NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 3 



state, and anxiously seeking a place to deposit 

 their roe. There is evidently a difference in the 

 forwardness of their pregnancy, and the kip- 

 pers, or males, have not that appearance of unsea- 

 sonableness that the shedders, or females, have ; 

 yet, for want of this distinction, a great many of 

 the former have been destroyed. This, if they 

 pair*, must render the female unproductive, and 

 the destruction of them is consequently a most 

 pernicious practice. The fish which the naturalist 

 speaks of as returning to the rivers twelve or 

 sixteen inches long, are those which we call sal- 

 mon peal, that is, as the name itself denotes, a 

 fish proceeding from the pea of the salmon* As 

 much difference of opinion has prevailed, and 

 still exists on this point, viz. whether the salmon 

 peal be the same or a distinct species from the 

 common salmon, and as this is a very important 

 question to be decided as connected with the wel- 

 fare of the salmon fisheries, I have devoted an 

 entire chapter to its investigation. It should, if 

 possible, be set at rest ; and I think I have col- 

 lected such evidence to prove them to be young 

 salmon as will, for the future, put the fact beyond 

 dispute. The naturalist says, that in some coun- 

 tries the salmon form a very considerable article 

 of commerce ; they would do so equally in this if 

 they were properly attended to ; for there is no 

 country which abounds with rivers more favour- 



* Whether they do so or not, will be inquired into hereafter. 



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