird. His
instinct, which gives him his appointed sea-

94 SALMONIA.

sons, and teaches him always when and where
to move, may be regarded as flowing from a
Divine Source ; and he belongs to the Oracles
of Nature, which speak the awful and in-
telligible language of a present Deity.

^!C7 ■

CAMBRIDGE.

SCENERY. 95

FOURTH DAY.

H ALIEUS - POIETES — ORNITHER - PH YSI CUS.

FISHING FOR SALMON AND SEA TROUT.

Scene — Loch Maree^ West of Ross-shire, Scotland.
Time — Middle ofJidy.

PoiET. — I BEGIN to be tired. This is really
a long day's journey ; and these last ten miles
through bogs, with no other view than that of
mountains half hid in mists, and brown waters
that can hardly be called lakes, and with no
other trees than a few stunted birches, that
look so little alive, that they might be sup-
posed immediately descended from the bog-
wood, every where scattered beneath our feet,
have i:endered it extremely tedious. This is
the most barren part of one of the most de-
solate countries I have ever passed through in
Europe ; and though the inn at Strathgarve
is tolerable, that of Auchnasheen is certainly

96 SALMONIA.

the worst I have ever seen, — and I hope the
vrorst I shall ever see. We ought to have
good amusement at Pool Ewe, to compensate
us for this uncomfortable day's journey.

Hal. — I trust we shall have sport, as far
as salmon and sea trout can furnish sport.
But the difficulties of our journey are almost
over. See, Loch Maree is stretched at our
feet, and a good boat with four oars will carry
us in four or five hours to our fishing ground ;
a time that will not be mis-spent, for this lake
is not devoid of beautiful, and even grand,
scenery.

PoiET. — The scenery begins to improve ;
and that cloud-breasted mountain on the left
is of the best character of Scotch mountains :
these woods, likewise, are respectable for this
northern country. I think I see islands also
in the distance : and the quantity of cloud
always gives effect to this kind of view ; and
perhaps, without such assistance to the ima-
gination, there would be nothing even ap-
proaching to the sublime in these countries;
but cloud and mist, by creating obscurity and
offering a substitute for greatness and distance,

SCENERY. 97

give something of an Alpine and majestic
character to this region.

Orn. — As we are now fixed in our places
in the boat, you will surely put out a rod or
two with a set of flies, or try the tail of the
par for a large trout or salmon : our fishing
will not hinder our progress.

Hal. — In most other lakes I should do so;
here I have often tried the experiment, but
never with success. This lake is extremely
deep, and there are very few fish which haunt
it generally except char ; and salmon seldom
rest but in particular parts along the shore,
which we shall not touch. Our voyage will
be a picturesque, rather than an angling one.
I see we shall have little occasion for the oars,
for a strong breeze is rising, and blowing di-
rectly down the lake ; we shall be in it in a
minute. Hoist the sails ! On we go ! — we
shall make our voyage in half the number of
hours I had calculated upon ; and I hope to
catch a salmon in time for dinner.

PoiET. — The scenery improves as we ad-
vance nearer the lower parts of the lake. The
mountains become higher, and that small

H

98 SALMONIA.

island or peninsula presents a bold, craggy
outline ; and the birch wood below it, and the
pines above, form a scene somewhat Alpine in
character. But what is that large bird soar-
ing above the pointed rock, towards the end
of the lake ? Surely it is an eagle !

Hal. — You are right ; it is an eagle, and
of a rare and peculiar species — the gray or
silver eagle, a noble bird ! From the size of
the animal, it must be the female ; and her
aerie is in that high rock. I dare sav the
male is not far off.

Phys. — I think I see another bird of a
smaller size, perched on the rock below, which
is similar in form.

Hal. — You do : it is the consort of that
beautiful and powerful bird ; and I have no
doubt their young ones are near at hand.

PoiET. — Look at the bird ! How she
dashes into the water, falling like a rock, and
raising a column of spray : she has dropped
from a great height. And now she rises
again into the air : what an extraordinary
sight !

Hal. — She is pursuing her prey, and is

EAGLES. 99

one of our fraternity, — a catcher offish. She
has missed her quarry this time, and has
soared further down towards the river, to fall
again from a great height. There ! You see
her rise with a fish in her talons.

PoiET. — She gives an interest to this
scene, which I hardly expected to have found.
Pray are there many of these animals in this
country ?

Hal. — Of this species, I have seen but
these two, and I believe the young ones mi-
grate as soon as they can provide for them-
selves ; for this solitary bird requires a large
space to move and feed in, and does not allow
its offspring to partake its reign, or to live near
it. Of other species of the eagle, there are
some in different parts of the mountains, par-
ticularly of the Osprey, and of the great fish-
ing or brown eagle. I once saw a very fine
and interesting sight above one of the Crags of
Ben Weevis, near Strathgarve, as I was going,
on the 20th of August, in pursuit of black
game. Tw^o parent eagles were teaching their
offspring — two young birds — the manoeuvres
of flight. They began by rising from the top
H 2

100 SALMONIA.

of a mountain in the eye of the sun (it was
about mid-day, and bright for this dimate).
They at first made small circles, and the
young birds imitated them ; they paused on
their wings, waiting till they had made their
first flight, and then took a second and larger
gyration, —always rising towards the sun, and
enlarging their circle of flight so as to make a
gradually extending spiral. The young ones
still slowly followed, apparently flying better
as they mounted ; and they continued this
sublime kind of exercise, always rising, till
they became mere points in the air, and the
young ones were lost, and afterwards their
parents, to our aching sight. But we have
touched the shore, and the lake has termin-
ated : you are now on the river Ewe.

PoiET. — Are we to fish here ? It is a broad
clear stream, but I see no fish, and cannot
think it a good angling river.

Hal. — We are nearly a mile above our
fishing station, and we must first see our
(quarters and provide for our lodging, before
we begin our fishing : to the inn we have only
a short walk.

THE INN. 101

PoiET. — Why, this inn is a second edition
of Auchnasheen.

Hal. — The interior is better than the
exterior, thanks to the Laird of Brahan : we
shall find one tolerable room and bed ; and
we must put up our cots and provide our food.
What is our store, Mr. Purveyor ?

Phys. — I know we have good bread, tea,
and sugar. Then there is the quarter of roe-
buck presented to us at Gordon Castle ; and
Ornither has furnished us with a brace of
wild ducks, three leash of snipes, and a brace
of golden plovers, by his mountain expedition
of yesterday ; and for fish we depend on you.
Yet our host says there are fresh herrings to
be had, and small cod-fish, and salmon and
trout in any quantity, and the claret and the
Ferintosh are safe.

Hal. — Why, we shall fare sumptuously.
As it is not time yet for shooting grouse, we
must divide our spoil for the few days we
shall stay here. Yet there are young snipes
and plovers on the mountains above, and I
have no doubt we might obtain the Laird's
permission to kill a roebuck in the woods or
H 3

102 SALMONIA.

a hart on the mountains ; but this is always
an uncertain event, and I advise you, Orni-
ther, to become a fisherman.

Orn. — I shall wait till I see the results
of your skill. At all events, in this country
I can never want amusement ; and I dare say
there are plenty of seals at the mouth of the
river, and killing them is more useful to other
fishermen than catching fish.

Hal. — Let there be a kettle of water with
salt ready boiling in an hour, mine host, for
the fish we catch or buy ; and see that the
potatoes are well dressed : the servants will
look to the rest of our fare. Now for our
rods.

PoiET. — This is a fine river ; clear, full,
but not too large : with the two-handed rod
it may be commanded in most parts.

Hal. — It is larger than usual. The
strong wind which brought us so quickly down
has made it fuller ; and it is not in such good
order for fishing as it was before the wind
rose.

PoiET. — I thought the river was always
the better for a flood, when clear.

THE EWE. 103

Hal. — Better after a flood from rain ; for
this brings the fish up, who know when rain
is coming, and Ukewise brings down food and
makes the fish feed. But when the water is
raised by a strong wind, the fish never run, as
they are sure to find no increase in the spring
heads, which are their objects in running.

PoiET. — You give the fish credit for great
sagacity.

Hal. — Call it instinct rather ; for if they
reasoned, they would run with every large
water, whether from wind or rain. What
the feeling or power is, which makes them
travel with rain,^ I will not pretend to define.
But now for our sport.

PoiET. — The fish are beginning to rise ;
I have seen two here already, and there is a
third, and a fourth — scarcely a quarter of a
minute elapses without a fish rising in some
parts of the pool.

Hal, — As the day is dark, I shall use a

bright and rather a large fly, with jay's hackle,

kingfisher's feather under the wing, and

golden pheasant's tail, and wing of mixed

H 4

104 SALMONIA.

grouse and argus pheasant's tail. I shall throw
over these fish : I ouo^ht to raise one.

o

PoiET. — Either you are not skilful, or the
fish know their danger : they will not rise.

Hal. — I will try another and a smaller fly.

PoiET. — You do nothing.

Hal. — I have changed my fly a third
time, yet no fish rises. I cannot understand
this. The water is not in good order, or I
should certainly have raised a fish or two.
Now I will wager ten to one, that this pool
has been fished before to-day.

Orn. — By whom ?

Hal. — I know not; but take my wager,
and we will ascertain.

Orn. — I shall ascertain without the wager

o

if possible. See, a man connected with the
fishery advances, let us ask him. — There
you see ; it has been fished once or twice by
one, who claims without charter the right of
angling.

Hal. — I told you so. Now I know this,
I shall put on another kind of fly, such as I
am sure they have not seen this day.

SEA TROUT. 105

PoiET. — It is very small and very gaudy,
I believe made with humming bird's feathers.

Hal. — No. The brightest Java dove's
hackle ; kingfisher's blue, and golden phea-
sant's feathers, and the red feathers of the
paroquet. There was a fish that rose and
missed the fly — a sea trout. There, he has
taken it, a fresh run fish, from his white belly
and blue back.

PoiET. — How he springs out of the w^ater !
He must be 6 or 7 lbs.

Hal. — Under five, I am sure; he will soon
be tired. He fights with less spirit; put the
net under him. There, he is a fine fed sea
trout, between 4 and 5 lbs. But our intrusive
brother angler (as I must call him) is coming
down the river to take his evening cast. A
stout Highlander, with a powerful tail, — or,
as we should call it in England, suite. He is
resolved not to be driven off, and I am not sure
that the Laird himself could divert him from
his purpose, except by a stronger tail, and
force of arms ; but I will try my eloquence
upon him. " Sir, we hope you will excuse
us for fishing in this pool, where it seems you

106 SALMONIA.

were going to take your cast ; but the Laird
has desired us to stand in his shoes for a few
days, and has given up angling while we are
here ; and as we come nearly a thousand miles
for this amusement, we are sure you are too
much of a gentleman to spoil our sport ; and
we will take care to supply your fish kettle
while we are here, morning and evening, and
we shall send you, as we hope, a salmon be-
fore night."

PoiET. — He grumbles good sport to us,
and is off with his tail : you have hit him in
the right place. He is a pot fisher, I am sure,
and somewhat hungry, and, provided he gets
the salmon, does not care who catches it !

Hal. — You are severe on the Highland
gentleman, and I think extremely unjust. No-
thing could be more ready than his assent,
and a keen fisherman must not be expected to
be in the best possible humour, when he finds
sport which he believes he has a right to, and
which perhaps he generally enjoys without
interruption, taken away from him by entire
strangers. There is, I know, a disputed point
about fishing with the rod, between him and

SALMON. 107

the Laird ; and it would have been too much
to have anticipated a courteous greeting from
one, who considers us as the representatives
of an enemy. But I see there is a large fish
which has just risen at the tail of the pool. I
think he is fresh run from the sea, for the tide
is coming in. My fly and tackle are almost
too fine for so large a fish, and I will put on
my first fly with a very strong single gut link
and a stretcher of triple gut. He has taken
my fly, and I hold him — a powerful fish : he
must be between 10 and 15 lbs. He fights
well, and tries to get up the rapid at the top
of the pool. I must try my strength with him,
to keep him off" that rock, or he will break me.
I have turned him, and he is now in a good
part of the pool : such a fish cannot be tired
in a minute or two, but requires from ten
to twenty, depending upon his activity and
strength, and the rapidity of the stream he
moves against. He is now playing against
the strongest rapid in the river, and will soon
give in, should he keep his present place.

PoiET. — You have tired him.

Hal. — He seems fairly tired: I shall bring

108 SALMONIA.

him in to shore. Now gafF him; strike as
near the tail as you can. He is safe ; we must
prepare him for the pot. Give him a stunning
blow on the head to deprive him of sensation,
and then make a transverse cut just below the
gills, and crimp him, by cutting to the bone
on each side, so as almost to divide him into
slices : and now hold him by the tail that he
may bleed. There is a small spring, I see,
close under that bank, which I dare say has
the mean temperature of the atmosphere in
this climate, and is much under 50° — place
him there, and let him remain for ten mi-
nutes ; then carry him to the pot, and before
you put in a slice let the water and salt boil
furiously, and give time to the water to re-
cover its heat before you throw in another ;
and so proceed with the whole fish : leave the
head out, and throw in the thickest pieces first.

Phys. — Why did you not crimp your trout?

Hal. — We will have him fried. Our
poacher prevented me from attending to the
preparation ; but for frying he is better not
crimped, as he is not large enough to give
good transverse slices.

SALMON. 103

PoiET. — This salmon is a good fish, and
fresh, as you said, from the sea. You see
the salt-water louse adheres to his sides, and
he is bright and silvery, and a thick fish ; I
dare say his weight is not less than 14 lbs.,
and I know of no better fish for the table
than one of that size.

Phys. — It appears to me that so powerful
a fish ought to have struggled much longer :
yet, without great exertions on your part, in
ten minutes he appeared quite exhausted, and
lay on his side as if dying : this induces me
to suppose, that there must be some truth in
the vulgar opinion of anglers, that fish are, as
it were, drowned by the play of the rod and
reel.

Hal. — The vulgar opinion of anglers on
this subject I believe to be perfectly correct :
though, to apply the word drowning to an
animal that lives in the water is not quite
a fit use of language. Fish, as you ought to
know, respire by passing water, which always
holds common air in solution, through their
gills or bronchial membrane, by the use of a
system of muscles surrounding the fauces.

no SALMONIA.

which occasion constant contractions and ex-
pansions, or openings and closings of this
membrane, and the life of the fish is de-
pendant on the process, in the same manner
as that of a quadruped is on inspiring and ex-
piring air. When a fish is hooked in the
upper part of the mouth by the strength of
the rod applied as a lever to the line, it is
scarcely possible for him to open the gills as
long as this force is exerted, particularly when
he is moving in a rapid stream ; and when he
is hooked in the lower jaw, his mouth is kept
closed by the same application of the strength
of the rod, so that no aerated water can be
inspired. Under these circumstances he is
quickly deprived of his vital forces, particu-
larly when he exhausts his strength by moving
in a rapid stream. A fish, hooked in a part
of the mouth where the force of the rod will
render his efforts to respire unavailing, is much
in the same state as that of a deer caught
round the neck by the lasso of a South Ame-
rican peon, who gallops forwards, dragging
his victim after him, which is killed by strangu-
lation in a very short time. When fishes are

SALMON. Ill

hooked foul, that is, on the outside of the
body, as in the fins or tail, they will often
fight for many hours, and in such cases very
large salmon are seldom caught, as they retain
their powers of breathing unimpaired; and
if they do not exhaust themselves by violent
muscular efforts, they may bid defiance to the
temper and the skill of the fisherman. A
large salmon, hooked in the upper part of
the mouth in the cartilage or bone, will some-
times Hkewise fight for a long while, particu-
larly if he keep in the deep and still parts of
the river : for he is able to prevent the force
of the hook, applied by the rod, from inter-
fering with his respiration ; and by a powerful
effort, can maintain his place, and continue to
breathe in spite of the exertions of the
angler. A fish, in such case, is said to be
sulky, and his instinct, or his sagacity, gene-
rally enables him to conquer his enemy. It
is, however, rarely that fishes hooked in the
mouth are capable of using freely the muscles
subservient to respiration ; and their powers
are generally, sooner or later, destroyed by
suffocation.

112 SALMONIA.

PoiET. — The explanation that you have
just been giving us of the effects of playing
fish, I confess, alarms me, and makes me
more alarmed than I was before, that we are
pursuing a very cruel amusement ! for death
by strangling, I conceive, must be very
laborious, slow, and painful.

Phys. — I think as I did before I was an
ander, as to the merciless character of field-
sports ; but I doubt if this part of the process
of the fly-fisher ought so strongly to alarm
your feelings. As far as analogies from warm-
blooded animals can apply to the case, the
death that follows obstructed respiration is
quick, and preceded by insensibility. There
are many instances of persons who have re-
covered from the apparent death produced
by drowning, and had no recollection of any
violent or intense agony ; indeed, the alarm
or passion of fear generally absorbs all the
sensibility, and the physical suffering is lost
in the mental agitation. I can answer from
my own experience, that there is no pain
which precedes the insensibility occasioned by
breathing gases mufitted for supporting life,

DEATH BY SUFFOCATION. 113

but oftener a pleasurable feeling, as in the case
of the respiration of nitrous oxide. And in the
suffocation produced by the gradual abstrac-
tion of air in a close room where charcoal is
burning, we have the record of the son of a
celebrated chymist, that the sensation which
precedes the deep sleep that ends in death is
agreeable. There is far more pain in recover-
ing from the insensibility produced by the
abstraction of air than in undergoing it, as I
can answer from my own feelings ; and it is,
I believe, quite true, what has been asserted,
that the pain of being born, which is acquiring
the power of respiration, is greater than that
of dying, which is losing the power.

Orn. — I have heard, that persons, who
have been recovered from the insensibility
produced by hanging, have never any recol-
lection of the sufferings which preceded it ;
and as the blood is immediately determined
to the head in this operation, probably apo-
plectic insensibility is almost instantaneous.

There is on record a very remarkable trial
respecting the death of an Italian, who was
for many years in the habit of being hanged
I

114 SALMONIA.

for the purpose of producing the temporary
excitement of organs that had lost their
power, and who ultimately fell a victim to
this depraved and dangerous practice ; but I
will not dwell upon this case, which is well
authenticated, and which is equally revolting
to good feelings and delicacy.

Hal. — The laws of nature are all directed
by Divine Wisdom for the purpose of preserv-
ing life and increasing happiness. Pain seems
in all cases to precede the mutilation or de-
struction of those organs which are essential
to vitality, and for the end of preserving them ;
but the mere process of dying seems to be the
falling into a deep slumber ; and in animals,
who have no fear of death dependent upon
imagination, it can hardly be accompanied by
very intense suffering. In the human being,
moral and intellectual motives constantly ope-
rate in enhancing the fear of death, which,
without these motives in a reasoning being,
would probably become null, and the love of
life be lost upon every slight occasion of pain
or disgust ; but imagination is creative with
respect to both these passions, which, if they

NATURE OF PAIX. 115

exist in animals, exist independent of reason,
or as instincts. Pain seems intended by an
all-wise Providence to prevent the dissolution
of organs, and cannot follow their destruction,
I know several instances in which the process
of death has been observed, even to its ter-
mination, by good philosophers ; and the in-
stances are worth repeating. Dr. Cullen, when
dying, is said to have faintly articulated to one
of his intimates, " I wish I had the power of
writing or speaking, for then I would describe
to you how pleasant a thing it is to die." Dr.
Black, worn out by age and a disposition to
pulmonary hemorrhage, which obliged him
to live very low, whilst eating his customary
meal of bread and milk, fell asleep, and died
in so tranquil a manner, that he had not even
spilt the contents of the spoon which he held
in his hand. And the late Sir Charles Blaofden,
whilst at a social meal with his friends, Mons.
and Mad. Berthollet and Gay-Lussac, died
in his chair so quietly, that not a drop of the
coffee in the cup which he held in his hand
was spilt.

PoiET. — Give us no more such instances ;
I 2

1 1 6 SALMONIA.

for I do not think it wise to diminish the love
of life, or to destroy the fear of death.

Hal. — There is no danger of this. These
passions are founded on immutable laws of
our nature, which philosophy cannot change ;
and it would be good if we could give the same
security of duration to the love of virtue and
the fear of vice or shame, which are con-
nected with immutable interests, and which
ought to occupy far more the consideration
of beings destined for immortality. — But to
our business.

Now we have fish for dinner, my task is
finished : Physicus and Poietes, try your skill.
I have not fished over the best parts of this
pool : you may catch a brace of fish here
before dinner is ready.

Phys. — It is too late, and I shall go and
see that all is right.

PoiET. — I will take one or two casts ; but
give me your fly : I like always to be sure that
the tackle is taking.

Hal. — Try at first the very top of the pool,
— though I fear you will get nothing there :
but here is a cast which I think the Highlander
can hardly have commanded from the other

SEA TROUT. 117

side, and which is rarely without a good fish.
There, he rose: a large trout of 10 lbs., or a
salmon. Now wait a few minutes. When
a fish has missed the fly, he will not rise
again till after a pause — particularly if he
has been for some time in the fresh water.
Now try him again. He has risen, but he
is a dark fish that has been some time in the
water, and he tries to drown the fly with a
blow of his tail. I fear you will not hook
him except foul, when most likely he would
break you. Try the bottom of the pool, be-
low where I caught my fish.

PoiET. — I have tried all the casts, a^id
nothing rises.

Hal. — Come, we will change the fly for
that which I used.

PoiET. — Now I have one : he has taken
the fly under water, and I cannot see him.

Hal. — Straighten your line, and we shall
soon see him. He is a sea trout, but not a
large one.

PoiET. — But he fights like a salmon, and
must be near 5 lbs.

Hal. — Under 3lbs. ; but these fish are
I 3

118 SALMON I A.

always strong and active, and sometimes give
more sport than larger fish. Shorten your line,
or he will carry you over the stones and cut
the link gut. He is there already : you have
allowed him to carry out too much line ; wind
up as quick as you can, and keep a tight hand
upon him. He is now back to a good place,
and in a few minutes more will be spent. I
have the net. There, he is a sea trout of.
nearly 3 lbs. This will be a good addition to
our dinner : I will crimp him, that you may
compare boiled sea trout with broiled, and with
salmon. Now, if you please, we will cool this
fish at the spring, and then go to our inn.

PoiET. — If you like. I am endeavouring
to find a reason for the effect of crimping and
cold in preserving the curd of fish. Have you
ever thought on this subject?

Hal. — Yes : I conclude that the fat of
salmon between the flakes of the muscles is
mixed with much albumen and gelatine, and
is extremely liable to decompose, and by
keeping it cool, the decomposition is retarded;
and by the boiling salt and water, which is of
a higher temperature than that of common

CRIMPING. 119

boiling water, the albumen is coagulated, and
the curdiness preserved. The crimping, by
preventing the irritability of the fibre from
being gradually exhausted, seems to preserve
it so hard and crisp, that it breaks under the
teeth ; and a fresh fish not crimped is generally
tough. A friend of mine, an excellent angler,
has made some experiments on the fat of fish;
and he considers the red colour of trout, sal-
mon, and char, as owing to a peculiar-colour-
ed oil, which may be extracted by alcohol ;
and this accounts for the want of it in fish
that have fed ill, and after spawning. In
general, the depth of the red colour and the
quantity of curd are proportional.

PoiET. — Would not the fish be still better,
or at least possess more curd, if caught in a
net and killed immediately ? In the operation
of tiring by the reel there must be considerable
muscular exertion, and I should suppose ex-
penditure of oily matter.

Hal. — There can be no doubt but the fish

would be in a more perfect state for the table

from the nets ; yet a fish in high season does

not lose so much fat during: the short time he

I 4

120 SALMONIA.

is on the hook as to make much difference ;
and I am not sure, that the action of crimphig
after does not give a better sort of crispness
to the fibre. This, however, may be fancy ;
we will discuss the matter again at table. See !
our companion on the lake, the eagle, is
coming down the river, and has pounced
upon a fish in the pool near the sea.

Phys. — I fear he will interfere with our
sport : let us request Ornither to shoot him.
I wish to see him nearer, and to preserve him
as a specimen for the Zoological Society.

Hal. — O! no. He will not spoil our sport;
and I think it would be a pity to deprive this
spot of one of its poetical ornaments. Besides,
the pool where he is now fishing contains
scarcely any thing but trout ; it is too shallow
for salmon, who run into the cruives.

PoiET. — I am of your opinion, and shall
use my eloquence to prevent Ornither from
attempting the life of so beautiful a bird ; so
majestic in its form, so well suited to the
scenery, and so picturesque in all its habits.

The Innkeeper. — Gentlemen, dinner is
ready.

THE DINNER. 121

THE DINNER.

Hal. — Now take your places. What
think you of our fish ?

Phys. — I never ate better ; but I want the
Harvey or Reading sauce.

Hal. — Pray let me entreat you to use no
other sauce than the water in which he was
boiled. I assure you this is the true Epi-
curean way of eating fresh salmon : and for
the trout, use only a little vinegar and mus-
tard — a sauce a la Tartare^ without the
onions.

PoiET. — Well, nothing can be better ; and
I do not think fresh net-caught fish can be
superior to these.

Hal. — And these snipes are excellent.
Either my journey has given me an appetite,
or I think they are the best I ever tasted.

Orn. — They are good, but I have tasted
better.

Hal. — Where ?

Orn. — On the Continent ; where the com-
mon snipe, that rests during its migration from
the north to the south in the marshes of Italy

122 SALMONIA.

and Carniola, and the double or solitary
snipe, become so fat, as to resemble that bird,
which was formerly fattened in Lincolnshire,
the ruff; and they have, I think, a better fla-
vour from being fed on their natural food.

Hal. — At what time have you eaten them?

Orn. — I have eaten them both in spring
and autumn ; but the autumnal birds are the
best, and are like the ortolan of Italy.

Hal. — Where does the double snipe
winter ?

Orn. — I believe in Africa and Asia Minor.
They are rarely seen in England, except driven
by an east wind in the spring, or a strong
north wind in the autumn. Their natural
progress is to and from Finland and Siberia,
through the continent of Europe, to and from
the east and south.* In autumn they pass

* From the food, and the remains of food, found in
the stomach of the double snipe, I think I have ascer-
tained, that it requires a kind of worm, which is not
found in winter even in the temperate climes of Europe ;
and that it feeds differently from the snipe. There are
certainly none found after the end of October in either
Ulyria or Italy ; and I believe the same may be said of
the end of May, as to their summer migration, or their
breeding migration. 1 have opened the stomachs of at

THE DINNER. 123

more east, both because they are aided by
west winds, and because the marshes in the

least a dozen of these birds, and their contents were
always of the same kind, long slender white hexapode
larvae, or their skms, of different sizes, from that of the
maggot of the horse-fly to one thrice as long. I believe
all these insects were the larvae of tibulae of different
species. In the stomach of the common snipe, which
is stronger and larger, I have generally found earth-
worms, and often seeds, and rice, and gravel. I con-
jecture, that, in the temperate climates of Europe, most
of the aquatic larvae on which the solitary snipe feeds
are converted into flies in the late spring and autumn ;
which probably limits the period of their migration.
In 1827 the solitary snipe passed through Italy and
Illyria between the loth of March and the 6th of May.
I heard of the first at Ravenna the 17th of March,
and I shot two near Laybach on the 5th of May;
but though I was continually searching for them for
a fortnight after, I found no more. This year they re-
turned from the north early ; and I saw some in the
marshes of Illyria on the 19th of August. In 1828
they were later in their vernal passage, and likewise in
their return. I found them in Illyria through May, as
late as the 17th, on which day I shot three, and they
did not re-appear till the beginning of September. I
found one on the 3d, and three on the 4th, and twenty
were shot on the 7th.

