8 SALMONID.E. 



stream, while very few keep the main course of the Oikel 

 until a much later period." 



Dr. Heysham, in his Catalogue of Cumberland Animals, 

 has supplied similar evidence. " The Salmon," it is there 

 observed, " is plentiful in most of our rivers, in all of which 

 they spawn ; but they evidently prefer, during the winter 

 and spring, the Eden to the Esk, the Caldew, or the 

 Peteril. Although the Esk and the Eden pour out their 

 waters into the same estuary, and are only separated at the 

 mouths by a sharp point of land, yet there is scarcely an 

 instance of a new Salmon ever entering the former until 

 the middle of April or beginning of May. The fishermen 

 account for this curious fact from the different temperature 

 of these two rivers ; the waters of the Eden, they allege, 

 being considerably warmer than the water of the Esk ; 

 which is not altogether improbable, for the bed of the Esk 

 is not only more stony and rocky than the Eden, but is 

 likewise broader, and the stream more shallow ; consequently 

 its waters must be somewhat colder in the winter season. 

 It is an undoubted fact, that snow water prevents the Salmon 

 from running up even the Eden : it is probable this cir- 

 cumstance may have considerable effect in preventing them 

 from entering the Esk till the beginning of summer, when 

 the temperature of the two rivers will be nearly the same. 

 The Peteril joins the Eden a little above, and the Caldew at 

 Carlisle ; yet up these rivers the Salmon never run unless 

 in the spawning season, and even then in no great num- 

 bers." 



The number of fish obtained in the spring in a proper 

 state for food is small compared with the quantity procured 

 as the summer advances. During the early part of the 

 season, the Salmon ascend the river, advancing with the flood, 

 and generally retiring Avith the ebb, if their progress be not 

 stopped by any of the various means employed to catch 



