THE SALMON FAMILY. 409 



waters to a weight of at least 60 lbs., tlioiigli fish of be- 

 tween 20 lbs. and 40 lbs. are far more common. An ana- 

 dromous fish, the salmon repairs regularly to fresh water 

 for spawning purposes ; and of so-called salmon-rivers 

 there are several that have become justly famous, as the 

 Hampshire Avon, the Severn, the Tay, Shannon, and 

 others. It is even said that the fish will return by 

 preference to their native river, the females first, the 

 old males next, the young fish last ; ^ and this view is 

 at all events borne out, so far at least as the order of 

 arrival is concerned, by the experience of the nets-men of 

 the Hampshire Stour and Avon. I have visited the 

 fishery at Mudeford on many occasions during the past 

 few years, and have invariably found the catches during 

 February and March to be few, but most of them picked fish 

 of over 20 lbs. in weight, whereas at the end of April they 

 would look for larger numbers of small fish. The present 

 year (1897) has been one of the worst for a long time, the 

 fish having been both later and fewer than for ten years at 

 least. There is a variety of names, diff'ering according 

 to locality, for salmon at various stages, the chief being 

 " parr " or " smolt," the name for the young fish ; " peal " 

 or "grilse," those that enter fresh water for the first time 

 since they left it; and "slat," "kelt," "baggit" (female), 

 or " kipper " (male), the spent fish. The salmon spawns 

 in the majority of our rivers rather before Christmas, 

 the fertilised eggs being deposited in a heap of gravel. 

 Salmon-roe is a deadly and illegal bait for the fish them- 

 selves. The males fight desperately before and during the 

 spawning-time. This fish is said to leap perpendicularly 

 almost a dozen feet ^ out of the water ; and it is assisted 

 over waterfalls of considerable height with ladders specially 



1 Seeley, Fresh-water Fishes of Europe, p. 275. 



2 Day (British and Irish SalmonidK, p. 73) quotes a number of con- 

 flicting authorities on the record leap of salmon, according to whom 

 the perpendicular distance ranges from 16 feet (Landmark) to no more 

 than 6 or 7 (Scrope). 