As this bird is rarely seen in England, I shall men-
tion its peculiarities. It is more than one third larger

124« SALMONIA.

east of Europe are wetter in that season ; and
in springthey return, but the larger proportion

than the common snipe, and has a breast spotted with
gray feathers. Its beak is shorter than that of the
snipe; the old ones have feathers almost pure white in
their tails, and as they spread them when rising, they
are easily distinguished by this character from the snipe ;
but in the young birds that I have seen in August, this
character was wanting. They are usually very fat,
particularly the young birds ; their weight varies from
six to nine ounces ; but even the fattest ones are rarely
above seven ounces and a half; and though I have
killed more than a hundred, I can speak of half-a-dozen
only that weighed above eight ounces and a half. In
spring they are usually found in pairs, the female
being rather larger, and having a paler breast : in
autumn they are solitary. They prefer wet meadows
to bogs, or large, deep marshes. They usually lie
closer than snipes, and seldom fly far. Their flight is
straight, like that of a jack snipe, and they are easily shot.
Attention to the migrations of birds might, I have
no doubt, lead to im.portant indications respecting the
character and changes of the weather and the seasons.
The late migration of the solitary snipe this year ( 1828)
seems to have been an indication of a wet and back-
ward summer in the north of Europe. But to form
opinions upon facts of this kind requires much know-
ledge and caution. The perfection of the larvae of
the tibulae on which this snipe feeds depends upon a
number of circumstances : the temperature of the last

THE DINNER. 125

through Italy, where they are carried by the
Sirocco^ and which at that time is extremely
"wet. Come, let us have another bottle of
claret : a pint per man is not too much after
such a day's fatigue.

Hal. — You have made me president for
these four days, and I forbid it. A half pint
of wine for young men in perfect health is
enough, and you will be able to take your
exercise better, and feel better for this absti-
nence. How few people calculate upon the
effects of constantly renewed fever, in our luxu-
rious system of living in England ! The heart
is made to act too powerfully, the blood is
thrown upon the nobler parts, and, with the
system of wading adopted by some sportsmen,
whether in shooting or fishing, is delivered
either to the hemorrhoidal veins, or, what is
worse, to the head. I have known several
free livers, who have terminated their lives by
apoplexy, or have been rendered miserable by

year ; the period when the eggs were laid ; the heat of
the water when they were deposited, and the quantity
of rain since. The migration of the solitary snipe is
only one link in a great chain of causes and effects, all
connected, and extendini? from Africa to Siberia.

126 SALMONIA.

palsy, in consequence of the joint effects of
cold feet and too stimulating a diet; that is to
say, as much animal food as they could eat,
with a pint or perhaps a bottle of wine per
day. Be guided by me, my friends, and
neither drink nor wade. I know there are
old men who have done both, and have en-
joyed perfect health ; but these are devil's de-
coys to the unwary, and ten suffer for one that
escapes. I could quote to you an instance
from this very county, in one of the strongest
men I have ever known. He was not intem-
perate, but he lived luxuriously, and waded
as a salmon fisher for many years in this very
river ; but before he was fifty, palsy deprived
him of the use of his limbs, and he is still a
living example of the danger of the system
which you are ambitious of adopting.

Orn. — Well, I give up the wine, but I in-
tend to wade in Hancock's boots to-morrow.

Hal. — Wear them, but do not wade in
them. The feet must become cold in a stream
of water constantly passing over the caoutchouc
and leather, notwithstanding the thick stock-
ings. They are good for keeping the feet

THE DINNER. 127

warm, and I think where there is exercise, as
in snipe-shooting, they may be used without
any bad effects. But I advise no one to stand
still (which an angler must do sometimes) in
the water, even with these ingenious water-
proof inventions. All anglers should remem-
ber old Boerhaave's maxims of health, and
act upon them : — '• Keep the feet warm, the
head cool, and the body open."

Phys. — I am sorry we did not examine
more minutely the weight and size of the fish
we caught, and compare the anatomy of the
salmon and the sea trout ; but we were in too
gi'eat a hurry to see them on the table, and
our philosophy yielded to our hunger.

Hal. — We shall have plenty of oppor-
tunities for this examination; and we can now
walk down to the fishing house, and see pro-
bably half a hundred fish of cHfferent sizes,
that have been taken in the cruives this even-
ing, and examine them at our leisure.

All. — Let us go !

128

SALMONIA.

Phys. — I never saw so many fish of this
kind before ; and I conclude that heap of
smaller fish is composed of trout.

Hal. — Certainly. Let us compare one of

the largest trout with a salmon. I have selected

o

two fresh run fish, which, from their curved

SEA TROUT -:- SAL510 TRUTTA MARINA.

SALMON SALMO SALAR.

TROUT AND SALMON COMPARED. 129

lower jaws are, I conclude, both males. The
salmon you see is broader, has a tail rather
more forked, and the teeth in proportion are
rather smaller. The trout, likewise, has larger
and more black brown spots on the body ; and
the head of the trout is a little larger in pro-
portion. The salmon has 14 spines in the
pectoral fins, 10 in each of the ventral, 1 3 in the
anal, 21 in the caudal, and 15 in the dorsal.
The salmon measures 38j inches in length, and
21 inches in girth, and his weight, as you see,
is 22;^ lbs. The trout has one spine less in the
pectoral, and two less in the anal fin, and
m€asures 30j inches in length, and 16 inches
in girth, and his weight is 1 1 lbs. We will now
open them. The stomach of the salmon, you
perceive, contains nothing but a little yellow
fluid, and, though the salmon is twice as large,
does not exceed much in size that of the
trout. The stomach of the trout, unlike that
of the salmon, will be found full of food : we
will open it. See, there are half digested
sand eels which come out of it.

Phys. — But surely the stomachs of salmon
must sometimes, when opened, contain food ?
K

130 SALMONIA.

Hal. — I have opened ten or twelve, and
never found any thing in their stomachs but
tape-worms, bred there, and some yellow fluid;
but, I believe, this is generally owing to their
being caught at the time of migration, when
they are travelling from the sea upwards, and
do not willingly load themselves with food.
Their digestion appears to be very quick, and
their habits seem to show, that after having
taken a bait in the river they do not usually
seek another, till the work of digestion is
nearly performed : but when they are taken
at sea, and in rivers in the winter, food, I am
told, is sometimes found in their stomachs.
The sea trout is a much more voracious
fish, and, like the land trout, is not willingly
found with an empty stomach.

Phys. — I presume the sea trout is the fish
called by Linnaeus, in his Fauna, SalmoEriox?

Hal. — I know not : but I should rather
think that fish a variety of the common salmon.

Phys. — But there are surely other species of
salmon, that live in the sea and come into our
rivers : I have heard of fish called grays^ hull
trmt, scurfs^ morts, peales, and wkitlings.

VARIETIES OF SALMON. 131

Hal. — I have never been able to identify
more than the salmo salar, or salmon, and
sabno trutta, or sea trout, in the rivers of
Britain and Ireland. The whitlings I believe
to be the young of the sea trout. A sea
trout which I saw in Ireland, called a bull
trout, was of the same kind as these you see
here, but fresh water trout are sometimes
carried in floods to the sea, and come back
larger and altered in colour and form, and
are then mistaken for new species: and as
each river possesses a peculiar variety be-
longing to it, this, with differences depend-
ing upon food and size, will, I think, account
for the peculiarities of particular fish, with-
out the necesity of supposing them distinct
species. I remember many years ago, the
first time I ever fished for salmon in spring
in the Tweed, I caught with the fly, one fine
morning in March, two fish nearly of the
same length : one was a male of the last
season, that had lost its melt; the other a
female fresh from the sea. They were so
unlike, that they did not appear of the same
species : the spent or kipper salmon was long
K 2

132 SALMONIA.

and lean, showing an immense head, spotted
all over with black and brown spots, and the
belly almost black; the other bright and
silvery, without spots, and the head small.
Even the pectoral and anal fins had more
spines in the newly run fish, some of the
smaller ones having been probably rubbed
off in spawning by the other. I would not
for some time, till assured by an experienced
fisherman, believe, that the spent fish was a
salmon ; and when their flesh was compared
on the table, one was white, flabby, and bad,
and without curd; the other of the brightest
pink, and full of dense curd. Then, though
of the same length, one weighed only 4 lbs.,
the other 9J lbs. When it is recollected,
that different salmon and sea trout spawn at
different times in the same river, and that
fish of the same year, being born at different
seasons from Christmas to Lady-day, — and
having migrated to the sea in spring — run
up the rivers of all sizes in summer and
autumn — the young salmon from 2 to 10 lbs.
in weight, the young sea trout from J to
3 lbs. in weight — it is not difficult to ac-

VARIETIES OF SALMON. 133

count for the variety of names given by
casual observers to individuals of these two
species. But I must not forget my promise
of sending a fish to the Highlander, with
whose sport we have interfered. There is a
good salmon, which shall be taken to him
immediately, and for which I shall pay the
taxman his usual price of 5d, per pound.

K 3

134? SALMONIA.

FIFTH DAY.

H ALIEUS - POIETES - ORNITHER — PHYSICUS.

MORNING.

Hal. — Well, is your tackle all ready ? It is
a fine fresh and cloudy morning, with a gentle
breeze — a day made for salmon fishing.

[They proceed to the river, '\

Hal. — Now, my friends, I give up the
two best pools to you till one o'clock; and I
shall amuse myself above and below — pro-
bably with trout fishing. As there is a pro-
mise of a mixed day, with — what is rare in
this country — a good deal of sunshine, I
will examine your flies a little, and point out
those I think likely to be useful ; or rather, I
will show you my flies, and, as you all have
duplicates of them, you can each select the
fly which I point out, and place it in a part

SALMON FISHING. 135

of the book where it may easily be found.
First : when the cloud is on I advise the use
of one of these three golden twisted flies, with
silk bodies, orange, red, and pale blue, with
red, orange, and gray hackle, golden phea-
sant's hackle for tail, and kingfisher's blue
and golden pheasant's brown hackle under
the wing; beginning with the brightest fly,
and chanmnff to the darker one. Should
the clouds disappear, and it become bright,
change your flies for darker ones, of which I
will point out three : — a fly with a brown
body and a red cock's hackle, one with a dun
body and black hackle and light wing, and
one with a black body, a hackle of the same
colour, and a brown mallard's wing. All
these flies have, you see, silver twist round
their bodies, and all kingfisher's feather un-
der the wing, and golden pheasant's feather
for the tail. For the size of your flies, I re-
commend the medium size, as the water is
small to-day; but trying all sizes, from the
butterfly size of a hook of half an inch in
width, to one of a quarter. Now, Physicus,
cast your orange fly into that rapid at the
K 4

136 SALMONIA.

top of the pool ; I saw a large fish run there
this moment. You fish well, were common
trout your object; but, in salmon fishing,
you must alter your manner of moving the
fly. It must not float quietly down the
water; you must allow it to sink a little,
and then pull it back by a gentle jerk — not
raising it out of the water, — and then let it
sink again, till it has been shown in motion,
a little below the surface, in every part of
your cast. That is right, — he has risen.

Phys. — I hold him. He is a noble fish !

Hal. — He is a large grilse, I see by his
play ; or a young salmon, of the earliest born
this spring. Hold him tight; he will fight
hard.

Phys. — There! he springs out of the wa-
ter! Once, twice, thrice, four times! He is a
merry one !

Hal. — He runs against the stream, and
will soon be tired, — but do not hurry him.
Pull hard now, to prevent him from running
round that stone. He comes in. I will gaff*
him for you. I have him ! A goodly fish of
this tide. But see, Poietes has a larger fish

SALMON FISHING. 137

at the bottom of tlie great pool, and is
carried down by him almost to the sea.

PoiET. — I cannot hold him ! He has run
out all my line.

Hal. — I see him: he is hooked foul, and I
fear we shall never recover him, for he is "foinff
out to sea. Give me the rod, — I will try and
turn him ; and do you run down to the en-
trance of the pool, and throw stones, to make
him, if possible, run back. Ay! that stone has
done good service; he is now running up into
the pool again. Now call the fisherman, and
tell him to bring a long pole, to keep him if
possible from the sea. You have a good assist-
ant, and I will leave you, for tiring this fish
will be at least a work of two hours. He is
not much less than 20 lbs., and is hooked under
the gills, so that you cannot suffocate him by
a straight line. I wish you good fortune ; but
should he turn sulky, you must not allow him
to rest, but make the fisherman move him with
the pole again ; your chance of killing him
depends upon his being kept incessantly iii
action, so that he may exhaust himself by
exercise, I shall go and catch you some river

138 SALMONIA.

trout for your dinner ; — but I am glad to see,
before I take my leave of you, that Ornither
has likewise hold of a fish, — and, from his
activity, a lusty sea trout.

[_He goes, and returns in the qfternoon,'\

Hal. — Well, Poietes, I hope to see your
fish of 20 lbs.

PoiET. — Alas ! he broke me, — turned sulky,
and went to the bottom ; and when he was
roused again, my line came back without the
fly ; so that I conclude he had cut my links
by rubbing them against some sharp stone.
But I have caught two grilses and a sea
trout since, and lost two others, salmons or
grilses, that fairly got the hooks out of their
mouths.

Hal. — And, Ornither, what have you done?
Well, I see, — a salmon, a grilse, and a sea
trout. And Physicus?

Phys. — I have lost three fish; one of
which broke me, at the top of the pool, by
running amongst the rocks ; and I have only
one small sea trout.

PRODUCE OF THE MORNING SPORT. 139

Hal. — Your fortune will come another
day. Why, you have not a single crimped
fish for dinner, and it is now nearly two
o'clock ; and you have been catching for the
picklers, for those fish may all go to the
boihng-house. I must again be your pur-
veyor. Can you point out to me any part of
this pool where you have not fished ?

All. — No.

Hal. — Then I have little chance.

Phys. — O yes ! you have a charm for
catching fish.

Hal. — Let me know what flies you have
tried, and I may perhaps tell you if I have
a chance. With my small bright humming
bird, as you call it, I will make an essay.

PoiET. — But this fishery is really very
limited; and two pools for four persons a
small allowance.

Hal. — If you could have seen this river
twenty years ago, when the cruives were a
mile higher up, then you might have enjoyed
fishing. There were eight or ten pools, of
the finest character possible for angling, where
a fisherman of my acquaintance has hooked

140 SALMONIA.

thirty fish in a morning. The river was then
perfect, and it might easily be brought again
into the same state; but even as it is now,
with this single good pool and this second
tolerable one, I know no place where I
could, in the summer months, be so secure
of sport as here — certainly no where in
Great Britain.

PoiET. — I have often heard the Tay and
the Tweed vaunted as salmon rivers.

Hal. — They were good salmon rivers, and
are still very good, as far as the profit of the
proprietor is concerned ; but, for angling, they
are very much deteriorated. The net fishing,
which is constantly going on, except on Sun-
days and in close time, suffers very few fish
to escape; and a Sunday's flood offers the
sole chance of a good day's sport, and this
only in particular parts of these rivers. I
remember the Tweed and the Tay in a far
better state. The Tweed, in the late Lord
Somerville's time, always contained taking-
fish after every flood in the summer. In the
Tay, only ten years ago, at Mickleure, I was
myself one of two anglers who took eight fine

RIVERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 141

fish, — three of them large salmon, — in a short
morning's fishing : but now, except in spring
fishing, when the fish are little worth taking,
there is no certainty of sport in these rivers ;
and one, two, or three fish (which last is of
rare occurrence) are all even an experienced
angler can hope to take in a day's skilful and
constant angling.

PoiET. — You have fished in most of the
salmon rivers of the north of Europe, — give
us some idea of the kind of sport they afford.

Hal. — I have fished in some, but perhaps
not in the best ; for this it is necessary to go
into barbarous countries — Lapland, or the ex-
treme north of Norway ; and I have generally
loved too much the comforts of life to make
any greater sacrifices than such as are made
in our present expedition. I have heard the
river at Drontheim boasted of as an excellent
salmon river, — and I know two worthy anglers
who have tried it; but I do not think they
took more fish in a day than I have sometimes
taken in Scotland and Ireland. All the Nor-
wegian rivers that I tried (and they were in
the south of Norway) contained salmon. I

142 SALMONIA.

fished in the Glommen, one of the largest
rivers in Europe ; in the Mandals, which ap-
peared to me the best fitted for taking sal-
mon; the Arendal and the Torrisdale; — but,
though I saw salmon rise in all these rivers,
I never took a fish larger than a sea trout;
of these I always caught many — and even in
the ^/i07'ds, or small inland salt-water bays;
but I think never any one more than a
pound in w^eight. It is true, I was in Nor-
way in the beginning of July, in exceedingly
bright weather, and when there was no night :
for even at twelve o'clock the sky was so
bright, that I read the smallest print in the
columns of a newspaper. I was in Sweden
later — in August: I fished in the magnifi-
cent Gotha, below that grand fall Trolhetta,
which to see is worth a voyage from Eng-
land ; but I never raised there any fish worth
taking: yet a gentleman from Gothenburg
told me he had formerly taken large trout
there. I caught, in this noble stream, a little
trout about as long as my hand; and the
only fish I got to eat at Trolhetta was bream.
The Falkenstein, a darker water, very like

ENGLISH RIVERS. 143

a second-rate Scotch river — say the Don —
abounds in salmon ; and there I had a very
good day's fishing. I took six fish, which
gave me great sport ; they were grilses, under
6 lbs; but I lost a salmon, which I think was
above 10 lbs. This river, I conceive, must be,
generally, excellent; it is not covered with
saw-mills, like most of the Norwegian rivers ;
its colour is good, and it is not so clear as the
rivers of the south of Norway.

Phys. — Do you think the saw-mills hurt
the fishing?

Hal. — I do not doubt it. The immense
quantity of sawdust which floats in the water,
and which forms almost hills along the banks,
must be poisonous to the fish, by sometimes
choking their gills, and interfering with their
respiration. I have never fished for salmon
in Germany. The Elbe and the Weser, when
I have seen them, were too foul for fly fish-
ing; and in the Rhine, in Switzerland, and
its tributary streams, I have never seen a
salmon rise. I once hooked a fish, under the
fall at SchafFausen, which in my youthful
ardour I thought was a salmon, but it turned

144 SALMONIA.

out to be an immense chub — a villanous and
provoking substitute. And our islands, as far
as I know, may claim the superiority over all
other lands for this species of amusement. In
England it is, however, a little difficult to get
a day's salmon fishing. The best river I
know of is the Derwent, that flows from the
beautiful lake of Keswick ; and I caught once,
in October, a very large salmon there, and
raised another; but it is only late in the
autumn that there is any chance of sport,
though 1 have heard the spring salmon fish-
ing boasted of. At Whitwell, in the Hodder,
I have heard of salmon and sea trout being
taken — but I have never fished in that river.
The late Lord Bolingbroke caught many
salmon at Christchurch ; but a fish a week is
as much as can be expected in that beautiful,
but scantily stocked, river. Small salmon and
sea trout, or sewe?is, as they are called in the
country, may be caught, after the autumnal
floods, 1 believe, in most of the considerable
Welsh, Devonshire, and Cornish streams; but
I have fished in many of them without suc-
cess. The Conway I may except : this river.

SALMON RIVERS. 145

in the end of October, will sometimes, after a
great flood, furnish a good day's sport, and,
if the net fishers could be set aside, several
days' sport. I have known two salmon, one
above 20 lbs., taken here in a day ; and I
have taken myself fine sea trout, or sewe?is, —
which, in an autumnal flood in Wales, are
found in most of the streams near the sea.

PoiET. — I have heard a Northumberland
man boast of the rivers of that county, as
afFordinfr ffood salmon fishino^.

Hal. — I have no doubt that salmon are
sometimes caught in the Tyne, the Coquet,
and the Till ; but, in the present state of these
rivers, this is a rare occurrence. I was once,
for a week, on a good run of the North Tyne ;
I fished sometimes, but I never saw a salmon
rise ; and the only place in this river, where,
from my own knowledge, I can assert salmon
have been caught with the artificial fly, was
at Mounsey, very high up the river. There,
in ] 820, two grilses were caught, in the end
of Aujjust. I have recorded this as a sort of
historical occurrence ; and I dare say most of
the counties of England, in which there are

L

146 SALMON I A.

salmon rivers, would, upon a minute inquiry,
furnish such instances, if they contained sal-
mon fishers. Yorkshire, Devonshire, and
Cornwall, with the sea on both sides, ought
to furnish a greater number.

Phys. — Give us some little account of the
Scotch and Irish rivers.

Hal. — I fear I shall tire you by attempting
any details on this subject, for they are so
many, that I ought to take a map in my hands;
but I will say a few words on those in which
I have had good sport. First, the Tweed : —
of this, as you will understand from what I
mentioned before, I fear I must now say
'^fuitr Yet still, for spring salmon fishing,
it must be a good river. The last great sport
I had in that river was in 181 7, in the be-
ginning of April. I caught, in two or three
hours, at Merton, four or five large salmon,
and as many in the evening at Kelso — and
one of them weighed 25 lbs. But this kind
of fishing cannot be compared to the summer
fishing : the fish play with much less energy,
and in general are in bad season ; and the fly
used for fishing is almost like a bird — four or

SCOTCH RIVERS. — TWEED. 147

five times larger than the summer fly, and
the coarsest tackle may be employed. I have
heard, that Lord Home has sometimes taken
thirty fish in a day, in spring fishing. About,
and above Melrose, I have taken, in a morn-
ing in July, two or three grilses ; and in
September the same number. 1 have known
eighteen taken earlier, by an excellent salmon
fisher, at Merton ; and the late Lord Somerville
often took six or seven fish in a day's angling.
The same ^'fuit " I must apply to most of
the Scotch rivers. Of the Tay I have already
spoken. In the Dee I have never caught sal-
mon, though I have fished in two parts of it,
but it was in bad seasons. In the Don I have
seen salmon rise, and hooked one, but never
killed a fish. In the Spey I enjoyed one of
the best days' sport (perhaps the very best) I
ever had in my life : it was in the beginning of
September, in close time ; the water was low,
and as net fishing had been given over for
some days, the lower pools were full of fish.
By a privilege, which I owed to the late Duke
of Gordon, I fished at this forbidden time, and
hooked twelve or thirteen fish in one day.
L 2

14-8

SALMONIA.

One was above 30 lbs., but it broke me by the
derangement of my reel. I landed seven or
eight,— one above 20 lbs., which gave me
gi^eat play in the rapids above the bridge. I
returned to the same spot in 1813, the year
after : the river was in excellent order, and it
was the same time of the year, but just after
a flood, — I caught nothing; the fish had all
run up the river ; the pools, where I had such
sport the year before, were empty. I have
fished there since, with a hke result,— but
this was before the 12th of August, the close
day. In the Sutherland and Caithness rivers,
many salmon, I have no doubt, may still be
caught. The Brora, Sutherland, in 1 8 1 3 and
1814, was an admirable river: I have often
rode from the mansion of the princely and
hospitable lord and lady of that county, after
breakfast, and returned at two or three o'clock,
having taken from three to eight salmon —
several times eight. There were five pools
below the wears of the Brora, which always
contained fish ; and at the top of one pool,
which from its size was almost inexhaustible,
I have taken three or four salmon the same

SCOTCH RIVERS. 149

(lay. Another pool, nearer the sea, was
almost equal to it; and at that time I should
have placed the Brora above the Ewe for cer-
tainty of sport. When I fished there last, in
1817, the case was altered, and I caught only
two or three fish in the very places where I
had six years before been so successful. In
the Helmsdale there are some good pools, and
I have caught fine fish there when the river
has been high. I have fished in the river at
Thurso, but without success — it was always
foul when I made my attempt. I have heard of
a good salmon river in Lord Reay's country,
the Laxford ; its name, of Norwegian origin,
would seem to be characteristic. * Alonir the
coast of Scotland, most of the streams, if taken
at the right time, afford sport. In this county
the Beauly is a good river ; and I have caught
salmon in that very beautiful spot below the
falls of Kilmornack. The Ness, at Inverness,
and the Awe and Lochy, I have fished in, but
without success. I may say the same of the
Ayr, and of the rivers which empty themselves

* Lax is the Teutonic word for salmon.
L 3

150 SALMONIA.

into the Solway Frith. A httle preserved
stream, at Ardgowan, was formerly excellent,
after a flood in September, for sea trout, and
later for salmon : I have had good sport there,
and some of my friends have had better.

In Ireland there are some excellent rivers;
and, what you will hardly believe possible,
comparing the characters of the two nations,
some of them are taken better care of than the
Scotch rivers ; which arises a good deal from
the influence of the Catholic priests, when
they are concerned in the interests of the pro-
prietors , on the Catholic peasantry, I should
place the Erne, at Ballyshannon, as now the
first river, for salmon fishing from the banks
with a rod, in the British dominions ; and the
excellent proprietor of it. Dr. Shiel, is liberal
and courteous to all gentlemen fly fishers.
The Moy, at Ballina, is likewise an admirable
salmon river ; and sport, I believe, may almost
always be secured there in every state of the
waters ; but the best fishing can only be com-
manded by the use of a boat. I have taken in
the Erne two or three large salmon in the
morning ; and in the Moy, three or four grilses.

IRISH RIVERS. 151

or, as they are called in Ireland, grauls; and
this was in a very bad season for salmon fish-
ing. The Bann, near Coleraine, abounds in
salmon : but in this river, except in close time,
when it is unlawful to fish there, there are few
good casts. In the Bush, a small river about
seven miles to the east of the Bann, there is
admirable salmon fishing, always after great
floods ; but in fine and dry weather it is of
little use to try. I have hooked twenty fish
in a day, after the first August floods, in this
river ; and, should sport fail, the celebrated
Giant's Causeway is within a mile of its mouth,
and furnishes to the lovers of natural beauty,
or of geological research, almost inexhaustible
sources of interest. The Blackwater, at Lis-
more, is a very good salmon river : and the
Shannon, above Limerick and at CastleConnel,
whenever the water is tolerably high, offers
many good casts to the fly fisher ; but they
can only be commanded by boats. But there
is no considerable river along the northern
or western coast, — with the exception of the
Avoca, which has been spoiled by the copper
mines, — that does not afford salmon, and, if
L 4

152 SALMONIA.

taken at the proper time, offer sport to the
sahiion fisher. — But it is time for us to
return to our inn.

THE INN.

PoiET. — Should it be a fine day to-mor-
row, I think we shall have good sport : the
high tide will bring up fish, and the rain
and wind of yesterday will have enlarged the
river.

Hal. — To-morrow we must not fish : it is
the Lord's day, and a day of rest. It ought
likewise to be a day of worship and thanks-
giving to the Great Cause of all the benefits
and blessings we enjoy in this life, for which
we can never sufficiently express our gra-
titude.

PoiET. — I cannot see what harm there can
be in pursuing an amusement on a Sunday,
which you yourself have called innocent, and
which is apostohc : nor do I know a more ap-
propriate way of returning thanks to the Al-
mighty Cause of all being, than in examining
and w^ondering at his works in that great

THE SABBATH DAY. 153

temple of nature, whose canopy is the sky ;
and where all the beings and elements around
us are, as it were, proclaiming the power and
wisdom of Deity.

Hal. — I cannot see how the exercise of
fishing can add to your devotional feelings ;
but, independent of this, you employ a servant
to carry your net and gaff, and he, at least,
has a right to rest on this one day. But even
if you could perfectly satisfy yourself as to the
abstracted correctness of the practice, the
habits of the country in which we now are form
an insurmountable obstacle to the pursuit of
the amusement : by indulging in it, you would
excite the indignation of the Highland pea-
sants, and might, perhaps, expiate the offence
by a compulsory ablution in the river.

PoiET. — I give up the point : I make it a
rule never to shock the prejudices of any per-
son, even when they appear to me ridiculous ,
and I shall still less do so in a case where
your authority is against me ; and I have no
taste for undergoing persecution, when the
cause is a better one. I now remember, that
I have often heard of the extreme severity

154? SALMONIA.

with which the Sabbath discipline is kept in
Scotland. Can you give us the reason of
this?

Hal. — I am not sufficiently read in the
Church History of Scotland to give the cause
historically ; but I think it can hardly be
doubted, that it is connected with the intense
feeUngs of the early Covenanters, and their
hatred with respect to all the forms and in-
stitutes of the Church of Rome, the ritual of
which makes the Sunday more a day of in-
nocent recreation than severe discipline.

Phys. — Yet the disciples of Calvin, at
Geneva, who, I suppose, must have hated the
pope as much as their brethren of Scotland,
do not so rigidly observe the Sunday ; and I
remember having been invited by a very re-
ligious and respectable Genevese to a shooting
party on that day.

