the Salmon, Herring, and Vendace. 465 



SECTION I. 



Naturalists are not agreed as to the number of species consti- 

 tuting the Salmon and Trout kind. For practical purposes the 

 following arrangement may be admitted : the true Salmon, inclu- 

 ding the Grilse ; the Salmon-Trout, merely an inferior kind of 

 Salmon, and whose natural history I shall give in a separate me- 

 moir, and including the Whitling of the Tay ; the Herling 

 abounding in the Solway, and which some naturalists have un- 

 happily confounded with the Salmon-Trout or Whitling *. Of 



* When herling first ascend a river, and are taken shortly after their ascent, 

 but within that part of the river influenced by the tide, they are clear, silvery, 

 and covered with scales, compared with what they become after a short residence in 

 fresh water above the influence of the tide. In July and August, for example, her- 

 ling taken in the stake-net, of the Solway or even in the Nith, as high or a little 

 higher than the port of Kelton, are in this prime state, and moreover have a redness 

 of flesh, giving the fish a general vermilion colour in certain positions, and an ex- 

 cellence of flesh as an article of food in no shape inferior to the grilse. Their 

 stomachs and intestines are empty, or contain only the peculiar salmon-food. They 

 will remain several days in this part of the Nith without resorting to any other de- 

 scription of food, although the river at the time actually abounds with herring-fry, 

 minnow, small shrimps (forming exclusively the food of a very superior sort of 

 river-trout). On the other hand, fish the river Annan at about twelve miles in a 

 direct line from its mouth, in the latter end of September, and the herling will be 

 found in sufficient abundance, but altered, first, as to external appearance, it has 

 assumed much of the sea-trout : its organs of generation (male or female) are rapidly 

 advancing to the spawning condition. The stomach contains minnow and the ordi- 

 nary food of trout ; and yet it is worthy of notice, that when kept they do not run 

 so rapidly into a putrescent state as the common trout taken at the same time. The 

 females are about one-half more numerous than the males, and the quality of the flesh 

 is little, if at all, better than that of the common trout. It was remarked, also, that 

 all the herlings taken at this time and in this locality, were advancing rapidly into the 

 breeding condition ; whereas many common trout, equally large, were not altering 

 into this state, being trout which evidently would have remained barren throughout 

 this season at least. The flesh of these was superior to that of the herling caught 

 as above. 



