228 Salmon Fisheries of Great Britain, MARCH, 



were the produce of the pea of the salmon. Among the arguments for 

 establishing the identity of the salmon and the peal, some are of the 

 negative kind, but still of some pith. The young fry of the salmon must, 

 it may be presumed, attain its full size gradually. Now, who ever saw 

 a salmon of one, two, or three pounds, if these grilses are not salmon ? 

 Who ever saw young grilses that is, under a pound if the smelts are 

 not young grilses ? Who ever saw grilses at the beginning of a season 

 of more than two or three pounds ? Confessedly, by September, the 

 grilses grow to eight or nine pounds who ever saw one of this weight 

 in June ? But these grilses, by the following season, might be expected 

 to be larger still ; and yet none but very small ones are seen at the 

 beginning of the season ; though large fish the full-grown salmon, of 

 from twelve to twenty pounds and upwards appear, which are doubt- 

 less the grilses of the preceding year arrived at their full size. But 

 proofs of the peremptory kind are not wanting. In May 1812, a gen- 

 tleman of Carlisle put a great number of salmon fry into a bleachfind 

 basin in the river at Milbeck, near Carlisle. In the latter end of that 

 year, these fry became tolerably well sized whitings, as the Carlisle 

 fishers call them the salmon-peal of other districts measuring thir- 

 teen inches; and, in the following season, sea-trouts grilses of the 

 larger growth ; and one of them continued in the basin till it was twenty- 

 six inches and a quarter in length. This experiment establishes the fact 

 of the smolts, peal, and salmon being all the same fish the difference is 

 only in the rapidity of the growth ; and, it must be remembered, these 

 fish were taken out of the natural course, and never saw the sea. The 

 fact of the quick growth of the young grilses, from June to September, 

 is too well authenticated to be any longer questioned ; and, therefore, it 

 is no wonder if the fry of three inches in April becomes one of thirteen 

 or more, and weighing a pound or two, in June. Fishes, too, have been 

 marked that is, the dead fin, as it is termed, has been cut off, and the 

 tail sloped, in one stage of their growth ; and caught again after visit- 

 ing the sea in another marked as grilses, and caught as salmon. 



As the summer advances, come again the full-grown salmon appa- 

 rently those which, in March, went down the streams in the kelt state, 

 after spawning now in renewed vigour, recovered by their residence in 

 the salt water, and returning to the rivers; and at length pushing 

 upwards again, to deposit their spawn again ; and with them the grilses, 

 which, like other animals, breed, many of them, before they attain their 

 full maturity. 



From this view of the habits of the salmon, may be determined what 

 should be the season for catching them. When full of spawn, they are 

 not wholesome ; and in the shotten state after spawning they are 

 still less so. The fish is fast swelling by the end of August ; and not 

 till March, or even later, do the kelts get back to the sea. In this inter- 

 val, then, there are no salmon, which generally we mean are in a 

 takeable condition, if any regard be paid to the preservation of the breed 

 of the fish, or the health of those for whose sake the fisheries are said to 

 be protected. No fishing, therefore, should be allowed but between 

 April and September : this is the utmost latitude that can justifiably be 

 granted. In the intervening months come the peal, and the kelts, who 

 have recovered their strength and soundness by the invigoration of the 

 sea ; and who, thus revisiting the fresh waters, are fair game for the 

 fishers, and wholesome food for the consumers. 