Hal. — I think climate and the imitative
nature of man modify this cause abroad. Ge-
neva is a little state, in a brighter climate than
Scotland, almost surrounded by Catholics,
and the habits of the French and Savoyards
must influence the people. The Scotch, with

THE SABBATH DAY. 155

more severity and simplicity of manners, have
no such examples of bad neighbours, for the
people of the north of England keep the
Sunday much in the same way.

PoiET. — Nay, Halieus, call them not bad
neighbours : recollect my creed ; and respect
at least, what, if error, was the error of the
western Christian world for 1 000 years. The
rigid observance of the seventh day appears
to me rather a part of the Mosaic, than of the
Christian dispensation. The Protestants of
this country consider the Catholics bigots,
because they enjoin to themselves and perform
certain penances for their sins; and surely
the Catholics may see a little still more re-
sembling that spirit, in the interference of the
Scotch in innocent amusements, on a day
celebrated as a festive day — that on which our
Saviour rose to immortal life, and secured the
everlasting hopes of the Christian. I see no
reason why this day should not be celebrated
with singing, dancing, and triumphal proces-
sions, and all innocent signs of gladness and
joy, I see no reason why it should be given
up to severe and solitary prayers, or to solemn

156 SALMONIA.

and dull walks ; or why, as in Scotland, whis-
tling even should be considered* as a crime
on Sunday, and humming a tune, however
sacred, out of doors, as a reason for violent
anger and persecution.

Orn. — I agree with Poietes, in his views
of the subject. I have suffered from the pe-
culiar habits of the Scotch Church, and there-
fore may complain. Once, in the north of
Ireland, when a very young man, I ventured
after the time of divine service to put together
my rods, as I had been used to do in the
Catholic districts of Ireland, and fish for sea
trout in the river at Rathmelton, in pure inno-
cence of heart, unconscious of wrong, when I
found a crowd collect round me — at first I
thought from mere curiosity, but I soon dis-
covered I was mistaken ; anger was their mo-
tive, and vengeance their object. A man soon
came up, exceedingly drunk, and began to
abuse me by various indecent terms ; such as
a Sabbath-breaking papist, &c. It was in
vain I assured him I was no papist, and no
intentional Sabbath breaker: he seized my
rod, and carried it off with imprecations ; and

THE SABBATH DAY. 1 57

it was only with great difficulty, and in excit-
ing by my eloquence the pity of some women
who were present, and who thought I was an
ill-used stranger, that I recovered my pro-
perty. Another time I was walking on Ar-
thur's Seat, with some of the most distin-
guished professors of Edinburgh attached to
the geological opinions of the late Dr. Hut-
ton ; a discussion took place upon the pheno-
mena presented by the rocks under our feet,
and, to exemplify a principle. Professor Play-
fair broke some stones, in which I assisted the
venerable and amiable philosopher. We had
, hardly examined the fragments, when a man
from a crowd, who had been assisting at a field
preaching, came up to us, and warned us off,
saying, " Ye think ye are only stane breakers ;
but I ken ye are Sabbath breakers, and ye
deserve to be staned with your ain stanes ! "
Hal. — Zeal of every kind is sometimes
troublesome, yet I generally suspect the per-
sons, who are ve7y tolerant, of scepticism.
Those who firmly believe, that a particular
plan of conduct is essential to the eternal wel-
fare of man, may be pardoned if they show

158 SALMONIA.

even anger, when this conduct is not pursued.
The severe observance of the Sabbath is con-
nected with the vital creed of these rigid
Presbyterians; it is not, therefore, extraor-
dinary, that they should enforce it even with a
perseverance that goes beyond the bounds of
good manners and courtesy. They may quote
the example of our Saviour, who expelled the
traders from the temple even by violence.

Phys. — I envy no quality of the mind or
intellect in others ; be it genius, power, wit, or
fancy : but if I could choose what would be
most delightful, and I believe most useful to
me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to
every other blessing ; for it makes life a dis-
cipline of goodness ; creates new hopes, when
all earthly hopes vanish; and throws over the
decay, the destruction of existence, the most
gorgeous of all lights ; awakens life even in
death, and from corruption and decay calls up
beauty and divinity ; makes an instrument of
torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to
paradise ; and, far above all combinations of
earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful
visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens

INSTINCTS. 159

of the blest, the security of everlasting joys,
where the sensualist and the sceptic view only
gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair !

PoiET. — You transiently referred, Halieus,
yesterday, to that instinct of salmons which
induces them to run up rivers from the sea on
the approach of rain. You have had so many
opportunities of attending to the instincts of
the inferior animals, that I should be very
glad to hear your opinion on that very curious
subject, the nature and developement of in-
stincts in general.

Hal. — You must remember, that, in the
conversation to which you allude, I avoided
even to pretend to define the nature of in-
stinct ; but I shall willingly discuss the sub-
ject; and I expect from yourself, Ornither,
and Physicus, more light thrown upon it
than I can hope to bestow.

Orn. — I believe we have each a peculiar
view on this matter. In discussion we may
enlighten and correct each other. For my-
self, I consider instincts merely as results of
organization — a part of the machinery of
organized forms. Man is so constituted, that

160 SALMONIA.

his muscles acquire their power by habit;
their motions are at first automatic, and be-
come voluntary by associations, so that a child
must learn to walk as he learns to swim or
write ; but in the colt or chicken, the limbs
are formed with the powers of motion, and
these animals walk as soon as they have quit-
ted the womb or the egg.

Phys. — I beHeve it possible, that they may
have acquired these powers of motion in the
embryo state ; and I think I have observed,
that birds learn to fly, and acquire the use of
their wings, by continued efforts, in the same
manner as a child does that of his limbs.

Orn. — I cannot agree with you : the legs
of tiie foetus are folded up in the womb of the
mare ; and neither the colt nor the chicken
can ever have performed, in the embryo state,
any motions of their legs similar to those
which they have perfectly at their command
when born. Young birds cannot fly as soon
as they are hatched, because they have no
wing feathers ; but as soon as these are de-
veloped, and even before they are perfectly
strong, they use their wings, fly, and quit their

INSTINCTS. 161

nests without any education from their parents.
Compare a young quail, when a few days old,
with a child of as many months : he flies, runs,
seeks his food, avoids danger, and obeys the
call of his mother ; whilst a child is perfectly
helpless, and can perform iew voluntary mo-
tions; has barely learnt to grasp, and can
neither stand nor walk. But to see the most
perfect instance of instinct, as contrasted with
acquired knowledge, look at common domestic
poultry, as soon as they are excluded from the
egg : they run round their mother, nestle in
her feathers, and obey her call, without edu-
cation : she leads them to some spot where
there is soft earth or dung, and instantly begins
scratching with her feet ; the chickens watch
her motions with the utmost attention ; if an
earthworm or larva is turned up, they instantly
seize and devour it, but they avoid eating
sticks, grass, or straws ; and though the hen
shows them the example of picking up grain,
they do not imitate her in this respect, but for
some days prefer ants, or the larvae of ants, to
a barley corn. They may have heard the
cluck of their mother in the egg, and having

M

162 SALMONIA.

felt the warmth of her feathers agreeable, you
may consider, Physicus, their collecting under
herwings, and obeying her call, as an acquired
habit. But I will mention another circumstance,
where habit or education is entirely out of the
question. Does the mother see the shadow of
a kite on the ground, or hear his scream in
the air, she instandy utters a shrill suppressed
cry ; the chickens, though born that day, and
searchins: round her with fflee and animation
for the food which her feet were providing for
them, instantly appear as if thunderstruck;
those close to her crouch down and hide them-
selves in the straw; those further off, without
moving from the place, remain prostrate, the
hen looks upward with a watchful eye ; nor
do they resume their feeding till they have
been called again by the cluck of their mother,
and warned that the danger is over.

Phys. — I certainly cannot explain the ac-
quaintance of the little animals with the note
of alarm of the mother, except upon the
principle you have adopted ; and I fairly own,
that their selection of animal food appears
likewise instinctive : yet it is possible, that this

INSTINCTS. 163

selection may depend upon some analogy be-
tween the smell of these animal matters and
the yolk, which was for along time their food
in the egg.

Orn. — I find I must multiply examples.
Examine young ducks which have been hatch-
ed under a hen ; they no sooner quit the shell,
than they fly to their natural element, the
water, in spite of the great anxiety and terror
of their foster-parent, who in vain repeats that
sound to which her natural children are so obe-
dient. Being in the water, they seize insects
of every kind, which they can only know from
their instincts to be good for food ; and when
they are hatched in the May-fly season, they
pursue these large ephemerae with the greatest
avidity, and make them their favourite food. It
is impossible, I think, to explain these facts,
except by supposing, that they depend upon
feelings or desires in the animals developed
with their organs, which are not acquired, and
which are absolutely instinctive. I will mention
another instance. A friend of mine was tra-
velling in the interior of Ceylon ; on the banks
of a lake he saw some fragments of shells of
M 2

] 64 SALMONIA.

the eggs of the alligator, and heard a sub-
terraneous sound : his curiosity was excited,
and he was induced to search beneath the sur-
face of the sand : besides two or three young
animals lately come from the shell, he found
several eofgs which were still entire : he broke
the shell of one of them, when a young alli-
gator came forth, apparently perfect in all its
functions and motions ; and when my friend
touched it with a stick, it assumed a threatening
aspect, and bit the stick with violence. It made
towards the water, which (though born by
the influence of the sunbeams on the burning
sand) it seemed to know was its natural and
hereditary domain. Here is an animal which,
deserted by its parents, and entirely submitted
to the mercy of nature and the elements, must
die if it had to acquire its knowledge ; but all
its powers are given, all its wants supplied; and
even its means of offence and defence implanted
by strong and perfect instincts. I will mention
one fact more. Swallows, quails, and many
other birds, migrate in large flocks when their
usual food becomes scarce ; and in these cases
it may be said (I anticipate a remark of Phy-

INSTINCTS. 165

sicus), that the phenomenon depends upon
imitation, and that the young birds follow
the old ones who have before made the same
flight. But I will select the young cuckoo for
an unexceptionable example of the instinctive
nature of this quality. He is produced from
an egg deposited by his mother in the nest of an-
other bird, generally the hedge sparrow. He
destroys all the other young ones hatched in
the same nest, and is supplied with food by his
foster-parent, after he has deprived her of all
her natural offspring. Quite solitary, he is no
sooner able to fly than he quits the country of
his birth, and finds his way, with no other
guide than his instinct, to a land where his
parents had gone many weeks before him; and
he is not pressed to make this migration by
want of food, for the insects and grains on
which he feeds are still abundant. The whole
history of the origin, education, and migration
of this singular animal, is a history of a suc-
cession of instincts, the more remarkable, be-
cause in many respects contrary to the usual
order of nature.

Phys. — I have been accustomed to refer
M 3

166 SALMONIA.

many of the supposed instincts of animals, such

as migrations, building nests, and selection of

food, to imitation ; but, I confess, I cannot

explain the last fact you have brought forward

on this principle. Pray, Ornilher, let me state

your view, as I understand it, that we may not

differ as to the meanino; of lano-ua^e. I cou-
rt O o

elude you adopt Hartley's view of association,
that the motions of the muscles in man are
first automatic, and become voluntary by as-
sociation ; and that reason is the application of
voluntary motions for a particular end. For
instance: a child is not afraid of fire, but,
bringing its hand near the fire, it is burnt, and
the convulsions of the muscles produced by
the pain ends in removing the hand from the
source of pain. These motions by association
are made voluntary ; and after this experiment
he avoids the fire by reason, and takes care
always to perform those motions which remove
his limbs from this destructive agent. But in
contrasting instinct with this slow process, you
would say, most animals, without having felt
the effect of fire, have an innate dread of it ;
and in the same way, without having been

INSTINCTS. 167

taught, or experienced pleasure or pain from
the object, young ducks seek the water, young
chickens avoid it : their organs have a fitness
or unfitness for certain functions, and they
use them for these functions without educa-
tion. In short, the instinctive application of
the organ is independent of experience, and
forms part of a train of pure sensations.

Orn. — I have no objection to the state-
ment you make of my view of the subject ; but
I certainly should give to it a little more re-
finement and generaUty. In all the results of
reason, ideas are concerned, but never in those
of instinct. Without memory there can be no
reason ; but in instinct nothing can be traced
but pure sensation.

PoiET. — Though in the animal world no
ideas seem connected with instincts, yet they
are all intended for specific and intelHgent
ends. Thus the swallow travels to a country
where flies are found ; the salmon migrates
from the sea to the sources of fresh rivers,
where its eggs may receive a supply of aerated
water, and without this migration the race
would be extinct : and in this way all the in-
M 4

168 SALMONIA.

stincts of animals may be referred to intelli-
gence, which, though not belonging to the ani-
mal, must be attributed to the Divine Mind.
Is it not, then, reasonable to refer instinct to
the immediate impulse of the Author of Na-
ture upon his creatures ? His omnipresence
and omnipotence cannot be doubted, and to
the infinite mind the past, the present, and
the future are alike ; and creative and con-
servative power must equally belong to it.

Hal. — Thatinstincts depend upon impulses
immediately derived from the Deity is an
opinion which, though it perhaps cannot be
confuted, yet does not please me so much as
to believe them dependent upon the formation
of organs, and the result of the general laws
which govern the system of the universe ; and
it is in favour of this opinion that they are
susceptible of modifications. Thus, in do-
mesticated animals they are always changed ;
the turkey and the duck lose their habits of
constructing nests, and the goose does not
migrate. In supposing them the result of
organization and hereditary, they might be
expected to be changed by circumstances, as

INSTINCTS. 169

they are actually found to be. Without re-
ferrinirthe instincts of animals to the immediate
impulse of the Deity, they appear to me to
offer the most irresistible and convincing ar-
gument that can be brought forward against
atheism. They demonstrate combinations, the
result of the most refined intelligence, which
can only be considered as infinite. Take any
one of the lowest class of animals, insects for
instance, not only is their organization fitted
to all their wants; but their association in
society is provided for, and the laws of a per-
fect social community, as it were, are adopted
by beings, that we are sure cannot reason. In
the hive bee, for instance, the instinct of the
workers leads them to adopt and obey a queen ;
and if she is taken away from them, or dies,
they have the power of raising another from
offspring in the cells by an almost miraculous
process : they work under her government for
a common object, allow males only to exist for
the purpose of impregnating females, who pre-
serve the society, and under whose govern-
ment they send forth swarms, which readily
place themselves under the protection of man.

1 70 SALMONIA.

Jn the geometrical construction of their cells,
the secretion of wax from their bodies, the
collecting their food, and the care of the brood,
there is a series of results which it requires
a strong reason to follow, and which are the
consequences of invariable instincts. Bees,
since they have been noticed by naturalists,
have the same habits, and, as it is probable
that there have been many thousand of genera-
tions since the creation, it is evident, that the
instincts of the first bees have been hereditary
and invariable in their offspring ; and it can-
not be doubted, that they do now, as they did
four thousand years ago, make some cells in
combs larger than others for the purpose of
containing the eggs and future grubs of drones,
that are to be produced by a grub, which
they are educating for a queen bee ; and that
these cells are connected with the common cells
by a series, in which the most exact geome-
trical laws of transition are observed. An
eminent philosopher has deduced an argument
in favour of the existence of Deity from the
analogy of the universe to a piece of me-
chanism, which could only be the work of an

INSTINCTS. 171

intelligent mind ; but there is this difference :
in all the productions of nature, the principle,
not only of perfection, but likewise of con-
servation, is found, markhig a species of in-
telligence and power which can be compared
to nothing human. The first created swarm
of bees contained beings provided with all
the instincts necessaiy for the perpetual con-
tinuance of the species : and some of" these
instincts can scarcely be understood by man,
requiring the most profound geometrical know-
ledge, even to calculate their results; and othei^
instincts involve what in human society would
be the most singular state of policy, combining
contrasted moral causes and contradictory in-
terests. It is impossible not to be lost in awe
at the contemplation of this chain of facts ;
the human mind cannot fail to acknowledge
in them the strongest proofs of their being
produced by infinite wisdom and unbounded
power ; and the devout philosopher can scarcely
avoid considering with respect a little insect,
endowed with faculties producing combin-
ations, which human reason vainly attempts to
imitate, and can scarcely understand.

172 SALMONIA.

Phys. — I agree with you, that if instinct
be supposed the result of organization, and
that the first animal types were so created as
to transmit their instincts invariably, genera-
tion after generation, it does offer a most tri-
umphant and incontrovertible argument for
the existence of an all-powerful intelligent
Cause. — Even in the instance which led to
this conversation, the instinct which carries
salmon from the sea to the sources of rivers,
it is only lately philosophers have discovered,
that the impregnated eggs cannot produce
young fishes independent of the influence of
air; and thus an animal goes many hundred
miles under the direction of an instinct, the use
of which human reason has at length developed,
and man is supplied with an abundant food
by the result of a combination, in conse-
quence of which a species is preserved.

PoiET. — I do not understand, Haleius,
your objections to the view I have adopted,
which is sanctioned by the authority of a
good ethic philosopher, Addison. Allowing
the omnipresence, and constant powder of
Deity, I do not see how you can avoid ad-

INSTINCTS. 1 73

mitting his actual interference in all the phe-
nomena of living nature.

Hal. — As I said before, I cannot confute
your view : but, upon this principle, gravitation
and the motion of the planets round the sun,
and all the other physical phenomena of the
universe, would be owing to the immediate
action of the Divinity. I prefer the view,
which refers them to motion and properties,
the results of general laws impressed on matter
by Omnipotence. This view is, I think, sim-
pler ; but it is difficult to form any distinct
opinion on so high and incomprehensible a
subject, on which, perhaps, after all, it is wiser
to confess our entire ignorance, and to bow
down in humble adoration to the one incom-
prehensible Cause of all being.

PoiET. — I agree with you in your last sen-
tence, but I still adhere to my own view, and
I hope you will not object to a favourite
opinion of mine, that instincts are to animals
what revelation is to man, intended to supply
wants in their physical constitution, which in
man are provided for by reason ; and that re-
velation is to him as an instinct, teaching him

1 74? SALMONIA.

what reason cannot — his religious duties, the
undying nature of his intellectual part, and
the relations of his conduct to eternal hap-
piness and misery.

Hal. — " Davus sum, non CEdipus." I will
not attempt to discuss this view of yours,
Poietes ; but I think I may say, that all the
instincts of animals seem to be connected with
pleasure ; and in man the feeling of love and
the gratifying the appetites, which approach
nearest to instincts, are likewise highly de-
lightful, and perhaps there is no more plea-
surable state of the human mind than when,
with intense belief, it looks forward to another
world and to a better state of existence, or is
absorbed in the adoration of the supreme and
eternal Intelligence.

FLIES. 175

SIXTH DAY.

HALIEUS-POIETES-ORNITHER-PHYSICUS.

Hal. — Well met, my friends ! It is a fine
warm morning, there is a fresh breeze, the
river is in excellent order for fishing, and I
trust our good behaviour yesterday will ensure
us sport to-day. There must be a great many
fresh run fish in the pool ; and after twenty-
four hours' rest, some of those that were in-
disposed to take on Saturday evening, may
have acquired appetite. Prepare your tackle,
and begin : but whilst you are preparing, I will
mention a circumstance which every accom-
plished fly fisher ought to know. You changed
your flies on Saturday with the change of
weather, putting the dark flies on for the
bright gleams of the sun, and the gaudy flies
when the dark clouds appeared : now, I will
tell you of another principle, which it is as

176 SALMONIA.

necessary to know as the change of flies for
change of weather; I allude to the different
kinds of fly to be used in particular pools, and
even for particular parts of pools. You have
fished in this deep pool ; and if you were to
change it for a shallower one, such as that
above, it would be proper to use smaller flies
of the same colour ; and in a pool still deeper,
larger flies ; likewise in the rough rapid at the
top, a larger fly may be used than below at
the tail of the water ; and in the Tweed or
Tay, I have often changed my fly thrice in the
same pool, and sometimes with success — using
three different flies for the top, middle, and bot-
tom. I remember, that when I first saw Lord
Somerville adopt this fashion, I thought there
was fancy in it ; but experience soon proved
to me how accomplished a salmon fisher was
my excellent and lamented friend, and I
adopted the lesson he taught me, and with
good results, in all bright waters.

PoiET. — I will try the correctness of your
principle. Look at the fly now on my line ;
where would you recommend me to cast it ?

Hal. — It is a large gaudy fly, and is fit for

FLIES. 177

no part of this pool, except the extremely
rough head of the torrent : there I dare say
it will take in this state of the waters.

PoiET. — Good, I hooked a large fish, but
alas ! he is off: yet I thought he was fairly
caught.

Hal. — The hook, I think, turned round at
the moment you struck, and carried off some
scales from the outside of his mouth.

PoiET. — You are right : see, the scales are
on the hook. I cannot raise another fish : I
have tried almost all over the pool. I thought
I saw a fish rise at the tail of the rapid.

Hal. — You did : he refused the fly. Now
put on a fly one third of the size and of the
same colour, and I think you will hook that
fish.

PoiET. — I have done so — and he is fast !
and a fine fish ; I think a salmon.

Hal. — It is a salmon, and one above 1 0 lbs.
Play him with care, and do not let him run
into the rough part of the stream, where the
large stones are.

PoiET. ~ It is, I think, the most active fish

N

178 SALMONIA.

I have yet played with. See how high he
leaps ! He is making for the sea.

Hal. — Hold him tight, or you will lose
him.

PoiET. — Fear me not. I trust, in spite of
his strength, I shall turn him. You see, I
show him the but of the rod, and his force is
counterpoised by a very long lever.

Hal. — You do well. But he has made a
violent spring, and, I fear, is off.

PoiET. — He is ! — but not, I think, by any
fault of mine : he has carried off something.

Hal. — You played that fish so well, that
I am angry at his loss : either the hook, link,
or line, failed you.

PoiET, — It is the hook, which you see is
broken, and not merely at the barb, but like-
wise in the shank. What a fool I was, ever
to use one of these London or Birmingham

made hooks.

Hal. — The thing has happened to me

often. I now never use any hooks for salmon

fishing, except those which I am sure have

been made by O'Shaughnessy, of Limerick;

for even those made in Dublin, though they

HOOKS. 179

seldom break, yet they now and then bend ;
and the English hooks, made of cast steel in
imitation of Irish ones, are the worst of all.
Tliere is a fly nearly of the same colour as
that which is destroyed ; and I can tell you
that I saw it made at Limerick by O'Shaugh-
nessy himself, and tied on one of his own
hooks. Should you catch with it a fish even
of 30 lbs. I will answer for its strength and
temper : it will neither break nor bend.

PoiET. — Whilst I am attaching your pre-
sent, so kindly made, to my line, pray tell me
how these hooks are made, for I know^ you
interested yourself in this subject when at
Limerick.

Hal. — Most willingly. I have even made
a hook, which, though a little inferior in form,
in other respects, I think, I could boast as
equal to the Limerick ones. The first re-
quisite in hook-making is to find good malle-
able iron of the softest and purest kind — such
as is procured from the nails of old horse-
shoes. This must be converted by cementation
with charcoal into good soft steel, and that
into bars or wires of different tliickness for
N 2

180 SALMONIA.

different sized hooks, and then annealed. For
the larger hooks, the bars must be made in
such a form as to admit of cutting the barbs ;
and each piece, which serves for two hooks,
is larger at the ends, so that the bar appears
in the form of a double pointed spear, three,
four, or five inches long: the bars for the
finer hooks are somewhat flattened. The
artist works with two files, one finer than
the other for giving the point and polishing
the hook, and he begins by making the barb,
taking care siot to cut too deep, and filing
on a piece of hard wood, such as box wood,
with a dent to receive the bar, made by the
edge of the file. The barb being made, the
shank is thinned and flattened, and the po-
lishing file applied to it; and by a turn of
the wrist round a circular pincers, the neces-
sary degree of curvature is given to it. The
hook is then cut from the bar; heated red
hot, by being kept for a moment in a char-
coal fire ; then plunged while hot, into cold
water ; then tempered, by being put on iron
that has been heated in the same fire till it
becomes a bright blue, and, whilst still hot, it

HOOKS. 181

is immersed in candle-grease, where it gains
a black colour ; it is then finished.

Phys. — Nothing seems simpler than this
process. Surely London might furnish ma-
nufacturers for so easy a manipulation; and
I should think one of our friends, who is so
admirable a cutler, might even improve upon
the Irish process; at least the tempering
might be more scientifically arranged ; for
instance, by the thermometer, and a bath of
fusible metal, the temperature at which steel
becomes blue, being 580° Fah., might be
constantly preserved.

Hal. — Habit teaches our Irish artists this
point with sufficient precision. We should
have such hooks in England, but the object
of the fishing tackle makers is to obtain them
cheap, and most of their hooks are made to
sell, and good hooks cannot be sold but at a
good price.

PoiET. — I have heard formerly a good
angler complain that the Limerick hooks were
too heavy and clumsy. He preferred hooks
made at Kendal in Cumberland.

Hal. — I saw, twenty years ago, hooks far
N 3

182 SALMONIA.

too heavy made at Limerick; but this
O'Shaughnessy is, I think, a better maker
than his father was, and the curve and the
general form of the hook is improved. It
has now, I think, nearly the best form of a
curve for catching and holding, the point
protruding a little. The Kendal hook holds
well, but is not so readily fixed by the pull
in the mouth of the fish. The early Fellows
of the Royal Society, who attended to all the
useful and common arts, even improved fish
hooks ; and Prince Rupert, an active mem-
ber of that illustrious body, taught the art of
tempering hooks to a person of the name of
Kirby ; under whose name, for more than a
century, very good hooks were sold. I shall
take a walk towards the lake, to enjoy a view
of its cloud-capped mountains ; and I hope to
find, on my return, that you have all had your
satisfaction in a good day's salmon fishing.

Phys. — We shall crimp and cool a salmon,
if we catch a good one, for our dinner.
Hal. — Do so.

Orn. — But before you leave us, I wish you
would be good enough to inform us why the
salmon here are so different from those I have

SALMON OF THE EWE. 183

seen elsewhere : for instance, some caught in
the Alness, in Rosshire, which we saw in pass-
ing round the south coast of Ross. These
appear to me thicker and brighter fish, and
one that I measured was 30 inches long, and
17 in circumference.

Hal. — I think I have seen broader fish
than even those of this river ; but the salmon
which you happen to remember for com-
parison, belonged to a small stream, which,
I think, in general, are thinner and longer
than those in great rivers : and what I men-
tioned on a former occasion with respect to
trout holds good likewise with regard to sal-
mon ; each river has a distinct kind. It is
scarcely possible to doubt, that the varieties
of the salmon, which haunt the sea, come
to the same rivers to breed in which they
were born, or where they have spawned
before. And this could hardly happen unless
they confined their migrations to a certain
space in the sea, the boundaries of which may
be regarded as the shore and probably deep
water, which may be considered as effectual
a limit almost as land ; for fish do not willingly
N 4«

181^ SALMONIA.

haunt very deep water, which even in summer
is of low temperature, approaching to 40°,
and contains httle or no vegetable food or
insects, w^hich the smaller fishes search for ;
and the larger fishes follow the smaller. It is
however possible, that in winter, all fish fond
of heat will seek water rather deeper than in
summer ; and char and umbla, in lakes, are
usually found^in the deepest parts, being fond
of cool water ; and they come to spawn when-
ever tiie shallow water of the lakes becomes
cool, in October or November. We cannot
judge of the senses of animals that breathe
water, — that separate air from water by their
gills; but it seems probable, that, as the qua-
lity of the water is connected with their life
and health, they must be exquisitely sensible
to changes in water, and must have similar
relations to it, that an animal with the most
delicate nasal organs has to air. A vulture
or a dog scents not only particular food and
particular game at great distances, but even
makes of the smell a kind of language ; and
I doubt not, that when dogs, that have been
blindfolded and carried away from their
home, return to it, it is by the sense of smell-

INSTINCT OF FISH. 185

ing : to them each town, lane, or field, must
have a particular scent. And I have seen
even a blind horse, — an animal in which the
sense of smelling is less acute, — evidently
find his way by it to his master's house and
stable, which was, indeed, near a tan-yard.
The state of parts of water, in the sea or
great lakes, produced by the impregnations
carried down by particular streams, is much
more permanent than a like state in air : so
that though the knowledge given by the nasal
organs may be more easily communicated
at a distance by winds, yet that produced by
streams on the bronchiae of fishes is more
invariable, and a migratory fish is less likely
to be deceived. Yet in great floods, often
connected with storms, or violent motion in
the waters near the shore, salmon sometimes
mistake their river. I remember in this way,
owing to a tremendous flood, catching with
the fly a large salmon that had mistaken his
river, having come into the Bush, near the
Giant's Causeway, instead of the Bann. No
fish can be more distinct in the same species
than the fish of these two rivers, their length

186 SALMONIA.

to their girth being nearly in a ratio of 20 : 9
and 20:13. — I am going; good sport to
you.

