the Salmon, Herring, and Vendace. 501 



opinions," contain a palpable error. The true deficiency of such persons is, not that 

 of expression, but of power of observation, arising from two sources : a naturally 

 unphilosophic mind, clouded with prejudices, and, above all, a want of a proper scientific 

 education. The observation of Mr FRASER is rooted in a feeling' which is known 

 to be very prevalent, viz. a wish to underrate the real merits of scientific men, from 

 NEWTON to DAVY. Those who think it worth while taking the trouble, in a ques- 

 tion so perfectly within the reach of every thinking person, will find a triumphant refu- 

 tation of such opinions as Mr ERASER'S in the works of BABBAOE, BREWSTER, and 

 others. If WATT perfected the steam-engine, every one knows, or should know, that 

 he employed the common scientific principles of the day in doing so ; and I trust that 

 no one will have the hardihood to deny that those principles were taught to him 

 and others of his day in a manner admitting of no competition, and in a manner pro- 

 bably admitting of no future improvement, by Dr BLACK. The path of science is too* 

 much trodden for a practical man, agreeable to Mr ERASER'S acceptation of the word, 

 to make many discoveries. What convinces me that Mr FRASEII'S experience is per- 

 fectly local, and consequently scarcely deserving notice, is a passage in his first section 

 on the Habits of the Salmon, where he says, " they never descend lakes or rivers until 

 near the spawning season, when they fall down lakes to streams and shallows." The 

 experience of all other persons, so far as I can observe, and my own in particular, leads 

 me to use the word ascend. Mr FRASER'S locality, however, may be peculiar. He says, 

 moreover, p. 6, " clean salmon require a worm-bait." In the Tweed, in spring, a worm- 

 bait is successful with spent or foul salmon. At page 7, Mr FRASER observes (very 

 gravely, and after indulging in the most playful fanciful notions imaginable with regard 

 to the sight, smell, and hearing of the salmon), that " there are fifty-four joints in the 

 salmon, which he can use quickly or slowly as he may desire." As there are evidently 

 many hundred joints in the salmon, we must assist Mr FRASER in giving precision to 

 his language, as to suppose that he means the vertebral column or back-bone of a salmon. 

 To shew how difficult, nay, I should almost say impossible, it is for a person not ac- 

 customed in these matters to make a single correct observation, we will just hint to Mr 

 FRASER, that if he will be so good as recount the individual vertebrae of a salmon, he will 

 find that there are sixty-one (and not fifty-four), and consequently as many joints ; fish 

 having no part of the column run together, or ossified, as happens in most of the Mam- 

 malia. Tims an experience of forty or fifty years as a salmon curer and catcher, has 

 not enabled him to count the backbones correctly. 



In respect to the food of salmon Mr FRASER has notions also perfectly local, that is, 

 confined to himself. And as the whole passage admits of no sort of analysis, and as in- 

 deed no person having the smallest knowledge of natural objects would think it neces- 

 sary to read the article twice, much less to examine it seriously, we shall simply quote 

 his own words, and so leave it : " Their digestion is so quick, that in a few hours not 

 a bone is to be discovered. Of this I have had various proofs, in trouts caught by a par 

 as bait on set lines. Fire or water could not consume them quicker. The salmon has 

 but one intestinal canal (how many does he think a cow or a horse has) like the wood- 

 cock, which is tripled in the middle, and covered with a coat of fat, which, in a short 

 time, dissolves every thing eaten by the fish," p. 17. No part of the present memoir, 



3s 2 



