54 Facts on the Gravelling of the Taw. 



Art. V. Facts on the Gravelling of the Taw, which is deemed the 

 Young of the Salmon ; and incidental Information on the Skegger 

 Trout of the Thames. By O. 



The fish represented in fig. 1. I caught, in April, 183*, 

 in the river Taw, about four miles above Barnstaple, in the 

 north of Devonshire ; below which town that river, after 

 uniting with the Torridge, enters the Bristol Channel at Barn- 

 staple Bay. This fish, which is there called the gravelling, 

 from its affecting the gravelly shallows, abounds in the Taw 

 from March until the end of May, when the first high tides 

 carry them to the sea ; after which not one is to be found. 

 At this time they are full of roe. The fishermen on the Taw 

 are quite sure that they are correct in stating it to be the 

 young salmon ; and the fact, they say, has been ascertained 

 by catching the fish, and returning it to the water with a 

 piece of wire inserted in the back fin ; and the same fish, the 

 following year, grown to the size of a large salmon, has been 

 taken with the wire still remaining in the fin. The drawing 

 is of the natural size [The drawing was 7 J in. long, from the 

 tip of the snout to the tip of the longest rays of the tail ; and 

 ljin. in breadth, measured opposite the dorsal fin.] of a fine 

 gravelling, weighing about 2 oz. It is a beautiful fish, having 

 the crimson spots of the trout; but is longer and more 

 elegantly shaped, and the tail more forked than that of a trout 

 of the same size. They die soon after being caught ; and, as 

 the moisture upon them dries, they become of a glossy blue 

 colour. They are strong in proportion to their size ; and 

 afford the young angler excellent sport, taking the fly eagerly, 

 particularly with a gentle [larva of the flesh fly] at the point 

 of the hook. We (two of us), some days this last spring 

 (1834?), caught four or five dozen in a morning. 



Many years ago, as we learn from Izaak Walton, a fish, 

 which he calls the skegger trout, used to abound in the 

 Thames : he speaks of catching them abundantly near Wind- 

 sor. It is now but rarely seen ; probably owing to the locks, 

 and the impurities of the water attendant on the dense popu- 

 lation residing on its banks. However, in May, 1830, when 

 fishing between Taplow and Marlow, the fisherman who 

 attended me in the punt caught a skegger, the first he had 

 seen for many years. He was equally sure with the Barn- 

 staple fishermen, that this was a young salmon ; it certainly 

 resembled the gravelling in some points, having the bright 

 crimson spots ; but it was rounder, and the tail less forked. 

 Mr. Rennie, in a note to his edition of Walton's Angler, 

 thinks the skegger is the same as the par of the northern 