EVENING.

Hal. — I am sure I may congratulate you
on you sport, for I see on the bank a fine
salmon, three grauls or grilses, and three large
sea trout.

Orn. — You have not seen all, for we have
crimped two fish — one a large salmon, and
the other a trout almost a yard long, and both
in excellent season. We have had great sport,
and sport even of a kind which you will not
guess at; for when the tide was fallen, the
fish ceased to rise at the fly, and I thought of
trying them with a bait ; so we sent for our
swivel tackle, and put par or samlet on our
hooks, as we bait for pike — cutting off one
ventral fin on one side, and one pectoral fin
on the other ; and making the par spin in the
most rapid streams, we had several runs from
fish, and it was in this way that Poietes
caught this large sea trout, which gave ex-
cellent sport.

Hal. — This kind of fishing is not un-

SALMON. 187

common. I have often caught salmon in the
Tay, fishing with pars ; but though the fish
ran at the bait, when they would not rise at
the fly while the tide was ebbing, they would
have taken the par better still while it was
flowing.

Phys. — From my experience to-day, I
conclude the salmon has habits different
from the trout ; for I think the fish which
broke my hook rose again at the artificial
fly in the same place.

Hal. — I think you are mistaken . Salmon
are usually shyer even than trout, and I never
knew one in this season, that had been pricked
even slightly, rise again at the artificial fly in
the same pool. I should say, that their habits
were precisely the same, but with more saga-
city on the side of the salmon. It must have
been another fish that rose at your fly in the
same place. After such severe discipline, I do
not think a fish would rise for many hours,
even at a natural bait.

PoiET. — Your experience is so great, that
I dare say I was mistaken; yet it seemed a
fish of the same size.

188 SALMONIA.

Hal. — Salmon often in this season haunt
the streams in pairs ; but so far from rising
again after being pricked, they appear to me
to learn, when they have been some time in
the river, that the artificial fly is not food,
even without having been touched by the
hook. In the river at Galway, in Ireland, I
have seen above the bridge some hundreds of
salmon lying in rapid streams, and from five
to ten fishermen tempting them with every
variety of fly, but in vain. After a fish had
been thrown over a few times, and risen once
or twice and refused the fly, he rarely ever
took any notice of it again in that place. It
was generally nearest the tide that fish were
taken, and the place next the sea was the most
successful stand, and the most coveted ; and
when the water is low and clear in this river,
the Galway fishermen resort to the practice
of fishing with a naked hook, endeavouring to
entangle it in the bodies of the fish; a most
unartistlike practice. In spring fishing, I have
known a hungry, half-starved salmon rise at
the artificial fly a second time, after having
been very slightly touched by it : but even this

FOOD OF SALMON. 189

rarely happens; and when I have seen it, the
water has been coloured.

Phys. — Can you tell us why the fish rise
better at the fly when the tide is flowing, than
when it is ebbing ? There seems no reason
why flies should be sought for by the fish
at one of these seasons, rather than at the
other.

Hal. — The turn of the salt water brings
up aquatic insects, and perhaps small fish;
and I suppose salmon know this, and search
for food at a time when it is likely to be
found. I cannot think, that in these pools
they can be on the look-out for flies, for there
are never any on the surface of the water;
and I imagine they take the gaudy fly, with
its blue kingfisher and golden pheasant's fea-
thers, for a small fish.

Orn. — I have always supposed, that they
took it for a libella, or dragon-fly ; for I have
often seen these brilliant flies haunting the
water.

Hal. — I never saw a dragon-fly drop on
the water, or taken by a fish ; and salmon
sometimes rise even in the salt water, where

190 SALMONIA.

draffon-flies are never found. There is no
difficulty in explaining why salmon in inland
rivers should take flies, where natural flies are
abundant ; but fish, when they have lain long
in pools in the river and fed on natural flies,
will no longer take these bright flies, and
then even a trout-fly is often most successful.
I have sometimes thought that the rising of
salmon and sea trout at these bright flies, as
soon as they come from the sea into rivers,
might depend upon a sort of imperfect me-
mory of their early food and habits ; for flies
form a great part of the food of the salmon
fry, which, for a month or two after they
are hatched, feed Hke young trouts — and in
March and April the spring flies are their
principal nourishment. In going back to
fresh water, they may perhaps have their
habits of feeding recalled to them, and na-
turally search for their food at the surface.

PoiET. — This appears to me very probable.
— But it is late, and we must return and com-
pare the crimped trout and salmon; and I hope
we shall have another good day to-morrow,
for the clouds are red in the west.

INDICATIONS OF RAINY WEATHER. 191

Phys. — I have no doubt of it, for the red
has a tint of purple.

Hal. — Do you know why this tint por-
tends fine weather ?

Phys. — The air, when dry, 1 believe, re-
fracts more red, or heat-making, rays; and
as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they
are again reflected in the horizon. I have
generally observed a coppery or yellow sunset
to foretell rain ; but, as an indication of wet
weather approaching, nothing is more cer-
tain than a halo round the moon, which is
produced by the precipitated water ; and the
larger the circle, the nearer the clouds, and
consequently the more ready to fall.

Hal. — I have often observed, that the old
proverb is correct —

A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's

warning :
A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight.

Can you explain this omen ?

Phys. — A rainbow can only occur when
the clouds containing, or depositing, the rain
are opposite to the sun, — and in the evening

] 92 SALMONIA.

the rainbow is in the east, and in the morning
in the west; and as our heavy rains, in this
climate, are usually brought by the westerly
wind, a rainbow in the west indicates, that
the bad weather is on the road, by the wind,
to us ; whereas the rainbow in the east
proves, that the rain in these clouds is passing
from us.

PoiET. — I have often observed, that when
the swallows fly high, fine weather is to be
expected or continued ; but when they fly low,
and close to the ground, rain is almost surely
approaching. Can you account for this ?

Hal. — Swallows follow the flies and gnats,
and flies and gnats usually delight in warm
strata of air ; and as warm air is lighter and
usually moister, than cold air, when the warm
strata of air are high, there is less chance of
moisture being thrown down from them by
the mixture with cold air ; but when the warm
and moist air is close to the surface, it is al-
most certain, that, as the cold air flows down
into it, a deposition of water will take place.
PoiET. — I have often seen sea-gulls as-
semble on the land, and have almost always

OMENS. 193

observed, that very stormy and rainy weather
was approaching. I conclude, that these
animals, sensible of a current of air ap-
proaching from the ocean, retire to the land
to shelter themselves from the storm.

Orn. — No such thing. The storm is their
element ; and the little petrel enjoys the hea-
viest gale, because, living on the smaller sea
insects, he is sure to find his food in the spray
of a heavy wave — and you may see him flit-
ting above the edge of the highest surge. I
believe, that the reason of this migration of
sea gulls, and other sea birds, to the land, is
their security of finding food. They may
be observed, at this time, feeding greedily
on the earth worms and larvae, driven out of
the ground by severe floods ; and the fish, on
which they prey in fine weather in the sea,
leave the surface, when storms prevail, and
go deeper. The search after food, as w^e
agreed on a former occasion, is the principal
cause why animals change their places. The
different tribes of the wading birds always
migrate when rain is about to take place;
and I remember once, in Italy, having been

194 SALMONIA.

long waiting in the end of March, for the
arjival of the double snipe in the Campagna
of Rome, — a great flight appeared on the
3d of April, and the day after heavy rain set
in, which greatly interfered with my sport.
The vulture, upon the same principle, fol-
lows armies ; and I have no doubt, that the
augury of the ancients was a good deal
founded upon the observation of the instincts
of birds. There are many superstitions of
the vulgar owing to the same source. For
anglers, in spring, it is always unlucky to
see single magpies, — but two may be always
regarded as a favourable omen; and the rea-
son is, that in cold and stormy weather one
magpie alone leaves the nest in search of
food, the other remaining sitting upon the
eggs or the young ones; but when two go
but together, the weather is warm and mild,
and thus favourable for fishing.

PoiET. — ^The singular connections of causes
and effects, to which you have just referred,
make superstition less to be wondered at,
particularly amongst the vulgar ; and when
two facts, naturally unconnected, have been

OMENS. 195

accidentally coincident, it is not singular that
this coincidence should have been observed
and registered, arKl that omens of the most
absurd kind should be trusted in. In the
west of England, half a century ago, a par-
ticular hollow noise on the sea-coast was re-
ferred to a spirit or goblin, called Bucca, and
was supposed to foretell a shipwreck : the
philosopher knows, that sound travels much
faster than currents in the air — and the
sound always foretold the approach of a very
heavy storm, which seldom takes place on
that wild and rocky coast, surrounded as it
is by the Atlantic, without a shipwreck on
some part of its extensive shores.

Phys. — All the instances of omens you
have mentioned are founded on reason ; but
how can you explain such absurdities as
Friday being an unlucky day, the terror of
spilling salt or meeting an old woman? I
knew a man, of very high dignit}^, who was
exceedingly moved by these omens, and who
never went out shooting without a bittern's
claw fastened to his buttonhole by a riband —
which he thought ensured him good luck.
o 2

196 SALMONIA.

PoiET. — These, as well as the omens of
death-watches, dreams, &c., are for the most
part founded upon some accidental coin-
cidences ; but spilling of salt, on an uncom-
mon occasion, may, as I have known it, arise
from a disposition to apoplexy, shown by an
incipient numbness in the hand, and may be
a fatal symptom ; and persons, dispirited by
bad omens, sometimes prepare the way for
evil fortune; for confidence in success is a
great means of ensuring it. The dream of
Brutus, before the field of Philippi, probably
produced a species of irresolution and de-
spondency, which was the principal cause of
his losing the battle: and I have heard that
the illustrious sportsman, to whom you re-
ferred just now, was always observed to
shoot ill, because he shot carelessly, after
one of his dispiriting omens.

Hal. — I have in life met with a few things,
which I found it impossible to explain, either
by chance coincidences or by natural con-
nections • and I have known minds of a very
superior class affected by them, — persons in
the habit of reasoning deeply and profoundly.

OMENS. 19?

Phys. — In my opinion, profound minds
are the most likely to think lightly of the
resources of human reason : it is the pert
superficial thinker who is generally strongest
in every kind of unbelief. The deep phi-
losopher sees chains of causes and effects so
wonderfully and strangely linked together,
that he is usually the last person to decide
upon the impossibility of any two series of
events being independent of each other ; and
in science, so many natural miracles, as it
were, have been brought to light, — such as
the fall of stones from meteors in the atmo-
sphere, the disarming a thunder cloud by a
metallic point, the production of fire from
ice by a metal white as silver, and referring
certain laws of motion of the sea to the
moon, — that the physical enquirer is sel-
dom disposed to assert, confidently, on any
abstruse subjects belonging to the order of
natural things, and still less so on those re-
lating to the more mysterious relations of
moral events and intellectual natures.

o 3

198 SALMONIA.

SEVENTH DAY.

H ALIEUS - POIETES - ORNITHER - PHYSICUS.

GRAYLING FISHING.

Scene — Leint war dine, near Ludlow.
Time — Beginning of October.

Hal. — You have reached your quarters.
Here is your home — a rural, peaceable, and
unassummg inn, with as worthy a host and
hostess as may be found in this part of the
country. The river glides at the bottom of the
garden, and there is no stream in England
more productive of grayling. The surround-
ing scenery is not devoid of interest, and the
grounds in the distance are covered with
stately woods, and laid out (or rather their
natural beauties developed) by the hand of a
master, whose liberal and enlightened mind
even condescended to regard the amuse-
ments of the angler; and he could hardly

GRAYLING. 199

have contributed in a more effectual manner
to their comforts, than by placing the good
people, who were once his servants, in this
comfortable inn.

Phys. — Are we to fish according to any
rule, as to quantity or size of fish ?

Hal. — You are at perfect liberty to fish
as you like; but as it is possible you may
catch grayling only of this year, and which
are not longer than the hand, I conclude you
will return such pigmies to the river, as a
matter of propriety, though not of necessity.

PoiET. — This river seems formed of two
other streams, which join above our inn.
What are the names of its sources?

Hal. — The small river to the left is called
the Teme, or Little Tenie, and though the
least stream, it gives name to the river : the
other, and more copious stream, is called the
Clun. The Little Teme contains principally
trout ; the Clun, both trout and grayling : but
the fish are more abundant in the meadows,
between this place and Downton, than in
other parts of the river ; for above, the stream
is too rapid and shallow to be favourable to
o 4.

200 SALMONIA.

their increase ; and below, it is joined by
other streams, and becomes too abundant in
coarse fish.

PoiET. — I cannot understand why the
grayling should be so scarce a fish in Eng-
land. It is abundant in many districts on
the Continent ; but in this island it is found,
I believe, only in a few rivers, and does not
exist, I think, either in Ireland or Scotland.
Yet, being an Alpine fish, and naturally fond
of cool water, it might have been expected
among the Highlands.

Hal. — I formerly used to account for
this, by supposing it an imported fish, and not
indigenous ; but, in some of my continental
excursions, I have seen it living only under
such peculiar circumstances, that I doubt the
correctness of this my early opinion.

PoiET. — Which was, I conclude, that it
was introduced by the monks, in the time
when Enofland was under the See of Rome.

o

As a favourite fish of St. Ambrose it was
worth cultivating, as well as for its own sake ;
and I think you have done wrong to relin-
quish this idea ; for as far as my recollection
serves me, the rivers that contain it are near

GRAYLING. 201

the ruins of great monasteries. The Avon,
near Salisbury; the Ure, near Fountain's
Abbey; the Wye, near the great Abbey of
Tintern ; and, if I am not mistaken, in the
lower part of this valley there are the re-
mains of an extensive establishment of friars.

Hal. — But there are rivers near the ruins
of some of the most magnificent establish-
ments of this kind in Europe, and those
nearest the Continent, where the grayling is
not found ; for instance, in the Stour, at Can-
terbury. And if the grayling he an imported
fish, it is wonderful that it should not be
found in the rivers in Kent, and along the
south-west coast of England, as in Dorset-
shire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, where the
monastic establishments were numerous ; and
why it should be found in some rivers in the
mountainous parts of Wales, as in that near
Llan-wEted and the Dee ; not near Val Crusis
Abbey, but fifteen miles higher up, between
Corwen and Bala.

PoiET. — It may have been a fish imported
from the Continent, and carried to a number
of rivers, only a few of which may have suited

202 SALMONIA.

its habits, and has remained there ai!d mul-
tiplied.

Hal. — There may be truth in what you
are now imagining, for the grayling requires
a number of circumstances in a river to en-
able it to increase.

PoiET. — What circumstances are these ?

Hal. — A temperature in the water which
must be moderate — neither two high nor too
low. Grayling are never found in streams
that run from glaciers — at least near their
source ; and they are killed by cold or heat.
I once put some grayling from the Teme, in
September, with some trout, into a confined
Water, rising from a spring in the yard at
Downton ; the grayling all died, but the trout
lived. And in the hot summer of 1825, great
numbers of large grayHng died in the Avon,
below Ringwood, without doubt killed by the
heat in July.

PoiET. — But I have heard of grayling
being common in Lapland — at least so says
Linnaeus.

Hal. — I think it must be another species
of the same genus ; the same as Back's gray-

GRAYLING. 203

ling, found by Captain Franklin and his com-
panions in North America, and distinguished
by a much larger back fin. Having travelled
with the fishing-rod in my hand through
most of the Alpine valleys in the south and
east of Europe, and some of those in Nor-
way and Sweden, I have always found the
char in the coldest and highest waters ; the
trout, in the brooks rising in the highest and
coldest mountains ; and the grayling always
lower, where the temperature was milder:
and if in hot countries, only at the foot of
mountains, not far from sources which had
the mean temperature of the atmosphere, —
as in the Vipacco, near Coritzia, and in the
streams which gush forth from the limestone
caverns of the Noric Alps. Besides temper-
ature, grayling require a peculiar character in
the clisposition of the water of rivers. They
do not dwell, like trout, in rapid shallow tor-
rents ; nor, like char or chub, in deep pools
or lakes. They require a combination of
stream and pool ; they like a deep still pool
for rest, and a rapid stream above, and a gra-
dually declining shallow below, and a bottom

204 SALMONIA.

where marl or loam is mixed with gravel ;
and they are not found abundant except in
rivers that have these characters. It is im-
possible to have a more perfect specimen of
a grayling river than that now running before
us, in this part of its course. You see a suc-
cession of deep still pools under shady banks
of marl, with gentle rapids above, and a long
shelving tail where the fish sport and feed.
Should there be no such pools in a river,
grayling would remain, provided the water
was clear, and would breed ; but they cannot
stem rapid streams, and they are gradually
carried down lower and lower, and at last
disappear. You know the Test, one of the
finest trout streams in Hampshire, and of
course in England: when I first knew this
stream, twenty years ago, there were no
grayling in it. A gentleman brought some
from the Avon, and introduced them into
the river at Longstock, above Stockbridge.
They were for two or three years very abun-
dant in that part of the river ; but they gra-
dually descended, and though they multiplied
greatly, there are now scarcely any above

GRAYLING. 205

Stockbridge. There were, four years ago,
many in the river just below; but this year
there are very few there, and the great pro-
portion that remains is found below Hough-
ton. I ought to mention, that the water is
particularly fitted for them, and they become
larger in this river than in their native place,
the Avon, — some of them weighing between
3 and 4- lbs. The trout, in all its habits of
migration, runs upward, seeking the fresh and
cool waters of mountain sources to spawn in :
the grayling, I believe, has never the same
habit of running up stream ; I never saw one
leaping at a fall, where trout are so often
seen. Their large back fin seems intended
to enable them to rise and sink rapidly in
deep pools ; and the slender nature of the
body, towards the tail, renders them much
more unfit for leaping cataracts than trout
and salmon. The temperature of the water,
and its character as to still and stream seem
of more importance than clearness; for I
have seen grayling taken in streams that are
almost constantly turbid, — as in the Inn
and the Salza in the Tyrol. This fish ap-
pears to require food of a particular kind.

206 SALMONIA.

feeding much upon flies and their larvae,
and not usually preying upon small fish as
the trout. It has a very strong stomach, in
texture like that of the gillaroo trout, and is
exceedingly fond of those larvae which inhabit
cases, and are usually covered with sand or
gravel. I once caught a grayling in the Wo-
chain Save, that weighed about Ij pound,
the stomach of which equalled in size a very
large walnut, and contained some small
shells, and two or three white round pebbles
as large as small beans. In accordance with
their general habits of feeding, grasshoppers
are amongst their usual food in the end of
summer and autumn; and at all seasons,
maggots, upon fine tackle and a small hook,
ofl^er a secure mode of taking them, — the
pool having been previously baited for the
purpose of angling, by throwing in a handful
or two a few minutes before.

PoTET. — You just now said, that you
thought the Lapland fish, considered by Lin-
naeus as grayling, was the same as Back's
grayling; but I find, in the Appendix to
Captain Franklin's narration, two grayUngs
described as belonging to the northern re-

GRAYLING. 207

gions, — one the Coregonus Signifer; and
another, which appears to differ very little
from it except being small in size. This
seems to agree as nearly as possible with
our grayling, with a difference of at most
one spine in the back fin. May not this in
fact be the same fish as the grayling of the
Alps, only rendered in a succession of gener-
ations fit for a colder climate ?

Hal. — This is certainly possible: there is
no doubt, that, in many successive genera-
tions, animals may be fitted to bear changes,
which would have destroyed their progeni-
tors. It is said by Bloch, that graylings are
found in the Caspian Sea, and in the Baltic,
— masses of saline water ; though, as I have
proved, the grayling of England will not
bear even a brackish water, without dying.
And notwithstanding the severity of the
winter in high northern latitudes, streams
under the ice may retain a temperature not
much lower than some of the Alpine rivers.
I have seen grayling in Carniola, in a source
at the hottest season not quite 50° ; and as,
in large bodies of water, the deepest part,
in frost, is generally the warmest — about

208 SALMONIA.

40°, the degree at which water is heaviest — I
see no reason why grayling may not be ha-
bituated to such a temperature, — coolness
being generally favourable to their exist-
ence. But see, the fog which had filled the
valley and hid the mountains from our sight
is clearing away, and I fear it will be a hot
day. Before the sun becomes too bright is
the best time for fishing in such a day as this.
As soon as the fog is fairly off, the water-
flies will begin to appear, and fish to sport.

Phys. — I see the fog has already disap-
peared from the deep water in the meadow,
where I suppose the warmth of the air from
the considerable mass of the water is greater ;
and which is further removed from the hills
sending down currents of cold air, from the
mixture of which with the moist warm air
above the river this phenomenon is produced.
I see some yellow flies beginning to come
out ; they have already felt the influence of
the warm air : and look ! a fish has just risen
opposite that bank, and he rises again : let
us prepare our tackle.

PoiET. — What flies shall we employ ?

Hal. — I recommend at least three ; for

GRAYLING. 209

the grayling lies deeper and is not so shy a
fish as the trout ; and, provided your link is
fine, is not apt to be scared by the cast of flies
on the water. The fineness of the link, and
of the guts to which your flies are attached,
is a most essential point, and the clearer the
stream the finer should be the tackle. I have
known ffood fishermen foiled bv usin^ a gut
of ordinary thickness, though their fly was
of the right size and colour. Very slender
transparent gut of the colour of the water is
one of the most important causes of success
in grayling fishing. Let me see your book :
I will select a fine stretcher. Now, for the
lowest fly, use a yellow-bodied fly, with red
hackle for legs, and landrail's wing ; for the
second, a blue dun, with dun body ; and for
the highest, the claret coloured body, with
blue wings ; and let your first dropper fly be
about three feet from the stretcher and from
the other dropper, and let the hanging link
which attaches them be 3^ inches long.

Phys. — There are several fish rising : I
shall throw at that opposite — he appears
laj'ge.

p

210

SALMONIA.

Hal. — It is a trout, and not a grayling.

Phys. — How do you know ?

Hal. — By his mode of rising. He is lying
at the top of the water, taking the flies as they
sail down by him, which a grayling scarcely
ever does. He rises rapidly from the bottom
or middle of the water, on the contrary —
darting upwards, and, having seized his fly,
returns to his station. There ! a grayling has
risen. I do not mean, however, that this habit
is invariable ; I have sometimes seen trout
feed like grayling, and grayling like trout,
but neither of these fish emits bubbles of air
in rising, as dace and chub do.

Phys. — 1 have one ! He has taken my
blue dun, and must be a small one, for he
plays v»ith no vigour.

GRAYLING. 211

Hal. — He is about Jib. — a fish of two
years and a half old — very good for the table.
I will land him if possible.

Phys. — There ! He is off!

Hal. — This happens often with grayling :
their mouths are tender, and unless the hook
catches in the upper lip, which is rather thick,
it is more than an equal chance that the fish
escapes you.

Phys. — Here, I have another, that has
taken the stretcher, and as it is a larger hook,
I hope he may be held. He is likewise a
larger fish — but how oddly he spins ! This,
I suppose, must be owing to his large back
fin, by which the stream carries him round.
There he is : he has quite twisted my link ;
it would not be amiss to have swivels for this
kind of fishing.

Hal. — It is a fish in good season — dark
above, fair below — and weighs, I should
suppose, about 1 j lb.

Phys. — As this is the first grayling I have
seen of my own taking, I must measure,
weigh, and examine him.

Hal. — We can do this hereafter. See,
p 2

212

SALMONIA.

our fish barrel; he can be kept alive till a
more convenient time of the clay.

GRAYLING.

Phys. — I am disposed to gratify my cu-
riosity immediately ; for to acquire inform-
ation is at least as interesting to me as catch-
ing fish. I shall kill him by a blow on the
head. He is not, I suppose, worth crimping
afterwards ?

Hal. — Certainly not, at this time ; and it
is not necessary with a fish of this size, which
ought to be fried ; but if we catch a large
grayling, approaching to 2 lbs., he shall be
killed, crimped, and boiled, like our Denham
trout : you will then find him excellent, and
not inferior, in my opinion, to the best perch :

GRAYLING. 213

more like the most exquisively tasted of all
our fish — the red mullet.

Phys. — Out of the water, this is a hand-
some fish, broader round the middle, and
more hog-backed than the trout, but grace-
fully tapering towards the tail. The belly,
I see, is silvery with yellow; and the pec-
toral, ventral, and anal fins are almost gold-
coloured; the back gray, with small black
spots, and the back fin of a beautiful bright
purple, with black and blue spots. It has
likewise an agreeable odour; so that both
from its colour and smell it does not seem
undeserving the title given it by St. Ambrose,
of the Jlo'-joer of fishes. It measures, I find,
14 inches in length; in girth 7^. It weighs
17 ounces. It has 10 spines in the pectoral
fin, 23 in the dorsal, 16 in the ventral, 14? in
the anal, and 18 in the caudal.

Hal. — Now for its anatomy. Its stomach
is very thick, not unlike that of a char or
gillaroo trout, and contains flies, gravel, and
larvae, with their cases. The liver and bowels
do not differ much from those of a trout ; and
the ovaria or roe, with eggs as large as mus-
P 3

21 4 SALMONIA.

tard seed, are on each side the air bladder.
Though a thicker fish, the grayling does not
weigh much more than the trout in proportion
to his length : the greater breadth of back is
compensated by the more rapid tapering of
tail, and a trout in very high season will some-
times equal in weight a grayhng of the same
length. The ova in this fish, and in the species
generally, are very small at this time of the
year; but in the beginning of April, the season
of their spawning, they become nearly as large
as the ova of the trout — of the size of pepper-
corns. But I see, Poietes, your rod is in
order, and there are many fish rising in this
deep pool, some of which are large grayling.
The blue dun is on in quantity, and we have
both cloud and wind, which half an hour ago
we had no right to expect. Let me advise you
to use three flies of different shades of the dun:
the stretcher, a pale blue with yellow body ;
the first dropper, a winged fly with dun body;
and the third, a similar fly with dark body.
There, you see ; he rose and refused your
stretcher — and again he has a second time
refused it. I think the colour of the dubbing

GRAYLING. 215

is too bright: try a winged fly for the stretcher
with a greenish body. Good — he has taken
it, and ought to be a large fish. Now we have
him: he is at least sixteen inches long, and in
good season. Ornither, I advise you to use
the same kind of fly, and to put up your tackle
precisely in the same way as Poietes has done.

PoiET. — How well they rise ! At that
moment I had two on my line : one of them
is gone, but I hope I shall land the other.

Hal. — Fish with activity while the cloud
lasts. I fear the sun is coming out, when it
will be more difficult to take fish. I shall try
the next pool, and I advise you to follow me
and fish by turns, — passing each other, and
taking different pools below, and so wend your
way downwards, fishing wherever you see fish
sporting. There is no better part of the river
than that pool below you, and you cannot take
a wrong direction. Immediately beyond Bur-
rington Bridge you will find two excellent
pools, and I advise you to go no farther down
to-day. If you take a fish approaching 2 lbs.,
keep him alive in the fish barrel for crimping ;
the smaller fish you can kill, and carry with
p 4

216 SALMONIA.

some rushes in your basket ; we shall at least
be able to send a dish of grayling to the pa-
tron of our sport at Downton.

NOON.

Hal. — Well, gentlemen, I hope you have
been successful.

PoiET. — We have had good sport; but I
have been for some time reposing on this
bank, and admiring the scene below. How
fine are these woods ! How beautiful these
banks ! the hills in the distance approach to
the character of mountains ; and the pre-
cipitous cliff, which forms the summit of that
distant elevation, looks like a diluvian monu-
ment, and as if it had been bared and torn
by a deluge, which it had stemmed.

