SALMO SALAR. 



THE SALMON. 



Nee te puniceo rutilantem viscere, Salmo 

 Transierim, latae cujus vaga verbera caudse 

 Gurgite de medio summas referuntur in undas, 

 Occultus placido cum proditur sequore pulsus. 

 Tu loricato squamosus pectore, frontem 

 Lubricus et dubise facturus fercula ccense 

 Tempora Iongarum fers incorrupta morarum, 

 Pra;signis maculis capitis, cui prodiga nutat 

 Alvus, opimatoque fluens abdomine venter. * 



Ausonius : The Moselle, 97-105. 



44 TN the countrey of Aquitaine or Guienne in Fraunce, the River Sal- 

 mon passeth all other sea fishes whatsoever. ' ' So wrote Pliny eighteen 

 hundred years ago, and his was the first allusion in literature to Salmo 

 salar. Hundreds of members of the family are now known to science, 

 but this one species still stands preeminent, like a Highland chieftain, 

 needing no name save that of his clan. The Salmon streams of ancient 

 Britain and Gaul were known to the Romans, who appreciated fully the 

 worth of their scaled treasures, and our early British ancestors were equally 

 familiar with the Salmon, as we know from the Saxon names which were 

 applied to it, many of which still survive both in England and America — 

 parr, peal, penk, smolt, grilse, kipper, bagget, and a dozen more. The 

 reader will recall Walter Scott's generalization, that while our names for 

 animals as served upon the table, — beef, veal, mutton, pork, — are of Nor- 

 man origin, the names of the animals themselves are stdl those by which they 



* " Nor will I pass thee, O Salmon, blushing with thy red flesh, the roving strokes of whose broad tail are 

 borne from the middle of the stream to the top of the water, at such time as the hidden lash betrays itself on 

 the calm surface. Now, clothed in scaly armor, slippery as to thy fore part, and able to constitute a remove 

 for a most excellent dinner, dost bear keeping fresh for a long time ; thou art conspicuous with thy spotted 

 head ; thy full paunch trembles, and thy belly overflows with abdominal fat." Literal translation by 

 Houghton . 