Hal. — It is one of the Clee hills, and its
termination is basaltic, and such rocks usually
assume such forms. But though this spot is
beautiful, to-morrow I hope to show you a
more exquisite landscape, — cliffs and woods,
and gushing waters, of a character still more
romantic. We will return to our inn by a
shorter road ; but tell me, have you caught a

GRAYLING FISHING. 217

large fish amongst you, and preserved him
for crimping?

PoiET. — We have preserved two fishes in
the barrel, but I fear they are much below
your proposed size.

Hal. — They are good fish, and of the
average size of the large grayling in this
stream — 16 inches long, and about 1 J lb. ;
they will make a good variety boiled and
placed in the middle of the fried fish. And
how many have you caught altogether ?

PoiET. — I have basketed (to coin a word)
three trout and six grayling.

Phys. — And I have taken seven grayling.
1 caught trout likewise, but, not considering
them in proper season, I returned them to the
river : but Ornither has been the most suc-
cessful — he has killed ten grayling.

Hal. — The trout is rarely good in this
river — at least I never saw one that cut red;
and yet I have taken them in July, when their
external appearance was perfect and beauti-
ful; but they have, to my taste, always a flabby
and soft character of flesh, and at all seasons
here are inferior for the table to grayhng ;

218 SALMONIA.

yet they often attain a considerable size.
There are few small fish in these streams, and
I suppose the grayling, which are most nume-
rous, deprive the trout of their proper share
of the food, depending upon larvae and flies.

Phys. — As we are walking through these
meadows, pray give us some information as to
the habits of the grayling, and its localities in
England : I have been so much pleased with
my sport, that I shall become, with St. Am-
brose, a patron of the fish.

Hal. — The habits of the grayling, like
those of most other fish, are very simple. He
is, I believe, to a certain extent, gregarious —
more so than the trout, and less so than the
perch, and the usual varieties of the carp spe-
cies known in England. His form and appear-
ance you have seen. He is as yet scarcely in
his highest or most perfect season, which is
in the end of November or beginning of De-
cember, when his back is very dark, almost
black, and his belly and lower fins are nearly
gold-coloured ; but his brightness, like that
of most other fishes, depends a good deal
upon the nature of the water : and on the

HABITS OF THE GRAYLING. 219

Continent I have seen fishes far more bril-
liantly coloured than in England — the lower
part almost a bright orange, and the back
fin approaching to the colour of the damask
rose, or rather of an anemone. The grayling
spawns in April, and sometimes as late as the
beginning of May : the female is generally
then followed by two or three males. She
deposits her ova in the tails of sharp streams,
and the males, rubbing against her, shed
upon the ova the melt or seminal fluid. I do
not know how long a time is required for the
exclusion of the young ones ; but in the end
of July, or beginning of August, they are of
the size of sprats, four or five inches long,
and already sport merrily at a fly. Though I
have often taken grayling in bad season, yet
I have rarely observed upon them the same
kind of leech *, or louse, which is so often

* I may mention one remarkable instance as an ex-
ception, which has recently occurred to me, the 21st
of May, 1828. I was fishing in the Save, between
Wochain and Veldes, in some deep, clear, bright, green
pools. I caught five or six grayling between 15 and
17 inches long, that had all leeches near the tail; they
were beautifully coloured, and had probably got these
parasitic animals after their spawning, when they re-

220 SALMONIA.

found upon the trout; from which I infer,
that they seldom hide themselves, or become
torpid in the mud. The grayling hatched
in May or June, I conclude, become the same
year, in September or October, nine or ten
inches long, and weigh from^u^ ounces to half
a pound; and the year after they are from
twelve to fifteen inches long, and weigh from
three quarters to a pound; and these two
sizes, as you have seen, are the fish that most
usually rise at the fly. The first size in this
river is called shote, which is a Celtic word, I
believe, applied likewise in the west of Eng-
land to small trout. Of their growth after
the second year I cannot speak; this must
depend much on their food and place of re-
sidence. Marsigli says, they do not grow
after the third year, and at this age, in
Austria, they are sometimes a cubit long;

posed. Of course this was the time when they were
in their worst season, as they were just beginning to
recover from the work of generation. At this time
they often rose at and refused the fly, but there were as
yet no large flies on the water. The leech was a small
greenish dark worm, about an inch or an inch and a
half long, like a common leech in form and colom*.

GRAYLING RIVERS. 221

but though I have fished much in that coun-
try, I never saw any so long. If they are
taken into new and comparatively still water
recently made, and where food is plenty, they
grow very fast: under these circumstances,
I have seen them above 3 lbs. In the Test,
where, as I mentioned before, the gi'ayling
has been only recently introduced, they have
sometimes been caught between 3 and 4 lbs.
— in this river I never took one above 2 lbs.,
but I have heard of one being taken of 2^ lbs.
The grayling is a rare fish in England, and
has never been found in Scotland and Ire-
land (as Poietes observed before) ; and there
are few rivers containing all the conditions
necessary for their increase. I know of no
grayling river farther west than the Avon
in Hampshire : they are found in some of
the tributary streams of this river which rise
in Wiltshire. I know of no river containing
them on the north coast west of the Severn :
there are very few only in the upper part
of this river, and in the streams which form
it in North Wales. There are a few in
the Wye and its tributary streams. In the

222 SALMONIA.

Lug, which flows through the next valley,
in Herefordshire, many grayling are found.
In the Dee, as I have said before, they are
found, but are not common. In Derbyshire
and Staffordshire, the Dove, the Wye, the
Trent, and the Blithe, afford grayling; in
Yorkshire, on the north coast, some of the
tributary streams of the Ribble, — and in the
south, the Ure, the Wharfe, the Humber, the
Derwent, and the streams that form it, par-
ticularly the Rye. There may be some other
localities of this fish unknown to me ; but as I
have fished much, and inquired much respect-
ing the places w^here it is found, I think my
information tolerably correct and complete.

Phys. — Is this fish to be fished for in
spring ?

Hal. — He is to be fished for at all times,
for he is rarely so much out of season as to be
a bad fish ; and when there are flies on the
water, he will generally take them ; but as
the trout may be considered as a spring and
summer fish, so the grayling may be consi-
dered as a winter and autumnal fish.

Phys. — Of course the grayling is taken in

BAITS FOR GRAYLING. 223

spring with the same imitation of flies as the
trout ?

Hal. — The same. As far as flies are con-
cerned, these two species feed aUke ; though I
may say, generally, that the grayling prefers
smaller flies; and the varieties of the ephemerae
or phryganeae, of the smallest size, form their
favourite food. Yet grayling do not refuse
large flies ; and in the Avon and Test, May
flies, and even moths, are greedily taken in the
summer by large grayling. Flies, likewise,
that do not inhabit the water, but are blown
from the land, are good baits for grayling.
There is no method more killing, for large
grayling, than applying a grasshopper to the
point of a leaded hook, the lead and shank
of which are covered with green and yellow
silk, to imitate the body of the animal. This
mode of fishing is called sinking and drawing.
I have seen it practised in this river with as
much success as maggot fishing : and the fish
taken were all of the largest size ; the method
being most successful ill deep holes, where the
bottom was not visible, which are the natural
haunts of such fish. In the winter, grayling

224 SALMONIA.

rise for an hour or two, in bright and tolerably
warm weather ; and, at this time, the smallest
imitations of black or pale gnats that can be
made, on the smallest sized hook, succeed
best in taking them. In March, the dark-
bodied willow fly may be regarded as the ear-
liest fly ; the imitation of which is made by a
dark claret dubbing and a dun hackle, or four
small starling's wing feathers. The blue dun
comes on in the middle of the day in this
month, and is imitated by dun hackles for
wings and legs, and an olive dubbing for body.
In mild weather, in morning and evening, in
this month, and through April, the green tail,
or grannom, comes on in great quantities, and
is well imitated by a hen pheasant's wing
feather, a gray or red hackle for legs, and a
dark peacock's harle, or dark hare's ear fur,
for the body. The same kind of fly, of a
larger size, w^th paler wings, kills well in the
evening, through May or June. The imita-
tion of a water insect, called the spider fly,
with a lead-coloured body, and woodcock's
wings, is said to be a killing bait, on this and
other rivers, in the end of April and beginning

BAITS FOR GRAYLING. 225

of May ; but I never happened to see it on the
water. The dark alder fly, in May and June,
is taken greedily by the fish : it is imitated by
a dark-shaded pheasant's wing, black hackle
for legs, and a peacock's harle, ribbed with
red silk, for the body. At this season, and in
July, imitations of the black and red palmer
worms, which I believe are taken for black
or brown, or red beetles or cockchafers, kill
well; and, in dark weather, there are usually
very light duns on the water. In August,
imitations of the house fly and blue-bottle,
and the red and black ant fly, are taken, and
are particularly killing after floods in autumn,
when great quantities of the fly are destroyed
and washed down the river. In this month,
in cloudy days, pale blue duns often appear;
and they are still more common in September.
Throughout the summer and autumn, in fine
calm evenings, a large dun fly, with a pale
yellow body, is greedily taken by grayling
after sunset; and the imitation of it is very
killing. In the end of October, and through
November, there is no fly fishing but in the

226 SALMONIA.

middle of the day, when imitations of the
smaller dmis may be used with great success ;
and I have often seen the fish sport most,
and fly fishing pursued with the greatest suc-
cess, in bright sunshine, from twelve till half-
past two o'clock, after severe frosts in the
morning; and I once caught, under these
circumstances, a very fine dish of fish on the
7th of November. It was in the year 1816;
the summer and autumn had been peculiarly
cold and wet, and, probably in consequence
of this, the flies were in smaller quantity at
their usual season, and there was a greater
proportion later in the year.

Grayling, if you take your station by the
side of a river, will rise nearer to you than
trout, for they lie deeper, and therefore are
not so much scared by an object on the bank;
but they are more delicate in the choice of
their flies than trout, and will much oftener
rise and refuse the fly. Trout, from lying
nearer the surface, are generally taken before
grayling, where the water is slightly coloured,
or after a flood : and in rain, trout usually
rise better than grayling, though it sometimes

GENERATION OF EELS. 227

happens, when great quantities of flies come
out in rain, grayling, as well as trout, are
taken with more certainty than at any other
time ; — the artificial fly, in such cases, looks
like a wet fly, and allures even the grayling,
which generally is more difficult to deceive
than trout in the same river.

Phys. — As I was looking into a ditch
coming down the river, which is connected
with it, I saw a very large eel at the bottom,
that appeared to me to be feeding on a small
grayling : — are there many of this fish in
the Teme ? and do they breed here ?

Hal. — There are many of this fish in the
river; but to your question. Do they breed
here ? I must answer in the negative. The
problem of their generation is the most ab-
struse, and one of the most curious, in natural
history ; and though it occupied the attention
of Aristotle, and has been taken up by most
distinguished naturalists since his time, it is
still unsolved.

Phys. — I thought there was no doubt on
the subject, Lacepede, w^iose book is the
only scientific one on fishes I have read with
2 2

228 SALMONIA.

attention, asserts, in the most unqualified
way, that they are viviparous.

Hal. — I remember his assertion, but I
looked in vain for proofs.

Phys. — I do not remember any facts
brought forward on the subject ; but tell us
what you think upon it.

Hal. — I will tell you all I know, which
is not much. This is certain, that there are
two migrations of eels, — one up and one
down rivers, one froyn and the other to the
sea; the first in spring and summer, the se-
cond in autumn or early winter. The first, of
very small eels, which are sometimes not more
than two or two and a half inches long ; the
second of large eels, which sometimes are
three or four feet long, and weigh from 10 to
15, or even 20 lbs. There is great reason to
believe, that all eels found in fresh water are
the results of the first migration : they appear
in millions in April and May, and sometimes
continue to rise as late even as July and the
beginning of August. I remember this was
the case in Ireland, in 1823. It had been
a cold backward summer, and when I was

GENERATION OF EELS. 229

at Ballyshannon, about the end of July,
the mouth of the river, which had been in
flood all this month, under the fall, was
blackened by millions of little eels, about as
long as the finger, which were constantly
urging their way up the moist rocks by the
side of the fall. Thousands died, but their
bodies remaining moist, served as the ladder
for others to make their way ; and I saw some
ascending even perpendicular stones, making
their road through wet moss, or adhering to
some eels that had died in the attempt. Such
is the energy of these little animals, that they
continue to find their way, in immense num-
bers, to Loch Erne. The same thing hap-
pens at the fall of the Bann, and Loch Neagh
is thus peopled by them: even the mighty Fall
of ShafFhausen does not prevent them from
making their way to the Lake of Constance,
where I have seen many very large eels.

Phys. — You have shown, that some eels
come from the sea, but I do not think the
facts prove that all eels are derived from
that source.

Hal. — Pardon me — I have not concluded,
o 3

230 SALMONTA.

There are eels in the Lake of Neufchatel,
which communicates by a stream with the
Rhine ; but there are none in the Leman Lake,
because the Rhone makes a subterraneous fall
below Geneva ; and though small eels can
pass by moss or mount rocks, they cannot
penetrate limestone, or move against a rapid
descending current of water, passing, as it
were, through a pipe. Again : no eels mount
the Danube from the Black Sea; and there
are none found in the great extent of lakes,
swamps, and rivers communicating with the
Danube, — though some of these lakes and
morasses are wonderfully fitted for them, and
though they are found abundantly in the same
countries, in lakes and rivers connected with
the ocean and the Mediterranean. Yet, when
brouaht into confined water in the Danube,
they fatten and thrive there. As to the in-
stinct, which leads young eels to seek fresh
water, it is difficult to reason : — probably they
prefer warmth, and, swimming at the surface
in the early summer, find the lighter water
warmer, and likewise containing more insects,
and so pursue the courses of fresh water, as

MIGRATION OF EELS. 231

the waters from the land, at this season,
become warmer than those of the sea. Mr.
J. Couch (Lin. Trans. T. xiv. p. 70.) says,
that the little eels, according to his observ-
ation, are produced within reach of the tide,
and chmb round falls to reach fresh water
from the sea. I have sometimes seen them,
in spring, swimming in immense shoals in the
Atlantic, in Mount Bay, making their way to
the mouths of small brooks and rivers. When
the cold water from the autumnal floods begins
to swell the rivers, this fish tries to return to
the sea; but numbers of the smaller ones hide
themselves during the winter m the mud, and
many of them form, as it were, masses to-
gether. Various authors have recorded the
migration of eels in a singular way — such as
Dr. Plot, who, in his History of Staffordshire,
says, that they pass in the night, across
meadows, from one pond to another: and Mr.
Arderon (in Trans. Royal Soc.) gives a dis-
tinct account of small eels rising up the flood-
gates and posts of the water- works of the city
of Norwich ; and they made their way to the
water above, though the boards were smooth
2*

232 SALMONIA.

planed, and five or six feet perpendicular.
He says, when they first rose out of the water
upon the dry board, they rested a little —
which seemed to be till their slime was thrown
out, and sufficiently glutinous — and then they
rose up the perpendicular ascent with the same
faciHty as if they had been moving on a plane
surface. — (Trans. Abr. vol.ix. p. 311.) There
can, I think, be no doubt, that they are assisted
by their small scales, which, placed like those
of serpents, must facilitate their progressive
motion: these scales have been microscopically
observed by Lewenhoeck. — (Pliil, Trans,
vol. iv.) Eels migrate from the salt water of
different sizes, but I believe never when they are
above afoot long — and the great mass of them
are only from two and a half to four inches.
They feed, grow, and fatten in fresh water.
In small rivers they are seldom very large ;
but in large deep lakes they become as thick
as a man's arm, or even leg ; and all those of
a considerable size attempt to return to the
sea in October or November, probably when
they experience the cold of the first autumnal
rains. Those that are not of the largest size,

CONGER EEL. 233

as I said before, pass the winter in the deepest
parts of the mud of rivers and lakes, and do
not seem to eat much, and remain, I believe,
almost torpid. Their increase is not certainly
known in any given time, but must depend
upon the quantity of their food : but it is pro-
bable they do not become of the largest size,
from the smallest, in one or even two seasons ;
but this, as well as many other particulars,
can only be ascertained by new observations
and experiments. Bloch states, that they
grow slowly; and mentions, that some had
been kept in the same pond for fifteen years.
As very large eels, after having migrated,
never return to the river again, they must
(for it cannot be supposed that they all die
immediately in the sea) remain in salt water ;
and there is great probability, that they are
then confounded with the conger, which is
found of different colours and sizes — from
the smallest to the larjjest — from a few
ounces to one hundred pounds in weight.
The colour of the conger is generally paler
than that of the eel ; but, in the Atlantic, it
is said, that pale congers are found on one

234* SALMONIA.

side of the Wolf Rock, and dark ones on
the other. The conger has breathing tubes,
which are said not to be found in the other
eel ; but to determine this would require a
more minute examination than has yet been
made. Both the conger and common eel
have fringes along the air bladder, which are
probably the ovaria ; and Sir E. Home thinks
them hermaphrodite, and that the seminal
vessels are close to the kidneys. I hope this
great comparative anatomist will be able to
confirm his views by new dissections, and
some chemical researches upon the nature of
the fringes and the supposed melt. If vivi-
parous, and the fringes contain the ova, one
mother must produce tens of thousands, the
ova being remarkably small ; but it appears
more probable, that they are oviparous, and
that they deposit their ova in parts of the
sea near deep basins, which remain warm in
winter. This might be ascertained by ex-
periment, particularly on the coasts of the
Mediterranean. I cannot find, that they
haunt the Arctic ocean, which is probably of
too low a temperature to suit their feelings or

CONGER EEL. 235

habits ; and the Caspian and the Black Sea
are probably without them, from their not
being found in the Volga or Danube ; these,
being shallow seas, are perhaps too cold for
them in winter. From the time (April) that
small eels begin to migrate, it is probable
that they are generated in winter ; and the
pregnant eels ought to be looked for in No-
vember, December, and January. I opened
one in December, in which the fringes were
abundant, but I did not examine them under
the microscope, or chemically. I trust this
curious problem will not remain much longer
unsolved.

236 SALMONIA.

EIGHTH DAY.

HALIEUS - POIETES - ORNITHER - PHYSICUS.

Scene — Downton.

PoiET. — This is a beautiful day, and I think,
for fishing, as well as for the enjoyment of
the scenery, finer than yesterday. The wind
blows from the south, and is balmy; and
though a few clouds are collecting, they are
not sufficiently dense to exclude the warmth
of the sun ; and, as lovers of the angle, we
ought to prefer his warmth to his light.

Hal. — I do not think, as the day ad-
vances, there will be any deficiency of light ;
and I shall not be sorry for this, as it will
enable you to see the grounds of Downton,
and the distances in the landscape, to more
advantage : nor will light interfere much
with our sport in this valley, where, as you
see, there is no want of shade.

SCENERY. 237

PoiET. — This spot is really very fine. The
fall of water, the picturesque mill, the abrupt
cliff, and the bank, covered with noble oaks,
above the river, compose a scene such as I
have rarely beheld in this island.

Hal. — We will w^ander a little longer
through the walks. There you will enter a
subterraneous passage in the rock beyond the
mossy grotto. Behold, the castle, or man-
sion-house, clothed in beautiful vegetables, of
which the red creeper is most distinct, rises
above on the hill ! After we have finished our
walk and our fishing, I will, if you please,
take you to the house, and introduce you to
its worthy master, whom to know is to love,
to whom all good anglers should be grateful,
and who has a strong claim to a more exten-
sive gratitude — that of his country and of
society — by his scientific researches on vege-
table nature, which are not merely curious,
but useful, and which have already led to
great improvements in our fruits and plants,
and generally extended the popularity of
horticulture.

Phys. — We shall be much obliged to you

238 SALMONIA.

for the favour — provided always, you know
it will not be an intrusion.

Hal. — Trust this to me. And now, as
all circumstances are favourable, begin your
fishing. I recommend to you that fine pool
below the bridge ; there are always grayling
to be caught there — and already I see some
rising.

Phys. — With what imitation of flies shall
we fish ?

Hal. — As yesterday; a yellow fly for
your stretcher, and two duns for the drop-
pers. There, you have a good fish. And
now another — both grayling.

Phys. — I shall try the rapid at the top of
this long large pool ; I see several fish rising
there.

Hal. — Do so. You will catch fish there
— trout, but I fear no grayling.

Phys. — Why not ?

Hal. — In that part of the stream the water
is too rough for grayUng, and they like to be
nearer the deep water. Lower down, in the
same pool, there are large grayhng to be
caught.

NATURAL HISTORY. 239

Phys. — You are in the right; the fish I
have is a large trout — at least he is not much
less than 2 lbs. I have landed him ; shall I
keep him ?

Hal. — As you please : he is as good as he
ever was, or ev^r will be in this water.

Phys. — There are now more yellow flies
out than I have seen before this season. They
have appeared suddenly as if sprung from that
large alder. Though you gave us in a former
conversation some account of the flies used in
fishing, yet I hope you have not forgot your
promise, to favour us with some more details
on this subject, which, both as connected with
angling, and with a curious part of natural
history, is very interesting.

Hal. — I wish it was in my power to give
you information from my own experience,
but, I am sorry to say, this has been very
limited; and though the English are peculiarly
the fly fishing nation, yet our philosophical
anglers have not contributed much to this de-
partment of science, and what has been done
is principally by foreigners, amongst whom
Swammerdam, Reaumur, and above all De

240 SALMONIA.

Geer, are pre-eminent. To attempt to collect
and apply the knowledge accumulated by these
celebrated men, would carry us far beyond the
limits of a day's conversation ; and as a great
proportion of the insects that fly, walk, or
crawl, are the food of fishes, a dissertation, or
discourse on this subject, would be almost a
general view of natural history. You know
that frogs, crawfish, snails, earthworms, spi-
ders, larvae of every kind, millipedes, beetles,
squillae, moths, water flies, and land flies,
are all eaten by trout ; and I once heard the
late Sir Joseph Banks say, that he found a
large toad stuck in the throat of a trout ; but
as the skin of this animal is furnished with an
exceedingly acrid secretion, it probably had
been disgorged after being swallowed by a
fish exceedingly hungry. But though I have
found most of the insect tribes, and many
small fishes, even of the most ravenous kind,
as pike, in the stomachs of trout, it never
happened to me to see a toad there. I
might give you an account of the birth and
life of frogs, which, with respect to their ge-
neration, resemble fish, and which, when first

NATURAL HISTORY FISH. 241

excluded from the egg, may be considered in
the tadpole state as fish ; and you would not
find their singular metamorphosis without in-
terest. Or I could detail to you the true
histories which naturalists have given of the
habits of snails and earthworms, and of the
sexual relations of these apparently con-
temptible animals; — but this is too delicate
a subject to dwell on. Even the renewing
or cluinge of shell in the crawfish, when
it falls in its soft state an easy prey to fish,
is a curious inquiry not only for the phy-
siologist, but likewise for the chemist. On
these points, I must request you to refer to
writers in Natural History: yet I shall per-
form my promise, and say a few words on
winged insects, which, in their origin and
metamorphosis, offer the most extraordinary
known miracles perhaps of terrestrial natures.
You must be acquainted with the origin of , our
common house flies ?

Phys. — We know, that they spring from
maggots, and that both the common and blue
bottle fly deposit their ova in putrid animal
matter, where the eggs are hatched and pro-

R

242 SALMONIA.

duce maggots, that, after feeding upon the de-
composing animal material, gradually change,
gain a hard or horny coat, seem as if entombed,
and wait in a kind of apparent death or slum-
ber, till they are mature for a new birth, when
they burst their coatings and appear in the
character of novel beings — fitted to inhabit
another element.

Hal. — The history of the birth and me-
tamorphosis of all other winged insects is very
similar, but with peculiarities dependent upon
their organs, wants, and habits. You know
the curious details with which we have been
furnished by natural historians of bees and
ants which live in a kind of society. The ant
flies, of which, as I mentioned to you, imita-
tions are sometimes used by fishermen, were
originally maggots, and became furnished
with wings — hot, however, passing through
the aurelia state for this last transformation.

PoiET. — I beg your pardon, but, having
lately read an account of these animals in the
very interestingbook, called "An Introduction
to Entomology," I think I can correct you in
one particular; which is, that the maggot of

NATURAL HISTORY — INSECTS. 243

the ant does assume the form of a chrysalis
or pupa, before it becomes a winged animal.

Hal. — It is true, that the immediate tran-
sition of the maggot is into a pupa, then into
an ant, which is furnished with a kind of
case, from which the wings emerge for their
perfect transformation into the fly or imago
state. The males die soon after the sexual
intercourse; the females, when impregnated,
lose their wings, and either voluntarily or by
force enter into society with neuter or work-
ing ants, for the purpose of raising a new
generation.

PoiET. — You are perfectly right; and
though it would be irrelevant to our present
object, I could almost wish, for the sake of
amusing our friends, that you would detail
to us some other parts of the marvellous his-
tory of these wonderful animals, which, if
not so vvell authenticated, might be supposed
a philosophical romance. Such as the neu-
ter or working ants feeding each other and
the offspring; the manner in which they
make, defend, and repair their dwellings,
provide their food, watch and attend to the
R 2

244 SALMONIA.

female, and take care of her eggs ; their ex-
traordinary mode of acquiring and defending
the aphides and cocci, which bear to them
the same relation that cattle do to man,
which are fed by them with so much care,
and the milk of which forms so important
a part of their food ; the predatory excur-
sions of a particular species to carry off pupa,
which they bring up as slaves.

Hal. — To enter into any of the details of
the history of insects in society, would carry
us into an interminable, though interesting
subject, that would soon lose all relation to
fly fishing; and I fear what I have to say,
even on the winged insects connected with
this amusement, will occupy too much of
your time, for we have not more than an
hour to devote to this object.

PoiET. — Tell us what you please; we are
attentive.

Hal. — The various individuals of the
gn/llus, or grashopper tribe, spring from
larvae that do not differ much from the per-
fect insect, except in possessing no wings.
The eggs are deposited in our meadows,

LIBELLULA. 245

and many species of this animal are gre-
garious, and their immigrations in swarms are
well known. The butterfly and moths, as
you know, lay eggs which produce cater-
pillars, and these caterpillars, after feeding
upon vegetable food, spin themselves or
frame houses or beds, cocoons, in which
they aie transformed into aurelias, and from
which they burst forth as perfect winged in-
sects. The libellula, or dragon fly, the most
voracious of the winged insect tribe, deposits
her eggs in such a manner, that the larvae
fall into the water, and, after destroying and
feeding upon almost all the aquatic insects
found in this element, and changing their
skins at various times, they emerge in their
wino^ed form the tvrants of the insect ^ene-
rations in the air. The gnats and tipulae
have a similar existence. The gnat, the
female of which only is said by De Geer to
bite man, or suck human blood, in Sweden,
lays her Qgg in a kind of little boat or co-
coon of her own spinning. These eggs are
hatched on the surface of the water, and
produce the larvae, which undergo another
R 3

246 SALMONIA.

change into peculiar nymphae, that still re-
tain the power of swimming and moving,
from which the perfect insect is produced
during the summer heat. The flies, which
I mentioned to you in a former conver-
sation, under the name of the grannom, or
green tail, [see Jig. 2.) are of the class jphry-
ganecE^ which includes all those water flies
that have long antennae, and wings some-
thing like those of moths, but usually veined
and without powder. The yellow flies,
which you saw a short time since sporting
on the banks of the river, are of this kind.
The phryganeffi {^ee Jigs. 1, 2, 3, and 4.)
have four wings, which, when closed, lie flat
on their backs, the two upper ones being
folded over the lower ones : the flies called
by anglers the willow fly, the alder fly,
{see Jig. 4.) and the dun cut, are of this kind.
The phryganeae lay their eggs on the leaves
of willows, or other trees, that overhang the
water ; they are fastened by a sort of gluten
to the surface of the leaf: when hatched they
produce small hexapode larvae, which fall
into the water, and by a curious economy of

PHRYGANEiE,

WITH THEIIl I:MITATI0KS.

To face p. 246.

ha:
CA

PHllYGANE^. 24-7

nature collect round themselves, some, parts
of plants, or small sticks ; some, gravel ; and
some, even shell fish. They spin themselves
a sort of case of silk from their bodies, and
by a gluten, that exudes from this case, ce-
ment their materials together. They feed
upon aquatic plants, and sometimes upon in-
sects, protruding only their head and legs
from the case. When about to undergo
transmutation, they quit their cases, rise to
the surface, and wait for this process of na-
ture in the air; but some species fix them-
selves on plants or stones : they burst the
skin of the larvae, and appear perfect animals,
male and female, fitted for the office of re-
production. In the early spring, the species
which are called green tails, from the colour
of the bags of eggs in the female, appear in
the warm gleams of sunshine that happen in
cloudy days, and they then cover the face of
the water, and are greedily seized on by the
fish. As the season advances they appear
principally in the morning and evening. In
the heat of summer the phryganeae are almost
nocturnal flies, and seem to have the habits
11 4

248 SALMONIA.

of moths : at this season, 7iow, I should say,
the few flies that appear are generally seen in
the day-time. The ep/fem^rce, another class
of flies peculiarly interesting to the fisher-
man, differ from the phryganeae in carrying
their wings perpendicularly on their backs,
and in having long filaments or hairs in their
tails. The March brown, {see Jig. 8.) the
various shades of duns, [see Jigs. 5, 6, and 7.)
which I described to you on a former occa-
sion; the green {seejgs. 9 and 10.) and white
Mayfly, the red spinner, [see Jig. 11.) are all
of the class ephemeras. These flies are pro-
duced from larvae which inhabit the water,
which can both crawl and swim, and which
generally live in holes they make in the bot-
tom. They change their coats several times
before they become nymphae. They quit
their skin on the surface of the water, but
even after they are flies, they have another
transformation to undergo before they are
perfect animals fitted for generation. They
make use of their wings only to fly to some
dry bank, or trunk of a tree, where they gra-
dually disencumber themselves of the whole

EPHEMERAE,

WITH THEIR IMITATIONS OK HOOKS.

To face p. 248.

CAMBR!"

V
RARV

EPHEMERAE,

WITH THEIR IMITATIONS OR HOOKS,

To face p. 249.

EPHEMERJE. 249

of the outward habiliment they brought from
the water, including their wings. They be-
come lighter, more beautiful in colour, and
then begin their sports in the sunshine — ap-
pearing like what might be imagined of spirits
freed from the weight of their terrestrial
covering. This last transmutation has been
observed and fully described by some cele-
brated naturalists, in the case of the May
flies, and one or two other species, and it
probably will be found a general circum-
stance attached to the class : I have often ob-
served what appeared to me to be the cast-ofF
skins of the small species of ephemerae on
the banks of rivers and floating in the water.
The green ephemera, or May fly, lays her
eggs sitting on the water, which instantly
sink to the bottom ; and most of the duns, or
small slender-winged flies, do the same. The
gray or glossy-winged May fly, commonly
called the gray drake, performs regular mo-
tions in the air above the water, risinir and
falling, and sitting, as it were, for a moment
on the surface, and rising again, at which
time she is said to deposit her eggs. To at-

250 SALMONIA.

tempt to describe all the variety of ephemerae,
that sport on the surface of the water at dif-
ferent times of the day, throughout the year,
would be quite an endless labour. Some of
them appear to live only a few hours, and
none of them, I beUeve, have their existence
protracted to more than a few days. In
spring and autumn a new variety of these
flies sometimes appears every day, or even in
different parts of the same day. Of the
beetle, or colyoptera genus, there are many
varieties fed on by fishes. These insects, which
are distinguished, as you know, by four wings,
two husky-like shells above, and two slender
and finer ones below, are bred from eggs,
which they deposit in the ground, or in the
excrement of animals, and which, producing
larvae in the usual way, are converted into
beetles, and these larvae themselves are good
bait for fish. The brown beetle, or cockchaf-
fer, the fern fly, and the gray beetle, which
are abundant in the meadows in the summer,
are often blown into the water, and are the
most common insects of this kind eaten by
fishes. Whether the ditisci and hydrophili.

EPHEMERiE. 251

the water beetles, are ever eaten by trout, I
know not, but it is most probable. These
singular animals are most commonly found
in stagnant waters; fitted for flying? swim-
ming, diving, and walking, they are omni-
vorous, and usually fly from pool to pool in
the evening. They deposit their eggs in the
water, where their larvae live, but which,
to undergo transmutation into the beetle,
migrate to the land. But there is hardly
any insect that flies, including the wasp, the
hornet, the bee, and the butterfly, that does
not become at some time the prey of fishes.
I have not, however, the knowledge, or if I
had, have not the time, to go through the
lists of these interesting little animals ; but of
the family of one of them I must speak — the
ichneumons, that deposit their eggs in cater-
pillars, or the larvae of other flies, and which
feed on the unfortunate animal in which they
are hatched, and come out of its interior when
dead, as if it had been their parent. To en-
ter into the philosophy of this subject, and to
study the organs and faculties of these va-
rious insect tribes, in their functions of re-

252 SALMONIA.

spiration, nutrition, and reproduction, would
be sufficient for the labour of a life. To know
what has already been done would demand
the close and studious application of a com-
prehensive mind ; and to complete this branch
of science in all its parts is probably almost
above human powers: but much might be
done if enlightened persons would follow
the example of De Geer, Reaumur, and
Huber, and study minutely the habits of
particular tribes : and it is probable, that
physiology might be much advanced by mi-
nutely investigating the simplest forms of
living beings ; and that particularly with re-
spect to the functions of generation a minute
study of the modifications of which the forms
of animals seem susceptible, particularly in
the hymenopterous or bee tribe, might lead
to very important results.

PoiET. — Even in a moral point of view, I
think the analogies derived from the trans-
formation of insects admit of some beautiful
applications, that have not been neglected by
pious entomologists. The three states — of
the caterpillar, pupa, or aurelia, and butterfly

ENTOMOLOGY. 253

— have, since the time of the Greek poets,
been applied to typify the human being — its
terrestrial form, apparent death, and ultimate
celestial destination ; and it seems more ex-
traordinary that a sordid and crawling worm
should become a beautiful and active fly —
that an inhabitant of the dark and foetid
dunghill should in an instant entirely change
its form, rise into the blue air, and enjoy the
sunbeams, — than that a being, whose pursuits
here have been after an undying name, and
whose purest happiness has been derived
from the acquisition of intellectual power
and finite knowledge, should rise hereafter
into a state of being, where immortality is no
longer a name, and ascend to the source of
Unbounded Power and Infinite Wisdom.

Phys. — I have been listening, Halieus, to
your account of water-flies with attention,
and I only regret, that your details were not
more copious; let me now call your attention
to that Michaelmas daisy. A few minutes
ago, before the sun sunk behind the hill, its
flowers were covered with varieties of bees,
and some wasps, all busy in feeding on its

254 SALMONIA.

sweets. I never saw a more animated scene
of insect enjoyment. The bees were most of
them humble bees, but many of them some
new varieties to me, and the wasps appeared
different from any I have seen before.

Hal. — I believe this is one of the last au-
tumnal flowers that insects of this kind haunt.
In sunny days it is their constant point of
resort, and it would afford a good opportunity
to the entomologist to make a collection of
British bees.

PoiET. — I neither hear the hum of the
bee, nor can I see any on its flowers. They
are now deserted.

Phys. — Since the sun has disappeared,
the cool of the evening has, I suppose, driven
the little winged plunderers to their homes ;
but see, there are two or three humble bees
which seem languid with the cold, and yet
they have their tongues still in the fountain
of honey. I believe one of them is actually
dead, yet his mouth is still attached to the
flower. He has fallen asleep, and probably
died whilst making his last meal of ambrosia.

Orn. — What an enviable destiny, quitting

ENTOMOLOGY. 255

life in the moment of enjoyment, following an
instinct, the gratification of which has been
always pleasurable ! so beneficent are all the
laws of Divine Wisdom.

Phys. — Like Ornither, I consider the de-
stiny of this insect as desirable, and I cannot
help regarding the end of human life as most
happy, when terminated under the impulse of
some strong energetic feeling, similar in its
nature to an instinct. I should not wish to
die like Attila in a moment of o^ross sensual
enjoyment : but the death of Epaminondas or
Nelson in the arms of victory, their whole
attention absorbed in the love of glory and
of their country, I think really enviable.

PoiET. — I consider the death of the mar-
tyr or the saint as far more enviable ; for in
this case, what may be considered as a divine
instinct of our nature, is called into exertion,
and pain is subdued, or destroyed, by a se-
cure faith in the power and mercy of the
Divinity. In such cases man rises above
mortality, and shows his true intellectual su-
periority. By intellectual superiority I mean
that of his spiritual nature, for I do not con-

256 SALMONIA.

siderthe results of reason as capable of being
compared with those of faith. R^eason is
often a dead weight in life, destroying feeling,
and substituting, for principle, calculation and
caution ; and, in the hour of death, it often
produces fear or despondency, and is rather
a bitter drauo^ht than nectar or ambrosia in
the last meal of life.

Hal. — I agree w^ith Poietes. The higher
and more intense the feehng, under which
death takes place, the happier it may be
esteemed ; and I think even Physicus will be
of our opinion, when I recollect the conclu-
sion of a conversation in Scotland. The im-
mortal being never can quit life with so much
pleasure as with the feeling of immortality se-
cure, and the vision of celestial glory filling
the mind, affected by no other passion than
the pure and intense love of God.

WKPy
CA':

FISHING FOR HUCHO. 257

NINTH DAY.

H ALIEUS -POIETES -ORNITHER - PHYSICIIS.
FISHING FOR HUCHO.

Scene — The Fall of the Traun^ Upper Austria,
Time — July.

PoiET. — This is a glorious scene ! And the
fall of this great and clear river, with its ac-
companiments of wood, rock, and snow-clad
mountain, would alone furnish matter for dis-
cussion and conversation for many days.
This place is quite the paradise of a poetical
angler; the only danger is that of satiety
with regard to sport ; for these great grayling
and trout are so little used to the artificial
fly, that they take almost any thing moving
on the top of tlie water. You see I have
put on a salmon fly, and still they rise at it,
though they never can have seen any thing-
like it before — and it is, in fact, not like any
thing in nature.

258 SALMONIA.

Hal. — You are right, they never have
seen any thing like it before ; but, in its mo-
tion, it is like a large fly, and this is the sea-
son for large flies. The stone fly and the
May fly, you see, occasionally drop upon the
water, and the colour of your large fly is not
unlike that of the stone fly; but if, instead of
being here in the beginning of July, you had
visited this spot, as I once did, in the be-
ginning of June, you would have found
more difficulty in catching grayling here,
though not so much as in our English rivers
— in the Test, the Derwent, or the Dove.

PoiET. — How could this be ?

Hal. — At this season the large flies had
not yet appeared; the small blue dun was on
the water, and I was obliged to use a fly the
same as that which suits our spring and late
autumnal fishing. The fish refused all large
flies, but took greedily small ones ; and, as
usually happens when small flies are used,
more fish escaped after being hooked than
were taken ; and these I found, the next day,
were become as sagacious as our Dove or
Test fish, and refused the artificial fly, though
ihey greedily took the natural fly.

HEREDITARY INSTINCT. 259

Phys. — These fish, then, have the same
habits as our English sahnons and trouts ?

Hal. — The principle to which I have re-
ferred in two former conversations must be
general, though it has seemed to me, that they
lost this memory sooner than the fish of our
English rivers, where fly fishing is common.
This, however, may be fancy, yet I have re-
ferred it to a kind of hereditary disposition,
which has been formed and transmitted from
their progenitors.

Phys. — However strange it may appear^
I can believe this. When the early voyagers
discovered new islands, the birds upon them
were quite tame, and easily killed by sticks
and stones, being fearless of man ; but they
soon learned to know their enemy, and this
newly acquired sagacity was possessed by
their offspring, who had never seen a man.
Wild and domesticated ducks are, in fact,
from the same original type : it is only ne-
cessary to compare them, when hatched to-
gether under a hen, to be convinced of the
principle of the hereditary transmission of
habits, — the wild young ones instantly fly
s 2

260 SALMONIA.

from man, the tame ones are indifferent to
his presence.

PoiET. — No one can be less disposed than
I am to limit the powers of living nature, or
to doubt the capabilities of organised struc-
tures; but it does appear to me quite a
dream, to suppose that a fish, pricked by the
hook of the artificial fly, should transmit a
dread of it to its offspring, though he does
not even long retain the memory of it him-
self.

Hal. — There are instances quite as ex-
traordinary— but I will not dwell upon them,
as I am not quite sure of the fact which we
are discussing; I have made a guess only,
and we must observe more minutely to esta-
blish it ; it may be even as you suppose — a
mere dream.

PoiET. — I shall go and look at the fall :
I am really satiated with sport; this is the
twentieth fish I have taken in an hour, and it
is a grayling of at least fifteen inches long ;
and there is a trout of eighteen, and several
salmon trout, which look as if they had run
from the sea.

CAUSES OF VARIETY IN TROUT. 261

Hal. — These salmon trout have run from
a sea, but not from a salt sea ; they are fish
of the Traun See, as it is called by the Ger-
mans, or Tr au n Lake, which is emptiedby
this river.

Phys. — Tell us why they are so different
from the river trout, or why there should be
two species or varieties in the same water.

Hal. — Your question is a difficult one,
and it has already been referred to in a for-
mer conversation ; but I shall repeat what I
stated before, — that qualities occasioned by
food, peculiarities of water, &c. are trans-
mitted to the offspring, and produce varieties
which retain their characters as long as they
are exposed to the same circumstances,
and only slowly lose them. Plenty of good
food gives a silvery colour and round form to
fish, and the offspring retain these charac-
ters. Feeding much on larvae and on shell-
fish thickens the stomach, and gives a brighter
yellow to the belly and fins, which become
hereditary characters. Even these smallest
salmon trout have green backs, only black
spots, and silvery bellies; fi'om which it is
S3

262 SALMONIA.

evident, that they are the offspring of lake
trout, or lacks forelle, as it is called by the
Germans ; whilst the river trout, even when
4 or 5 lbs., as we see in one of these fish,
though in excellent season, have red spots. —
But why that exclamation ?

PoiET. — What an immense fish ! There
he is !

Hal. — I see nothing.

PoiET. — At the edge of the pool, below
the fall, I saw a fish, at least two or three
feet long, rising with great violence in the
water, as if in the pursuit of small fish ; and at
the same time I saw two or three minnows or
bleaks jump out of the water. What fish is
it ? — a trout ? It appeared to me too long
and too slender for a trout, and had more the
character of a pike ; — yet it followed, and
did not, like a pike, make a single dart.

Hal. — I see him : it is neither a pike nor
a trout, but a fish which I have been some
time hoping and expecting to see here, below
the fall — a salmo hucho, or Jiuche7i. I am de-
lighted, that you have an opportunity of see-
ing this curious fish, and of observing his
habits. I hope we shall catch him.

SALMO HUCHO. 263

PoiET. — Catch him ! we have no tackle
stroiifj enough.

Hal. — I am surprised to hear a salmon
fisher talk so : yet he is too large to take a
fly, and must be trolled for. We must spin
a bleak for him, or small fish, as we do for
the trout of the Thames or the salmon of the
Tay. Ornither, you understand the arrange-
ment of this kind of tackle — look out in my
book the strongest set of spinning hooks you
can find, and supply them with a bleak ; and
whilst I am changing the reel, I will give you
all the information (which, I am sorry to say,
is not much,) that I have been able to collect
respecting this fish from my own observation
or the experience of others. The hucho is
the most predatory fish of the salmo genus,
and is made like an ill-fed trout, but longer
and thicker. He has larger teeth, more
spines in the pectoral fin, a thicker skin, a
silvery belly, and dark spots only on the back
and sides — I have never seen any on the
fins. The ratio of his length to his girth is
as 8 to 18, or, in well-fed fish, as 9 to 20.
and a fish, 18 inches long by 8 in girth,
s 4

^64! SALMONIA.

weighed 16,215 grains. Another, 2 feet
long, 1 1 inches in girth, and 3 inches thick,
weighed 4 lbs. 2^ oz. Another, 26 inches
long, weighed 5 lbs. 5 oz. Of the spines
in the fins, the anal has 9, the caudal 20,
the ventral 9, the dorsal 12, the pectoral
17: having numbered the spines in many,
I give this as correct. The fleshy fin be-
longing to the genus is, I think, larger in
this species than in any I have seen. Bloch,
in his work on fishes, states that there are
black spots on all the fins, with the exception
of the anal, as a character of this fish : and
Professor Wagner informs me he has seen
huchos with this peculiarity; but, as I said
before, I never saw any fish with spotted fins
— yet I have examined those of the Danube,
Save, Drave, Mur, and Izar : perhaps this is
peculiar to some stream in Bavaria — yet the
huchos in the collection at Munich have it
not. The hucho is found in most rivers tri-
butary to the Danube — in the Save and
Laybach rivers always ; yet the general opi-
nion is, that they run from the Danube twice
a year, in spring and autumn. I can answer

SALMO HUCHO. 265

for their migration in spring, having caught
several in April, in streams connected with the
Save and Laybach rivers, which had evidently
come from the still dead water into the clear
running streams, for they had the winter leech,
or louse of the trout upon them : and I have
seen them of all sizes, in April, in the mar-
ket at Laybach, from six inches to two feet
long; but they are found much larger, and
reach 30, or even 40 pounds. It is the opi-
nion of some naturalists, that it is only a fresh-
water fish; yet this I doubt, because it is
never found beyond certain falls — as in the
Traun, the Drave, and the Save; and, there
can be no doubt, comes into these rivers
from the Danube ; and probably in its largest
state is a fish of the Black Sea. Yet it can
winter in fresh water; and does not seem,
like the salmon, obliged to haunt the sea,
but falls back into the warmer waters of the
great rivers, from which it migrates in spring,
to seek a cooler temperature and to breed.
The fishermen at Gra'tz say they spawn in
the Mur, between March and May. In
those I have caught at Laybach, which, how-
ever, were small ones, the ova were not suf-

266 SALMONIA.

ficiently developed to admit of their spawn-
ing that spring. Marsigli says, that they
spawn in the Danube in June. You have
seen how violently they pursue their prey :
I have never taken one without fish in his
stomach ; yet, when small, they will take
a fly. In the Kleingraben, which is a
feeder to the Laybach river, and where
they are found of all sizes — from 20 lbs.
downwards — the little ones take a fly, but
the large ones are too ravenous to care
about so insignificant a morsel, and prey
like the largest trout, often hunting in com-
pany, and chasing the small fish into the
narrow and shallow streams, and then de-
vouring them. — But I see your tackle is
ready. As a more experienced angler in
this kind of fishing, you will allow me to try
my fortune with this fish. I still see him
feeding ; but I must keep out of sight, for he
has all the timidity peculiar to the salmo
genus, and, if he catch sight of me, will cer-
tainly not run at the bait.

Orn. — You spin the bleak for him, I see,
as for a great trout. O ! there ! he has run
at it — and vou have missed him. What a

TAKING A SALMO HUCHO. 267

fish ! You surely were too quick, for he
sprung out of the water at the bleak.

Hal. — I was not too quick ; but he rose
just as the bleak was on the surface, and saw
me; and now he is frightened, and gone
down into the deep water. We must retire
till we see him feeding again, which will be,
I hope, in a few minutes, for his violence
shows he is not yet satisfied.

PoiET. — I think I saw him moving in an-
other part of the pool: it is now ten minutes
since we saw him last.

Hal. — You are right ; he is again on the
feed, and in a place where we have a better
chance of hooking him, as the water is deeper
and in the shade. He has run again at the
bleak, but only as it shone on the surface —
but he is not frightened. Ah ! he has taken
it, and is floundering and struggling ! He is
a powerful fish.

Orn. — He fights well, and runs towards
the side where the rock is.

Hal. — Take the net and frighten him
from that place, which is the only one where
there is danger of losing him. He is clear

268

SALMONIA.

now, and begins to tire, and in a few minutes
more he will be exhausted. — Now land him.
PoiET. — A noble fish ! But how like a
trout — exactly like a sea trout in whiteness,
and I think in spots.

SALMO HCJCHO.

^'Zv -■

Hal. — He is much narrower, or less
broad, as you would immediately discover, if
you had a sea trout here. But now we must
try another pool, or the tail of this ; that fish
was not alone, and at the moment he took
the bait, I think I saw the water move from
the stir of another. Take your rod and fit
your own tackle, Ornither; half the glory of
catching this fish is yours, as you prepared
the hooks. I see you are in earnest; the
blood mounts in your face. Oh ! oh ! Or-

SALMO HUCHO. 269

nither ! you have pulled with too much vio-
lence, and broken your tackle. Alas ! alas !
the fish you hooked was the consort of mine :
he will not take again.

Orn. — The gut was bad, for I do not
think I struck too violently. What a loss !
How hard, to let the first fish of the kind I
ever angled for escape me !

Hal. — There are probably more : try
again.

Orn. — Behold ! the loss was more owing
to the imperfection of the tackle than to my
ardour ; for the two end hooks only are gone,
and you may see the gut worn.

Hal. — The thing is done, and not worth
comment. If you can, let the next fish that
rises hook himself. When we are ardent, we
are bad judges of the effort we make ; and an
angler, who could be cool with a new species
of salmo, I should not envy. Now all is
right again : try that pool. There is a fish
— ay! and another, that runs at your bait;
but they are small ones, not much more than
twice as large as the bleak; yet they show
their spirit, and though they cannot swallow

270 SxiLMONIA.

it, they have torn it. Put on another bleak.
There ! you have another run.

Orn. — Ay, it is a small fish, not much
more than a foot long ; yet he fights well.

Hal. — You have him, and I will land him,
I do not think such a fish a bad initiation
into this kind of sport. He does not agitate
so much as a larger one, and yet gratifies
curiosity. There, we have him. A very
beautiful fish ; yet he has the leech, or louse,
though his belly is quite white.

Orn. — This fish is so like a trout, that,
had I caught him when alone, I should
hardly have remarked his peculiarities ; and I
am not convinced, that it is not a variety of
the common trout, altered, in many genera-
tions, by the predatory habits of his ancestors.
Hal. — How far the principle of change of
character and transmission of such character
to the offspring will apply, I shall not attempt
to determine, and whether all the varieties of
the salmo with teeth in their mouth may not
have been produced from one original ; yet
this fish is 710W as distinct from the trout, as
the char or the iimbla is ; and in Europe, it

SALMO HUCHO. 271

exists only below great falls in streams con-
nected with the Danube, and is never found
in rivers of the same districts connected with
the Rhine, Elbe, or which empty themselves
into the Mediterranean; though trout are
common in all these streams, and salmon and
sea trout in those connected with the ocean.
According to the descriptions of Pallas, it oc-
curs in the rivers of Siberia, and probably
exists in those that run into the Caspian ; and
it is remarkable, that it is not found where the
eel is usual — at least this applies to all the
tributary streams of the Danube, and, it is
said, to the rivers of Siberia. Wherever I
have seen it, there have been always coarse
fish — as chub, white fish, bleak, Sec, and
rivers containing such fish are its natural
haunts, for it requires abundance of food,
and serves to convert these indifferent poor
fish into a better kind of nourishment for
man. We will now examine the interior of
these fish. You see the stomach is larger
than that of a trout, and the stomachs of both
are full of small fish. In the larger one
there is a chub, a grayling, a bleak, and two
or three small carp. The skin you see is

272 SALMONIA.

thick ; the scales are smaller than those of a
trout ; it has no teeth on the palate, and the
pectoral fin has four spines more, which, I
think, enables it to turn with more rapidity.
You will find at dinner, that, fried or roasted,
he is a good fish. His flesh is white, but not
devoid of curd ; and though rather softer
than that of a trout, I have never observed
in it that muddiness, or peculiar flavour,
which sometimes occurs in trout, even when
in perfect season.

I shall say a few words niore on the habits
of this fish. The hucho, as you have seen,
preys with great violence, and pursues his
object as a foxhound or a greyhound does. I
have seen them in repose : they lie like pikes,
perfectly still, and I have watched one for
many minutes, that never moved at all. In
this respect their habits resemble those of
most carnivorous and predatory animals. It
is probably in consequence of these habits,
that they are so much infested by lice, or
leeches, which I have seen so numerous in
spring as almost to fill their gills and inter-
fere with their respiration, in which case they
seek the most rapid and turbulent streams to

SALMO HUCHO. 273

free themselves from these enemies. They
are very shy, and after being hooked avoid
the baited hne. I once saw a hucho, for
which I was fishing, follow the small fish,
and then the lead of the tackle ; it seemed as
if this had fixed his attention, and he never
offered at the bait afterwards. I think a hu-
cho, that has been pricked by the hook, be-
comes particularly cautious, and possesses, in
this respect, the same character as the sal-
mon. In summer, when they are found in
the roughest and most violent currents, their
fins (particularly the caudal fin) often appear
worn and broken ; at this season they are
usuallv in constant motion against the stream,
and are stopped by no cataract or dam, un-
less it be many feet in height, and quite in-
accessible. In the middle of September I
have caught huchos perfectly clean in rapid
cool streams, tributary to the Laybach and
the Sava rivers ; and, from the small develope-
ment of their generative system at this time,
I have no doubt that they spawn in spring.
On the 13th of September, 1828, I caught,
by spinning the dead small fish, three huchos,

T

274< SALMONIA.

that had not a single leech upon their bodies,
and they were the first fish of the kind I
ever saw free from these parasites.

Orn. — I am so much pleased with my
good fortune in catching this fish, that I shall
try all day to-morrow with the bait, for more
of the same kind.

Hal. — You may do so ; but many of these

fish cannot be caught; they migrate generally

when the water is foul, and, except in the

sprhig and autumn, do not so readily run at

the bait. I was once nearly a month seeking

for one in rivers in w^hich they are found,

between the end of June and that of July,

without being able to succeed in even seeiiig

one alive; and as far as my information goes,

the two places where there is most probability

of taking them, are at Laybach and Ratisbon,

in the tributary streams to the Sava, and in

the Danube ; and the best time, in the first of

these situations, is in March and April, and

in the second, in May. I am told, likewise,

that the Izar, which runs by Munich, is a

stream where they may be caught, when the

water is clear : but I have never fished in this

stream — it having been foul, either from rain,

ANGLING. 275

or the meltinjT of the snows, whenever I
have been at Munich ; but I have seen in the
fish-market at Munich very large huchos.
Late in the autumn, or in early spring, this
river must be an interesting one to fish in,
as the sckill^ or jierca lucio perca, and three
other species of perca are found in it — the
zingel, the apron, and the perca schratz — all
fish of prey, and excellent food. I have eaten
them, but never taken them ; they are rare in
European rivers, though not, like the hucho,
peculiar to the tributary streams of the Da-
nube. The schill is found likewise in the
Sprey and in the Hungarian lakes, and, ac-
cording to Bloch, the zingel in the Rhone.

PoiET. — I should like extremely to fish in
the Izar : it is, I think, a new kind of pleasure
to take a new kind of fish, even though it is
not unknown to Natural Historians. But the
most exquisite kind of angling, in my opinion,
would be that of angling in a river never
fished in by Europeans before; and I can
scarcely imagine sport of a higher kind than
that which involves a triple source of pleasure
— catching a fish, procuring good food for
T 2

276 SALMONIA.

the table, and making a discovery in Natural
History, at the same time. Sir Joseph Banks,
who was always a great amateur of angling,
had often this kind of gratification. And to
Captain Franklin and Dr. Richardson, in
their expedition to the Arctic Ocean, when
they were almost starving, what a delightful
circumstance it must have been, to have taken
with a fly those large grayling, which they
mention, of a new species, equally beautiful in
their appearance, and good for the table !

Hal. — When a boy, I have felt an inter-
est in sea fishing, for this reason — that there
was a variety offish; but the want of skill in
the amusement — sinking a bait with a lead
and pulling up a fish by main force, soon
made me tired of it. Since I have been a
fly-fisher, I have rarely fished in the sea, and
then only with a reel and fine tackle from
the rocks, which is at least as interesting an
amusement as that of the Cockney fishermen,
who fish for roach and dace in the Thames,
which I have tried twice in my life, but shall
never try again.

Phys. — You are severe on Cockney fisher-

ANGLING. 277

men, and, I suppose, would apply to them
only, the observation of Dr. Johnson, which
on a former occasion you would not allow to
be just: " Angling is an amusement with a
stick and a string ; a worm at one end, and a
fool at the other." And to yourself you would
apply it with this change : " A fly at one end,
and a philosopher at the other." Yet the
pleasure of the Cockney Angler appears to me
of much the same kind, and perhaps more con-
tinuous than yours ; and he has the happiness
of constant occupation and perpetual pursuit
in as high a degree as you have ; and if we
were to look at the real foundations of your
pleasure, we should find them, like most of
the foundations of human happiness — vanity
or folly. I shall never forget the impression
made upon me some years ago, when I was
standing on the pier at Donegal, watching the
flowing of the tide : I saw a lame boy of four-
teen or fifteen years old very slightly clad,
that some persons were attempting to stop in
his progress along the pier ; but he resisted
them with his crutches, and, halting along,
threw himself from an elevation of five or six
T 3

278 SALMONIA.

feet, with his crutches, and a little parcel of
wooden boats, that he carried under his arm,
on the sand of the beach. He had to scramble
or halt at least 100 yards, over hard rocks,
before he reached the water, and he several
times fell down and cut his naked limbs on
the bare stones. Being in the water, he
seemed in an ecstasy, and immediately put
his boats in sailing order, and was perfectly
inattentive to the counsel and warning of the
spectators, who shouted to him, that he would
be drowned. His whole attention was ab-
sorbed by his boats. He had formed an idea,
that one should outsail the rest, and when
this boat was foremost he was in delight ; but
if any one of the others got beyond it he
howled with grief; and once I saw him throw
his crutch at one of the unfavoured boats.
The tide came in rapidly — he lost his
crutches, and would have been drowned, but
for the care of some of the spectators : he was
however wholly inattentive to any thing save
his boats. He is said to be quite insane and
perfectly ungovernable, and will not live in a
house, or wear any clothes, and his whole
life is spent in this one business — making

AMUSEMENTS. 279

and managing a fleet of wooden boats, of
which he is sole admiral. How near this mad
youth is to a genius, a hero, or to an angler,
who injures his health and risks his life by
2oin<r into the water as hifrh as his middle,

DO O

in the hope of catching a fish which he sees
rise, though he already has a pannier full.

Hal. — Or a statesman, working by all
means, fair and foul, to obtain a blue riband.
Or a fox-hunter, risking his neck to see the
hounds destroy an jtnimal, which he preserves
to be destroyed, and which is good for no-
thing. Or an aged, licentious voluptuary,
using all the powers of a high and cultivated
intellect to destroy the innocence of a beauti-
ful virgin — for a transient gratification to
render her miserable, and by making a flaw
in an inestimable and brilliant gem, utterly to
destroy its value.

Phys. — You might go on and cite almost
all the objects of pursuit of rational beings,
as, by distinction, they are called. But to
return to your favourite amusement. I won-
der, that, with such a passion for angling,
you have never made an expedition in one of

T 4}

280 SALMONIA.

our whalers — with Captain Scoresby for in-
stance: you would then have enjoyed sport
of a new kind.

Hal. — I should like much to see a whale
taken, but I do not think the sight worth the
dangers and privations of such a voyage. It
would only be an amusing spectacle and not
an enterprise, unless indeed I employed my-
self the harpoon ; and after all it must be a
tedious operation, that of watching the sink-
ing and rising of a fish obedient to a natural
instinct, which, in this instance, is the cause
of his death.

PoiET, — How?

Hal. — The whale, having no air bladder,
can sink to the lowest depths of the ocean,
and, mistaking the harpoon for the teeth of a
sword fish or a shark, he instantly descends,
this beino^ his manner of freeinor himself from
these enemies who cannot bear the pressure
of a deep ocean, and from ascending and de-
scending in small space, he puts himself in the
power of the whaler ; whereas, if he knew his
force, and were to swim on the surface in a
straight line, he would break or destroy the

SEA SERPENT — KRAKEN. 281

machinery by which he is arrested, as easily
as a sahnon breaks the single gut of a fisher
when his reel is entangled.

PoiET. — My amusement in such a voyage
would be to look for the kraken and the sea
snake.

Hal. — You have a vivid imagination, and
might see them.

PoiET. — Then you do not believe in the
existence of these wonderful animals ?

Hal. — No more than I do in that of the
merman, or mermaid.

PoiET. — Yet we have histories, which
seem authentic, of the appearance of these
monsters, and there are not wanting persons
who assert, that they have seen the mermaid
even in these islands.

Hal. — I disbeheve the authenticity of these
stories. I do not mean to deny the existence
of large marine animals having analogies to
the serpent ; the conger we know is such an
animal : I have seen one nearly ten feet long,
and there may be longer ones, but such ani-
mals do not come to the surface. The only
sea snake, that has been examined by na-

282 SALMONIA.

turalists, turned out to be a putrid species of
shark — the squdlus maximiis. Yet all the
newspapers gave accounts of this ns a real
animal, and endowed it with feet, which do
not belong to serpents. And the sea snakes,
seen by American and Norwegian captains,
have, I think, generally been a company of
porpoises, the rising and sinking of which in
lines would give somewhat the appearance of
the coils of a snake. The kraken, or island
fish, is still more imaginary. I have myself
seen immense numbers of enormous urticce
marina, or blubbers, in the north seas, and in
some of the Norwegian ^or^5, or inland bays,
and often these beautiful creatures give colour
to the water ; but it is exceedingly improba-
ble, that an animal of this genus should ever
be of the size, even of the whale; its soft
materials are little fitted for locomotion, and
would be easily destroyed by every kind of
fish. Hands and a finny tail are entirely
contrary to the analogy of nature, and I
disbelieve the mermaid upon philosophical
principles. The dugdng and manatee are the
only animals combining the functions of the

MERMAID. 288

mammalia with some of the characters of
fishes that can be imagined, even as a hnk,
in this part of the order of nature. Many of
these stories have been founded upon the long-
haired seal seen at a distance, others on the
appearance of the connnon seal under par-
ticular circumstances of light and shade, and
some on still more singular circumstances.
A worthy baronet, remarkable for his bene-
volent views and active spirit, has propagated
a story of this kind, and he seems to claim
for his native country the honour of possessing
this extraordinary animal : but the mermaid
of Caithness was certainly a gentleman^ who
happened to be travelling on that wild shore,
and who was seen bathing by some young
ladies at so great a distance, that not only
semis but slender was mistaken. I am ac-
quainted with him, and have had the story
from his own mouth. He is a young man,
fond of geological pursuits, and one day in
the middle of August, having fatigued and
heated himself by climbing a rock to examine
a particular appearance of granite, he gave
his clothes to his Highland guide, who was

284 SALMONIA.

taking care of his pony, and descended to the
sea. The sun was just setting, and he amused
himself for some time by swimming from rock
to rock, and having unchpped hair and no
cap, he sometimes threw aside his locks, and
wrunff the water from them on the rocks. He
happened the year after to be at Harrowgate,
and was sitting at table with two young ladies
from Caithness, who were relating to a won-
dering audience the story of the mermaid they
had seen, which had already been published
in the newspapers : they described her, as she
usually is described by poets, as a beautiful
animal, with remarkably fair skin, and long
green hair. The young gentleman took the
liberty, as most of the rest of the company
did, to put a few questions to the elder of the
two ladies — such as, on what day and pre-
cisely where this singular phenomenon had
appeared. She had noted down, not merely
the day, but the hour and minute, and pro-
duced a map of the place. Our bather refer-
red to his journal, and showed, that a human
animal was swimming in the very spot at that
very time, who had some of the characters

MERMAID. 285

ascribed to the mermaid, but who laid no
claim to others, particularly the green hair
and fish's tail ; but being rather sallow in the
face, was glad to have such testimony to the
colour of his body beneath his garments.

PoiET. — But I do not understand upon
what philosophical principles you deny the
existence of the mermaid. We are not ne-
cessarily acquainted with all the animals that
inhabit the bottom of the sea ; and I cannot
help thinking there must have been some
foundation for the fable of the Tritons and
Nereids.

Hal. — Ay ; and of the ocean divinities^,
Neptune and Amphitrite!

PoiET. — Now I think you are prejudiced,

Hal. — I remember the worthy baronet,
whom I just now mentioned, on some one
praising the late Sir Joseph Banks very highly,
said, " Sir Joseph was an excellent man —
but he had his prejudices." — " What were
they?" said my friend. — "Why, he did
not believe in the mermaid." Pray still con-
sider me as the baronet did Sir Joseph —
prejudiced on this subject.

286 SALMONIA.

Orn. — But give us some reasons for the
impossibility of the existence of this animal.

Hal. — Nay, I did not say impossibility;
I am too much of the school of Izaac Walton
to talk of impossibility. It doubtless might
please God to make a mermaid ; but I do not
believe God ever did make one.

Orn. — And why ?

Hal. — Because wisdom and order are
found in all his works, and die parts of ani-
mals are always in harmony with each other,
and always adapted to certain ends consistent
with the analogy of nature; and a human
head, human hands, and human mammae, are
wholly inconsistent with a fish's tail. The
human head is adapted for an erect posture,
and in such a posture an animal with a fish's
tail could not swim ; and a creature with lungs
must be on the surface several times in a day
— and the sea is an inconvenient breathing
place ; and hands are instruments of manu-
facture— and the depths of the ocean are
little fitted for fabricating that mirror which
our old prints gave to the mermaid. Such
an animal, if created, could not long exist ;

MERMAID. 287

and, with scarcely any locomotive powers,
would be the prey of other fishes, formed in
a manner more suited to their element. I
have seen a most absurd fabrication of a
mermaid, exposed as a show in London, said
to have been found in the Chinese seas, and
bought for a large sum of money. The
head and bust of two different apes were
fastened to the lower part of a kipper salmon,
which had the fleshy fin, and all the distinct
characters of the salmo salar.

OiiN. — And yet there were people who
believed this to be a real animal.

Hal. — It was insisted on, to prove the
truth of the Caithness story. But what is
there which people will not believe?

PoiET. — In listening to your conversation
we have forgotten our angling, and have lost
some moments of fine cloudy weather.

Hal. — I thought you were tired of catching
trouts and graylings, and I therefore did not
urge you to continue your fly fishing; and
this part of the river does not contain so many
grayling as the pools above — but there are
good trout, and it is possible there may be

288 SALMONIA.

huchos. Let me recommend to you to put on
minnow tackle — that tackle with the five small
hooks; and, as we have minnows and bleaks,
you may perhaps hook trout, or even huchos ;
and in half an hour our fish dinner at the inn
will be ready. I shall return there, to see
that all is right, and shall expect you when
you have finished your fishing.

\TJiey all meet in the dining-room of the inn.'\

Hal. — Well, what sort of sport have you
had since I left you ?

PoiET. — We have each caught a trout and
two large chubs, and have had two or three
runs besides — but we saw no huchos ; and
though several large grayling rose in one of
the streams, and we tried to catch them by
spinning the minnow in every possible way,
yet they took no notice of our bait.

Hal. — This is usually the case. I have
heard of anglers who have taken grayling with
minnows, but it is a rare occurrence, and
never happened to me. Your dinner, I dare
say, is now ready ; and you know it is a dinner

AUSTRIAN METHOD OF CONVEYING FISH. 289

entirely of the gemis salmo, with vegetables
and fruit. You have hucho from the Traun,
and char from Aussee, and trout from the
Traun See, that were brought alive to the
inn, and have only just been killed and
crimped, and are now boiling in salt and
water; and you have likewise grayling and
laverets from the Traun See, which are
equally fresh, and will be fried.

Phys. — I think, in this part of the conti-
nent, the art of carrying and keeping fish is
better understood than in England. Every inn
has a box containing grayling, trout, carp, or
char, into which water from a spring runs ;
and no one thinks of carrying or sending
dead fish for a dinner. A fish barrel full of
cool water, which is replenished at every
fresh source amongst these mountains, is
carried on the shoulders of the fisherman.
And the fish, when confined in wells, are fed
with bullock's liver cut into fine pieces, so
that they are often in better season in the tank
or stew than when they were taken. I have
seen trout, grayling, and char even, feed
voraciously, and take their food almost from
u

290 SALMONIA.

the hand. These methods of carrying and
preserving fish have, I believe, been adopted
from the monastic establishments. At Ad-
mondt, in Styria, attached to the magnificent
monastery of that name, are abundant ponds
and reservoirs for every species of fresh-water
fish ; and the char, grayling, and trout are
preserved in different waters — covered, en-
closed, and under lock and key.

PoiET. — I admire in this country not only
the mode of preserving, carrying, and dress-
ing fish, but I am delighted generally with
the habits of hfe . of the peasants, and with
their manners. It is a country in which I
should like to live; the scenery is so beauti-
ful, the people so amiable and good-na-
tured, and their attentions to strangers so
marked by courtesy and disinterestedness.

Phys. — They appear to me very amiable
and good ; but all classes seem to be little in-
structed.

PoiET. — There are few philosophers
amongst them, certainly; but they appear
very happy, and

Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

EDUCATION. 291

We have neither seen nor heard of any in-
stances of crime since we have been here.
They fear their God, love their sovereign, are
obedient to the laws, and seem perfectly con-
tented. I know you would contrast them
with the active and educated peasantry of the
manufacturing districts of England; but I
believe they are much happier, and I am
sure they are generally better.

Phys. — I doubt this : the sphere of enjoy-
ment, as well as of benevolence, is enlarged
by education. .

PoiET. — I am sorry to say I think the sys-
tem carried too far in England. God forbid,
that any useful light should be extinguished !
Let persons who wish for education receive
it; but it appears to me, that, in the great
cities in England, it is, as it were, forced
upon the population; and that sciences,
which the lower classes can only very super-
ficially acquire, are presented to them; in
consequence of which they often become
idle and conceited, and above their usual
laborious occupations. The unripe fruit of
the tree of knowledge is, I believe, always,
u 2

292 SALMONIA.

bitter or sour; and scepticism and discon-
tent — sicknesses of the mind — are often
the results of devouring it.

Hal. — Surely you cannot have a more re-
ligious, more moral, or more improved popu-
lation than that of Scotland ?

PoiET. — Precisely so. In Scotland, edu-
cation is not forced upon the people — it is
sought for, and it is connected with their
forms of faith, acquired in the bosoms of their
families, and generally pursued with a distinct
object of prudence or interest: nor is that
kind of education wanting in this country.

Phys. — Where a book is rarely seen, a
newspaper never.

PoiET. — Pardon me, — there is not a cot-
tage without a prayer-book; and I am not
sorry that these innocent and happy men are
not made active and tumultuous subjects
of King Press, whom I consider as the
most capricious, depraved, and unprincipled
tyrant, that ever existed in England. De-
praved— for it is to be bought by great
w ealth ; capricious — because it sometimes
follows, and sometimes forms, the voice of
the lowest mob; and unprincipled — because,

THE PRESS. 293

when its interests are concerned, it sets at
defiance private feeling and private charac-
ter, and neither regards their virtue, dignity,
nor purity.

Hal. — My friends, you are growing warm.
I know you differ essentially on this subject;
but surely you will allow that the full liberty
of the press, even though it sometimes de-
generates into licentiousness, and though it
may sometimes be improperly used by the in-
fluence of wealth, power, or private favour, is
yet highly advantageous, and even essential to
the existence of a free country; and, useful as
it may be to the population, it is still more
useful to the government, to whom, as ex-
pressing the voice of the people, though not
always vox Dei, it may be regarded as oracular
or prophetic. — But let us change our con-
versation, which is neither in time nor place.

PoiET. — This river must be inexhaustible
for sport : I have nowhere seen so many fish.

Hal. — However full a river may be of trout

and grayling, there is a certain limit to the

sport of the angler, if continuous fishing be

adopted in the same pools. Every fish is in its

u 3

294 SALMONIA.

turn made acquainted by diurnal habit with
the artificial fly, and either taken or rendered
cautious ; so that, in a river fished much by
one or two good anglers, many fish cannot be
caught, except under peculiar circumstances of
very windy, rainy, or cloudy weather, when
many flies come on ; or at night, or at the time
the water is slightly coloured by a flood, or
when fish change their haunts in consequence
of a great inundation. In the Usk, in Mon-
mouthshire, when it was very full of fish in
the best fishing time, when the spring brown
and dun flies we.re on the water, it was not
usual for some excellent anglers, who composed
a party of nine, and who fished in this river
for ten continuous days, to catch more than
two or three fish each person. But one day,
when the water was coloured by a flood, in
which case the artificial fly could not be dis-
tinguished by the fish from the natural fly, I
caught twelve or fourteen of the same fish, that
had been in the habit of refusing my flies for
many days successively. This was in the end
of March, 1809, when the flies always came on
the water with great regularity ; the blues in
dark days, the browns in bright days, between

EFFECT OF CONTINUOUS FISHING. 295

twelve and two o'clock in the middle of the
day. In rivers where the artificial fly has
never been used, I believe all the fish will mis-
take good imitations for natural flies, and in
their turn, to use an angler's phrase, " taste
the steel;" but even very imperfect imitations
and coarse tackle, which are only successful
at night or in turbid water, are sufficient to
render fish cautious. This I am convinced of,
by observing the difference of the habits offish
in strictly preserved streams, and in streams
where even peasants have fished with the
coarsest tackle. I might quote the Traun at
Ischl, where the native fishermen used three
or four of the coarsest flies on the coarsest
hair links, made of four or five or six hairs,
and the Traun at Gmiinden, where they are
not allowed to fish. The fish that rose took
with much more certainty at Gmiinden than
at Ischl.

At a time when many flies are on, par-
ticularly large ones, a few days of continuous
fishing, even with a single rod, will soon make
the sport indifferent in the best rivers ; but
the larger and the deeper the river the longer
u 4?

296 SALMONIA.

it continues, because fish change their stations
occasionally, and pricked fish sometimes leave
their haunts, which are occupied by others ;
and graylings are more disposed to change
their places than trouts.

As instances of the difference in this respect
between large and small rivers, I may quote
the Vockla and the Agger in Upper Austria.
The first of these rivers, when I fished in it
in 1818, was full of trout and grayling, and I
believe I was the first person, for at least many
years, that had ever thrown an artificial fly
upon it. It is a small stream, from eight to
fifteen yards wide, and can every where be
commanded by the double-handed rod, and is
generally shallow. The first day that I fished
in this stream, which was in the beginning of
August, at every throw I hooked a fish, and
I took out and restored again to their element
in the course of a few hours more than one
hundred and fifty trout and grayling. The
next day I fished in the same places, but with
a very different result : I caught only half a
dozen large fish : the third morning, going
over the same ground, I had great difficulty

DIFFERENCE OF RIVERS. 297

even to get a brace of fish for my dinner, and
those, as well as I recollect, I caught by throw-
ing in places which had not been fished before.
I ought to mention, that the space of water
where this experiment was made did not
exceed half a mile in length. I shall now
speak of the Agger, which is a much larger
and deeper river than the Vockla, and can-
not be commanded in any part by a double-
handed rod, being at least from forty to sixty
yards across. The first time I fished this
river, 1 had the same kind of sport as in the
Vockla; the second day, under the same fa-
vourable circumstances, there were fewer rises
than on the first day, but still sufficient to give
good sport ; and it was the fourth day before
it became difficult to catch a good dish of fish,
and necessary to seek new water. The greater
depth of the water, and the change of place of
the fish, particularly the grayling, explain this,
to say nothing of the greater number of fish
which the larger river contained. I am, of
course, speaking of one of the best periods of
fly-fishing, when many large flies, of which
imitations are easily found, have been on the

298 SALMONIA.

Water. In spring (a bad season for fly-fishing
in high Alpine countries) I have thrown great
varieties of flies on these two highly stocked
streams, and have found it difficult to get a
brace of fish for the table, as the trout and
grayling were all lying at the bottom, not ex-
pecting any ^winged food at this season.

A river that runs into a large lake affords,
at its junction with the lake, by far the best
place for continuous angling, particularly for
trout in autumn. The fish are constantly
running up the river for the purpose of spawn-
ing, and every day offers a succession of new
shoals, of which many will take the fly ; I say
many, because at this season some of the fish,
particularly the females, are capricious, and re-
refuse a bait, of which, under other circum-
stances, they are greedy. I may say the same
with respect to the exit of a river from a lake,
to which successions of fishes resort, and
though trout are found abundantly in such
places, yet they are often still better places
for grayling when these fish exist in the lake,
the tendency of grayling being rather, as I
said on another occasion, to descend than to

ANGLING FOR FROGS. 299

ascend waters, whilst that of the trout is the
contrary. The same principles apply to
salmon and sea-trout fishing, which run up
rivers from basins of the sea : the best situa-
tions for continuous angling, are those parts
of the river where there is a succession of
fishes from the tide.

PoiET. — You spoke just now of peasants
fishing with the fly in Austria : I thought this
art was entirely English ; and though 1 have
travelled much, I do not recollect ever to have
seen fly-fishing practised by native anglers
abroad.

Hal. — I assure you there are fishers with
the artificial fly in different parts of Switzer-
land, Germany, and Illyria, though always
with rude tackle, and usually upon rapid
streams. Besides the Traun I can mention
the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Drave, as rivers
where I have seen fish caught with rude imi-
tations of flies used by native anglers. In
Italy, where trout and grayling are very
rare, and only found amongst the highest
mountain chains, I have never seen any fly-
fishers, but near Ravenna I have sometimes
seen anglers for frogs, who threw their bait

300 SALMONIA,

exactly as we throw a fly, and caught great
numbers of these animals : and the nature of
their apparatus surprised me more than their
method of using it. Instead of a hook and
bait they employed a small dry frog, tied to a
long piece of twine, the fore-legs of which pro-
jected like two hooks, and this they threw at
a distance, by means of a long rod. The
frogs rose like fish and gorged the small dry
frog, by the legs of which they were pulled out
of the water. I was informed by one of these
fishermen, that he sometimes took 200 frogs
in this way in a morning, and that the frogs
never swallowed any bait when still or appa-
rently dead, but caught at whatever was
moving or appeared alive on the surface of
the water; so that this amphibia feeds like
a nobler animal, the eagle, only on living
prey.

PoiET. — You say trout are rare in Italy, yet
on Ash- Wednesday, a great day for the con-
sumption offish in Rome, I remember to have
seen some large trout, which, I was told, were
from the Velino, above the Falls of Terni.

Hal. — I once went almost to the source
of this river, above Rieti, in the hopes of

WATER OUZEL. 301

catching trout, but I was unsuccessful. I saw
some taken by nets, but the fish were too few,
and the river too foul, from the deposition of
calcareous matter, to render it a good stream
for the angler. In this journey I saw some
trout in brooks in the Sabine country, that I
dare say might have been taken by the fly,
but they were small, and like the brook trout
of England. In these streams, as well as in
the Velino and other torrents, I found the
water-ouzel, which, as far as my knowledge
extends, is always a companion of the trout,
and I believe feeds much upon the same
larvae of water-flies.

Orn. — These singular little birds, as I have
witnessed, walk under water. I have often
watched them running beneath the surface of
the sides of streams, and passing between
stones. I conclude they were then in the act
of searching for, or feeding upon, larvae.

Hal. — I suppose so; and I hope Ornither
will shoot one to give us an opportunity of
examining the contents of their stomachs, and
of knowing with certainty the nature of their
food.

302 . SALMONIA.

Phys. — The char* is a most beautiful and
excellent fish, and is, of course, a fish of prey.
Is he not an object of sport to the angler ?

Hal. — They generally haunt deep cool
lakes, and are seldom found at the surface till
late in the autumn. When they are at the
surface, however, they will take either fly or
minnow. I have known some caught in both
these ways ; and have myself taken a char,
even in summer, in one of those beautiful,
small, deep lakes in the Upper Tyrol, near
Nazereit; but it was where a cool stream
entered from the mountain ; and the fish did
not rise, but swallowed the artificial fly under
water. The char is always in its colour a very
brilliant fish, but in different countries there
are many varieties in the tint. I do not re-
member ever to have seen more beautiful fish
than those of Aussee, which, when in perfect
season, have the lower fins and the belly of
the brightest vermilion, with a white line on
the outside of the pectoral, ventral, anal, and
lower part of the caudal fin, and with vermilion

* Salmling of the Germans.

UMBLA.

303

spots, surrounded by the bright olive shade of
the sides and back : the dorsal fin in the char
has 11 spines, the pectoral 14, the ventral 9,
the anal 10, and the caudal 20. I have fished
for them in many lakes, without success, both
in England and Scotland, and also amongst
the Alps ; and I am told the only sure way
of taking them is by sinking a line with a
bullet, and a hook having a live minnow at-
tached to it, in the deep water which they
usually haunt; and in this way, likewise, I
have no doubt the umbla, or ombre chevalier,
might be taken.

304? SAEMONIA.

PoiET. — I have never happened to see
this fish.

Hal. — It is very like a char in form, but is
without spots, and has a white and silvery
belly. On the table, its flesh cuts white or
cream-colour, and it is exceedingly like char
in flavour. Feb. 11.1827, one was brought me
from the lake of Bourget, in Savoy; it was said
to be small for this fish; it was 15 inches long,
and 7^ in circumference. In the dorsal fin
there were 12 spines, in the pectoral 9, in the
ventral 8, in the anal 11, and in the caudal 24.

PoiET. — Is it found in this country ?

Hal. — From some descriptions I have
heard of certain species of the salmo found in
the Maun See, Traun See, and Leopoldstadt
See, I think it is. Bloch says, that it is pecu-
liar to the lakes of Geneva and Neufchatel ;
but what I have just said must convince you
of the inaccuracy of this statement, as I dare
say the fish exists in other deep waters of a
like character amongst the Alps. It is a fish
closely allied to the char, and congenerous
both in form and habits.

LAVERET. 305

Phys. — You mentioned, among the fish
for dinner, the laveret : I never heard of this
fish before.

Hal. — It is a fish known in England by
the name oi shelley^ or fresh water herring; in
Wales, by that oi guinead ; in Ireland, by that
oi'pollan ; and in Scotland, by that of vengis.
In colour it is most like a grayling, but with
broader and larger scales : it is common in the
large lakes of most Alpine countries, and is
known at Geneva by the name oi ferra ; and
I believe that the salmo cerideus, or wariman7i
of Bloch, or the gang-fiscli of the Lake of
Constance, from a comparison that I made of
it wdth they^/T«, is a variety of the same fish.
It sometimes is as large as 2 lbs. ; and when
quite fresh, and well fried or broiled, is an
exceedingly good fish, and calvers like a
grayling. The laveret of different lakes has
appeared to me to vary in the number of the
spines in the fins. One, brought me from
the lake of Zurich, 13 inches long and 8
inches in girth, had 12 spines in the dorsal
fin, 15 in tlie pectoral fins, 11 in the ventral,
13 in the anal, and 18 in the caudal. The

X

306 SALMONIA.

gang-fisch, from the Lake of Constance, which
was of a bluer colour, but, I think decidedly,
only a variety of the same fish, was 7| inches
long and 4 in girth, had 12 spines in the
dorsal fin, 1 5 in the pectoral, 1 1 in the ventral,
12 in the anal, and 18 in the caudal. A la-
veret, from the Traun See, had 1 2 spines in
the dorsal fin, 17 in the pectoral, 13 in the
ventral fin, 12 in the anal fin, and 24 in the
caudal fin. One from the Hallstadt See was
a larger and broader fish, but did not differ
from the laveret of the Traun See, except in
having two spines less in the tail.

PoiET. — Is this fish ever taken with the
line?

Hal. — I believe only with nets. It feeds
on vegetables ; and in the stomachs of those
1 have opened, I have never found either flies
or small fishes.

AT TABLE.

OiiN. — Now the hucho is dressed, and on
the same table with other species of the salmo,
I perceive his peculiarities more distinctly;
and, in addition to those you have mentioned.

ORGANIZATION OF THE HUCHO. 307

he appears to me to have a stronger upper
jawj and a larger projection of bone below
the orbit of the eye.

Hal. — He has ; and you will find a similar
character in the pike and perch, and, I be-
lieve, in most fishes of prey ; and the use of it
seems to be, to strengthen the fulcrum of the
lever on which the lower jaw moves, so as to
afford the means of greater strength to the
whole muscular apparatus, by means of which
the fish seizes his prey.

PoiET. — These fishes, then, are analogous
to the predatory animals of the feline genus,
which have this part of the head exceedingly
strong; and it is here that the craniologists or
phrenologists fix the organ of courage : does
not this extensive chain of analogies offer an
argument in favour of this long agitated and
generally unpopular doctrine ?

Phys. — In my opinion, it offers, like most
of the facts which have been brought forward
to prove the truths of the view of Gall and
Spurzheim, an argument rather unfavourable,
when thoroughly and minutely examined.
X 2

308 SALMONIA.

POIET. How ?

Phys. — In these rapacious and predatory
animals, the organization of the head must be
connected with the functions of the jaws, as
the construction of the shoulder-blade must
be related to the use of the fore-leg, which,
being intended to strike and seize by talons,
must have a powerful support and a strong
bony apparatus in the shoulder, which might
as well be called the organ of courage as the
projection below the frontal bone : but these
animals have no more of what is called courage
in man, than they have what is called reason :
they face danger when they are hungry, but
almost always fly when their appetite is satis-
fied : a hen, in defending her chickens against
a powerful dog, or the game cock, in fighting
for the female, or the timid stag, at the time of
the sexual intercourse, shows quite as much of
this quality as the most ferocious royal tiger.
Courage is the result of strong passions or
strong motives ; and in man it usually results
from the love of glory or the fear of shame ;
and it appears to me a perfectly absurd idea,

CRANIOLOLOGY. 309

that of connecting it with an organ, which is
merely intended to assist the predatory habits
and the mastication of a carnivorous animal.
Hal. — I agree with Physicus in this view
of the subject. I once heard a physiologist of
some reputation deducing an argument in fa-
vour of craniology from the form of the skull
of the beaver, which he called a constructive
animal, and contended, that there was some-
thing of the same character in the skulls of
distinguished architects ; now^, the skull of the
beaver is so formed, that he is able to use his
jaws for cutting down the trees with which
he makes his dam ; and if this analogy were
correct, the architect ought unquestionably to
employ his teeth for the same purpose; and
though I have known distinguished men, who
have been in the habit of using knives for
cutting furniture with a sort of nervous rest-
lessness of hand, I do not recollect to have
heard of the teeth being employed in the same
way ; and I think it would be quite as correct,
to find the architectural or constructive organ
in the opposite part of the body, the tail, as
X 3

310 SALMONIA.

the beaver makes a more ingenious use of this
part than even of his mouth. Pray, have you
ever observed, Poietes, any particular pro-
tuberance in the nether parts of any of our
distinguished architects ?

PoiET. — I am not a craniologist ; but I
would have the doctrine overturned by facts,
and not by ridicule ; and I have certainly seen
some remarkable instances, which were fa-
vourable to the system.

Hal. — My experience is entirely on the
opposite side; and I once saw a distinguished
craniologist in error on a point, which he con-
sidered as the most decided. He was shown
two children, one of whom was possessed of
great mathematical acquirements, the other
of extraordinary musical taste. With the ut-
most confidence he pronounced judgment, and
was mistaken. It appeared to me, that, whilst
he was examining the two heads, he hummed
an air, which, being out of tune, was not re-
sponded to by the musical child ; but some-
how struck the fancy of the mathematical
one.

FAT AND FLESH OF THE HUCHO. 311

Orn. — This hucho is a very good fish, and,
indeed, I can praise all the varieties of the
salmo on the table that I have yet tasted.

Phys. — Amongst them, I prefer the char,
which, I til ink, is even better than the best
fresh salmon I ever tasted.

PoiET. — This char is surprisingly red and
full of curd ; I wonder at its fat ; it comes from
the Griindtl See, which is a high Alpine lake,
covered with ice more than half the year:
what food can the fish find in so pure and
cold a water ?

Hal. — Minnows and small chubs are found
in this lake; and the flies which haunt it in
summer have been aquatic larvae in the au-
tumn, winter, and spring; and there are
usually great quantities of small shell fish,
which live in the deeper parts of this water ;
so that char may find food even in winter ;
and cold, or the repose to which it leads,
seems favourable to the developement or con-
servation of fat. Most of the polar animals
(the whale, morse, seal, and white bear, for
instance) are loaded with this substance ; and
the salmon of the Arctic Ocean are remark-
X 4

312 SALMONIA.

able for their quantity of curd : those that run
up the rivers in Russia from the White Sea
are said to be fatter and better, than those
caught in the streams which run into the
Baltic.

Orn. — I agree with Physicus in his praise
of the char : w^e are indebted to you for an
excellent entertainment.

Hal. — At Lintz, on the Danube, I could
have given you a fish dinner of a different
description, w^hich you might have liked as a
variety. The four kinds of perch, the spiegel
carpfen^ and the siluris glanis ; all good fish,
and which I am sorry we have not in Eng-
land, where I doubt not they might be easily
naturalized, and they would form an admir-
able addition to the table in inland counties.
Since England has become Protestant, the
cultivation of fresh water fish has been much
neglected. The burbot, or lotte, which al-
ready exists in some of the streams tributary
to the Trent, and which is a most admirable
fish, might be diffused without much difficulty;
and nothing could be more easy than to na-
turalize the spiegel carpfen and siluris ; and

NATURALIZATION OF FISH. 313

I see no reason why the jperca lucioperca and
zingel should not succeed in some of our clear
lakes and ponds, which abound in coarse fish.
The new Zoological Society, I hope, will at-
tempt something of this kind; and it will be
a better object than introducing birds and
beasts of prey — though I have no objection
to any sources of rational amusement or phi-
losophical curiosity.

PoiET. — A fish dinner such as you have
just described, combined with one such as
we have enjoyed to-day, might, I think, be
made an interesting experimental lecture on
natural history. The analogies of the differ-
ent species and genera of fishes, so distinct in
the form of their organs, are likewise marked
in the appearance and taste of their flesh.
The salmon and the char may be regarded as
the generic types of the salmo. By trout,
which have sometimes red and sometimes
white flesh, they are connected with the gray-
ling and hucho. By the grayling the trout is
connected with the laveret, and by the laveret
the genus salmo is connected w^ith the carp
genus. The char is immediately connected

314- SALMONIA.

with the grayling, and laveret by the umbla.
By the sea trout the salmon is connected with
the trout ; and by the hucho, with the pike
and perch families.

Hal. — We will arrange a dinner of this
kind in England, and by means of it follow
the analogies of salt and fresh water fishes.
But the time for our parting is almost arrived.
— Let us drink a glass each of this old wine
of the Danube to our next happy meeting, and
go and take a last look of the Fall of Traun,
whilst our carriages are preparing.

\They walk to the rock above the Fall of
the Traun.']

Hal. — See, the cataract is now in great
beauty ; the river above is coloured by the
setting sun, and the glow of the rosy light on
the upper stream is beautifully and wonder-
fully contrasted with the tint of the cataract
below. Have you ever seen any thing so fine ?

PoiET. — The lights are beautiful : but I
have certainly seen a finer combination of fea-
tures in the Fall of the Velino, atTerni, though
that water is not clear ; but, even with this

THE TRAUN. 315

defect, it is certainly the most perfect of Eu-
ropean falls. This cascade of the Traun,
though not so elevated as that of Terni, and
not so large as that of Schaffhausen, yet,
from its perfect clearness, and the harmony
of the surrounding objects, ranks high, as to
picturesque effect, amongst the waterfalls of
Europe ; and the wonderful transparency of
its pale green water gives it a peculiar charm
in my eyes, enhanced as it is now by the
light of the glowing western sky ; and the
tints of the quadrant iris on its spray are not
brighter than those of its stream and foam.

Orn. — We have now followed this water
at least thirty miles, and wherever we have
seen it, it has always displayed the same cha-
racters of clearness and rapidity — of green
stream and white foam ; and we have traced
it from the snowy mountains of Styria to the
plains of Upper Austria, where it serves to
purify the darker Danube. How is it, that,
it has preserved its transparency, though so
many of its tributary streams have been foul,
either from the thunder storm, or from the
sudden melting of snows ?

Hal. — The three small lakes and the two

316 SALMONIA.

larger ones, which are in fact its reservoirs,
are the cause of this. The Grlindtl See fur-
nishes its principal stream, and this lake is
fed by two others — Tbplitz See and Lahngen
See; and the tributary streams which unite
at Aussee, from AUen Aussee and Oden See,
though one is blue and the other yellow, yet
combine to give a tint, which is nearly the
same as that from the stream of the Grlindtl
See, and which the river retains throughout
its course. Yet I have seen even this river
very foul, but only in a part of its course,
below Ischel. I was once at that place,
when the thunder storm of a night having
washed the dust of the roads into the river,
it was extremely turbid from Ischel to the
Traun See. It rendered the upper part of
this large lake coloured ; but, notwithstand-
ing this, the river came from the lower part
of it perfectly clear, and I caught fish in it
there with a fly, which at its entrance into
the lake was quite impossible.

PoiET. — You, Halieus, must certainly
have considered the causes which produce
the colours of water. The streams of our
own island are of a very different colour from

COLOUR OF WATER. 317

these mountain rivers, and why should the
same element or substance assume such a
variety of tints ?

Hal. — I certainly have often thought
upon the subject, and have made some ob-
servations and one experiment in relation to
it. I will give you my opinion with pleasure,
and, as far as I know, they have not been
brought forward in any of the works on the
properties of water, or on its consideration
as a chemical element. The purest water with
which we are acquainted is undoubtedly that
which falls from the atmosphere. Having
touched air alone, it can contain nothing but
what it gains from the atmosphere, and it is
distilled without the chance of those impurities
which may exist in the vessels used in an
artificial operation. We cannot well examine
the water precipitated from the atmosphere,
as rain, without collecting it in vessels, and
all artificial contact gives more or less of
contamination; but in snow, melted by the
sunbeams, that has fallen on glaciers, them-
selves formed from frozen snow, water may
be regarded as in its state of greatest purity

318 SALMON I A.

Congelation expels both salts and air from
water, whether existing below, or formed in,
the atmosphere ; and in the high and unin-
habited regions of glaciers, there can scarcely
be any substances to contaminate. Removed
from animal and vegetable life, they are
even above the mineral kingdom ; and though
there are instances in which the rudest kind
of vegetation (of the fungus or mucor kind)
is even found upon snows, yet this is a rare
occurrence; and red snow, which is occa-
sioned by it, is an extraordinary and not a
common phenomenon towards the pole, and
on the highest mountains of the globe.
Having examined the water formed from
melted snows on glaciers in different parts of
the Alps, and having always found it of the
same quality, I shall consider it as pure
water, and describe its characters. Its colour,
when it has any depth, or when a mass of it
is seen through, is bright blue ; and, accord-
ing to its greater or less depth of substance,
it has more or less of this colour : as its in-
sipidity, and its other physical qualities, are
not at this moment objects of your enquiry,

COLOUR OF WATER. 319

I shall not dwell upon them. In general, in
examining lakes and masses of water in high
mountains, their colour is of the same bright
azure. And Captain Parry states, that the
water on the Polar ice has the like beautiful
tint. When vegetables grow in lakes, the
colour becomes nearer sea green ; and as the
quantity of impregnation from their decay
increases — greener, yellowish green ; and at
length, when the vegetable extract is large
in quantity — as in countries where peat is
found — yellow, and even brow^n. To men-
tion instances, the Lake of Geneva, fed from
sources (particularly the higher Rhone)
formed from melting snow, is blue; and the
Rhone pours from it, dyed of the deepest
azure, and retains partially this colour till it
is joined by the Soane, which gives to it a
greener hue. The lake of Morat, on the
contrary, which is fed from a lower country,
and from less pure sources, is grass green.
And there is an illustrative instance in some
small lakes fed from the same source, in the
road from Inspruck to Stutgard, which I
observed in 1815 (as well as I recollect) be-

320 SALMONIA.

tween Nazareit and Reiti. The highest
lake fed by melted snows in March, when I
saw it, was bright blue. It discharged itself
by a small stream into another, into which a
number of large pines had been blown by
a winter storm, or fallen from some other
cause : in this lake its colour was blue green.
In a third lake, in which there were not only
pines and their branches, but likewise other
decaying vegetable matter, it had a tint of
faded grass green; and these changes oc-
curred in a space not much more than a
mile in lenorth. These observations I made
in 1815: on returning to the same spot
twelve years after, in August and September,
I found the character of the lakes entirely
changed. The pine wood washed into the
second lake had disappeared; a large quantity
of stones and gravel, washed down by tor-
rents, or detached by an avalanche, supplied
their place : there was no perceptible differ-
ence of tint in the two upper lakes ; but the
lower one, where there was still some vege-
table matter, seemed to possess a greener
hue. The same principle will apply to the

COLOUR OF THE OCEAN. 321

Scotch and Irish rivers, which, when they
rise or issue from pure rocky sources, are
blue, or bluish green ; and when fed from
peat bogs, or alluvial countries, yellow, or
amber-coloured, or brown — even after they
have deposited a part of their impurities in
great lakes. Sometimes, though rarely,
mineral impregnations give colour to water :
small streams are sometimes green or yellow
from ferruginous depositions. Calcareous
matters seldom affect their colour, but often
their transparency, when deposited, as is the
case with the Velino at Terni, and the Anio
at Tivoli; but I doubt if pure sahne mat-
ters, which are in themselves white, ever
change the tint of water.

Orn. — On what, then, does the tint of the
ocean depend, which has itself given name
to a colour ?

Hal. — I think probably on vegetable
matter, and, perhaps, partially, on two ele-
mentary principles, iodine and brome, which
it certainly contains, though these are pos-
sibly the results of decayed marine vege-
rables. These give a yellow tint, when

Y

322 SALMONIA.

dissolved in minute portions in water, and
this, mixed with the blue of pure water,
would occasion sea green. I made, many
years ago, being on the Mer de Glace, an
experiment on this subject. I threw a small
quantity of iodine, a substance then recently
discovered, into one of those deep blue
basins of water which are so frequent on
that glacier, and, diffusing it as it dissolved
with a stick, I saw the water change first to
sea^ green in colour, then to grass green, and
lastly to yellowish green : I do not, however,
give this as a proof, but only as a fact fa-
vourable to my conjecture.

PoiET. — It appears to me to confirm
your view of the subject, that snow and ice,
which are merely pure crystallized water,
are always blue, when seen by transmitted
light. I have often admired the deep azure
in crevices in masses of snow in severe win-
ters, and the same colour in the glaciers of
Switzerland, particularly at the arch where
the Arve issues, in the Valley of Chamouni.
We thank you for your illustration.

Hal. — In return, I ask you or some ur-

WATERFALLS. 323

ther remarks on this grand waterflill. You
said just now, you preferred the fall of the
Velino for picturesque effect to any other
waterfall you have seen; yet it is a small
river compared even with the Traun, and
nothing compared with the Gotha, the
Rhine, or, above all, the Glommen.

PoiET. — Size is merely comparative : I
prefer the fall of the Velino, because its
parts are in harmony. It displays all the
force and power of the element, in its rapid
and precipitous descent, and you feel, that
even man would be nothing in its waves,
and would be dashed to pieces by its force.
The whole scene is embraced at once by the
eye, and the effect is almost as sublime as
that of the Glommen, where the river is at
least one hundred times as large: for the
Glommen falls, as it were, from a whole valley
upon a mountain of granite, and unless where
you see the giant pines of Norway, fifty or
sixty feet in height, carried down by it and
swimming in its whirlpools like straws, you
have no idea of its magnitude and power :
yet still, I think, considering it in all its rela-
Y 2

324? SALMONIA.

tionsj this is the most awful fall of water I
have seen, as that of Velino is the most per-
fect and beautiful. I am not sure, that I
ought not to place the fall of the Gotha
above that of the Rhine, both for variety of
effect and beauty ; and the river, in my opi-
nion, is quite as large, and the colour of the
water quite as beautiful.

Hal. — But our horses are ready, and
the time of separation arrives. I trust we
shall all have a happy meeting in England
in the winter. I have made you idlers
at home and abroad, but I hope to some
purpose ; and, I trust, you will confess the
time bestowed upon angling has not been
thrown away. The most important prin-
ciple perhaps in life is to have a pursuit — a
useful one if possible, and at all events an
innocent one. And the scenes you have en-
joyed — the contemplations to which they
have led — and the exercises in which we have
indulged, have, I am sure, been very salu-
tary to the body, and, I hope, to the mind.
I have always found a peculiar effect from
this kind of life : it has appeared to bring

REFLECTIONS. 325

me back to early times and feelings, and to
create again the hopes and happiness of
youthful days.

Phys. — I felt something like what you
described ; and were I convinced that in the
cultivation of the amusement, these feelings
would increase, I would devote myself to it
with passion; but, I fear, in my case this
is impossible. Ah ! could I recover any
thing like that freshness of mind, which I
possessed at twenty-five, and which, like the
dew of the dawning morning, covered all
objects and nourished all things that grew,
and in which they were more beautiful even
that in mid-day sunshine, — what would I
not give ! — All that I have gained in an
active and not unprofitable life. How well
I remember that delightful season, when,
full of power, I sought for power in others ;
and power was sympathy, and sympathy
power; — when the dead and the unknown,
the great of other ages and of distant places,
were made, by the force of the imagination,
my companions and friends ; — when every
voice seemed one of praise and love ; when
Y 3

326 SALMONIA.

every flower had the bloom and odour of the
rose ; and every spray or plant seemed either
the poet's laurel, or the civic oak — which
appeared to offer themselves as wreaths to
adorn my throbbing brow. But, alas ! this
cannot be; and even you cannot have two
springs in life — though I have no doubt you
have fishing days, in which the feelings of
youth return, and that your autumn has a
more vernal character than mine.

PoiET. — I do not think Halieus had ever
any season, except a perpetual and gentle
spring ; for the tones of his mind have been
always so quiet — it has been so little scorched
by sunshine, and so little shaken by winds —
that, I think, it maybe compared to that
sempivernal climate fabled of the Hespe-
rides, where the same trees produced at once
buds, leaves, blossoms, and fruits.

Hal. — Nay, my friends! spare me a
little, spare my gi'ay hairs. I have not per-
haps abused my youth so much as some of
my friends, but all things that you have
known, I have known; and if I have not
been so much scorched by the passions from

REI LECTIONS. 327

which so many of my acquaintances have
suffered, I owe it rather to the constant em-
ployment of a laborious profession, and to
the exertions called for by the hopes, wants,
and wishes of a rising family, than to any
merits of my own, either moral or constitu-
tional. For my health, I may thank my
ancestors, after my God, and I have not
squandered what was so bountifully given;
and though I do not expect, like our arch-
patriarch, Walton, to number ninety years
and upwards, yet, I hope, as long as I can
enjoy in a vernal day the warmth and light
of the sunbeams, still to haunt the streams —
following the example of our late venerable
friend, the President of the Royal Academy *,
in company with whom, when he was an
octogenarian, I have thrown the fly, caught
trout, and enjoyed a delightful day of angling
and social amusement, in the shady green
meadows by the bright clear streams of the
Wandle.

* Benjamin West.
Y 4

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Page 48, after line 15.

Phvs. — So much knowledge and practice is re-
quired to become a proficient, that I am afraid it is too
late in life for me to begin to learn a new art.

Hal. — Do not despair. There was — alas! that I
must say there was — an illustrious philosopher, who
was nearly of the age of fifty before he made angling
a pursuit, yet he became a distinguished fly-fisher, and
the amusement occupied many of his leisure hours
during the last twelve years of his life. He, indeed,
applied his pre-eminent acuteness, his science, and his
philosophy, to aid the resources and exalt the pleasures
of this amusement. I remember to have seen Dr.
WoUaston, a few days after he had become a fly-fisher,
carrying at his button-hole a piece of caoutchouc, or
Indian rubber, when, by passing his silkworm link
through a fissure in the middle, he rendered it straight
and fit for immediate use. Many other anglers will
remember other ingenious devices of my admirable and
ever to be lamented friend.

{On the pm-y j)oge 69.)

The author, in supposing that the par may be pro-
duced from a cross between the river trout and the

330 ADDITIONAL NOTES.

sea trout, does not mean to attach any importance to
this idea. The fish differs so little from the common
trout, that it may be questioned, whether it is not more
entitled to the chaCracter of a variety than of a species.
In many rivers on the Continent, the author has seen
small trout with olive or brown marks, like those of
the British par; and a friend informs him, that he
has caught fish of the same kind in the streams con-
nected with the Lake of Geneva. In rivers flowing
into the Danube, these small fish are very common ;
but, as well as he remembers, their marks are pale, or
yellowish brown, or olive, and not dark or blue like
those of our par. The salmon does not belong to any
of these localities, but the hucho haunts the tributary
streams of the Danube. The smelts, or young of the
salmo hucho, and sea trout, and lake trout, are all
distinguished by the uniform dark colour of the back,
and the silvery whiteness of the belly. He does not
remember to have seen any of the streaked, or par
varieties of trout in rivers, in which there was only one
species, or variety of large salmo. The mottled colour
of the skin is, he thinks, the strongest argument in
favour of this little fish being from a cross of two
varieties or races, which may be the case, and yet the
fish be capable of breeding, and gaining this character
of a peculiar variety ; and he supposes different kinds
of pars may be produced by crosses of the sea trout,
the hucho, the lake trout, with the river trouts, or per-
haps of the salmon, and this would account for their
great numbers, and the various tints of the marks on
their sides. If the hucho, as he believes, generally
spawns late in the winter, it may sometimes meet with
trout spawning at the same time. He has seen salmon
and trout in the Tweed in a similar state of maturity

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 331

at the same period ; and, in 1816, he remembers, that he
took large female salmon, that had the period of partu-
rition protracted as late as March.

{0)1 the scolo2)a.v, 2)agc 122.)

I shall say a few words on the congeners of this
bird (the solitary snipe), and on the three varieties so
much better known in Europe. The woodcock feeds
indiscriminately upon earthworms, small beetles, and
various kinds of larvae, and its stomach sometimes
contains seeds, which I suspect have been taken up
in boring amongst the excrements of cattle; yet the
stomach of this bird has something of the gizzard
character, though not so much as that of the land-rail,
which I have found half filled with seeds of grasses,
and even containing corn, mixed with may-bugs, earth-
worms, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. The wood-
cock, 1 believe, breeds habitually only in high northern
latitudes ; yet there are woods in England, particularly
one in Sussex, near the borders of Hampshire, in
which one or two couple of these birds, it is said, may
always be found in summer. I suspect these wood-
cocks are from the offspring of birds which had paired
for their passage, but being detained by an accident
happening to one of them, stayed and raised a young
brood in England, and the young ones probably had
their instincts altered by the accidents of their being
born in England, and being in a place well suppHed
with food. It is not improbable, that they likewise
raised young ones, and that the habit of staying has
become hereditary. There can be no doubt, that
woodcocks are very constant to their local attach-
ments; woodcocks, that have been preserved in a
particular wood for a winter, always return to it, if

332 ADDITIONAL NOTES.

possible, the next season. Many woodcooks breed in
Norway and Sweden, in the great, extensive, and
moist pine woods, filled with bogs and morasses, which
cover these wild countries ; but probably a still greater
number breed further north, in Lapland, Finland,
Russia, and Siberia. It is, I believe, a fable, that they
ever raise their young habitually in the high Alpine or
mountainous countries of the central or southern
parts of Europe. These countries, indeed, in summer
are very little fitted for their feeding; they cannot
bore where it is either dry or frosty, and the glacier,
as well as the arid sand or rock, are equally unfitted
for their haunts. They leave the north with the first
frost, and travel slowly south still they come to their
accustomed winter quarters ; they do not usually make
a quick voyage, but fly from wood to wood, reposing
and feeding on their journey : they prefer for their
haunts, woods near marshes or morasses; they hide
themselves under thick bushes in the day, and fly
abroad to feed in the dusk of the evening. A laurel,
or a holly-bush, is a favourite place for their repose :
the thick and varnished leaves of these trees prevents
the radiation of heat from the soil, and they are less
affected by the refrigerating influence of a clear sky, so
that they afford a warm seat for the woodcock. Wood-
cocks usually begin to fly north on the first approach
of spring, and their flights are generally longer, and
their rests fewer, at this season than in the autumn.
In the autumn they are driven from the north to the
south by the want of food, and they stop wherever they
can find food. In the spring there is the influence of
another powerful instinct added to this, the sexual
feeling. They migrate in pairs, and pass as speedily as
possible to the place where they are likely to find food.

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 333

and to raise their young, and of which the old birds have
already had the experience of former years. Scarcely
any woodcocks winter in any part of Germany. In
France there are a few found, particularly in the
southern provinces, and in Normandy and Brittany.
The woods of England, especially of the west and
south, contain always a certain quantity of woodcocks,
but there are far more in the moist soil and warmer
climate of Ireland ; but in the woods of southern Italy
and Greece, near marshes, they are far more abundant ;
and they extend in quantities over the Greek Islands,
Asia Minor, and Northern Africa.

The snipe is one of the most generally distributed
birds belonging to Europe. It feeds upon almost every
kind of worm, or larvae, and, as I have said before, its
stomach sometimes contains seeds and rice ; it prefers a
country cold in the summer to breed in ; but wherever
there is much fluid water and great morasses, this bird
is almost certain to be found. Its nest is very inarti-
ficial, its eggs large, and the young ones soon become
of an enormous size, being often, before they can fly,
larger than their parents. Two young ones are usually
the number in a nest, but I have seen three. The old
birds are exceedingly attached to their offspring, and
if any one approach near the nest they make a loud
and drumming noise above the head, as if to divert the
attention of the intruder. A few snipes always breed
in the marshes of England and Scotland, but a far
greater number retire for this purpose to the Hebrides
and the Orkneys. In the heather surrounding a small
lake in the island of Hoy, in the Orkneys, I found, in
the month of August, in 1817, the nests of ten or
twelve couple of snipes. I was grouse-shooting, and
my dog continually pointed them, and, as there were

334? ADDITIONAL NOTES.

sometimes three young ones and two old ones in the
nest, the scent was very powerful. From accident
of the season, these snipes were very late in being
hatched, for they usually fly before the middle of July;
but this year, even as late as the 15th of August, there
were many young snipes that had not yet their wing
feathers. Snipes are usually fattest in frosty weather,
which, I believe, is owing to this, — that in such wea-
ther they haunt only warm springs, where worms are
abundant, and they do not willingly quit these places,
so that they have plenty of nourishment and rest, both
circumstances favourable to fat. In wet open weather
they are often obliged to make long flights, and their
food is more distributed. The jack-snipe feeds upon
smaller insects than the snipe : small white larvae, such
as are found in black bogs, are its favourite food, but I
have generally found seeds in its stomach, once hemp-
seeds, and always gravel. I know not where the jack-
snipe breeds, but I suspect far north. 1 never saw
their nest or young ones in Germany, France, Hungary,
lUyria, or the British islands. The common snipe
breeds in great quantities in the extensive marshes of
Hungary and Illyria; but I do not think the jack-snipe
breeds there, for, even in July and August, with the
first very dry weather, many snipes, with ducks and
teal, come into the marshes in the south of Illyria, but
the jack-snipe is always later in his passage, later even
than the double-snipe, or the woodcock. In 1828, in
the drains about Laybach, in Illyria, common snipes
were seen in the middle of July. The first double-
snipes appeared the first week in September, when
likewise woodcocks were seen; the first jack-snipe did
not appear till three weeks later than the 29th of
September. I was informed at Copenhagen, that the

ADDITIONAL NOTES. 335

jack-snipe certainly breeds in Zealand, and I saw a
nest with its eggs, said to be from the island of Sand-
holm, opposite Copenhiigen ; and T have no doubt that
this bird and the double-snipe sometimes make their
nests in the marshes of Holstein and Hanover. An
excellent sportsman and good observer informs me,
that, in the great royal decoy, or marsh-preserve, near
Hanover, he has had ocular proofs of double-snipes
being raised from the nest there ; but these birds re-
quire solitude and perfect quiet, and, as their food is
peculiar, they demand a great extent of marshy mea-
dow. Their stomach is the thinnest amongst birds of the
scolopax tribe, and, as I have said before, their food
seems to be entirely the larvae of the tibulae, or conge-
nerous flies.

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