96 SALMONID^ OF BRITAIN. 



Having now briefly detailed the salmon's history from the egg to the adult 

 fish, it becomes necessary to revert to those forms which have completed their 

 spawning. Commonly known as helts or slats, or if males, as hippcrs,* they drop 

 down stream, from pool to pool, in a very thin and exhausted condition, the males 

 much more so than the females. However, they generally remain in the river in a 

 debilitated state, feeding upon whatever fish comes in their way, not rejecting the 

 young of their own species. At this period they are readily captured, and, owing 

 to their weak condition, very prone to attacks of disease, often dying in vast 

 numbers, while a heavy flood carries them off towards the sea, but as a rule they 

 continue some time in the brackish water of the tideway befoi'e seeking the 

 ocean. Although, doubtless, a few of these kelts mend in the rivers, recovering 

 their silvery lustre prior to reaching the sea, and others return at a future period 

 in a healthy state from the salt water, it seems questionable whether too many 

 are not now permitted to mend, possibly to a great extent, upon the salmon fry, 

 thus reducing the amount of stock in the river. In olden times fishermen took 

 all spawned fish as their own perquisites, consequently but few descended to the 

 sea in some rivers : also poachers, assisted by otters and other vermin, kept the 

 numlier of kelts in check. 



If for the benefit of the fishing in a river, it were deemed advisable to permit the 

 capture of salmon kelts, such would have to give rise to many other considerations. 

 Were it legal to sell them, how would such a permission end? for soon grilse kelts 

 would be accused of occasioning damage, and assuredly their capture would before 

 long be legalized. 



These concessions granted it might next be advanced that many fresh-run clean 

 salmon were in the river and which if not captured would be lost as food.f Still 

 we have to consider facts as they exist, and without doing more than just touching 

 on this subject it seems as if it might be divided as follows : — That the salmon sub- 

 sequent to the spawning season becomes sickly, and is as well destroyed as kept ; 

 and while mending it consumes more young salmon, trout, and other fish than it 

 is worth ; that possibly kelts might be eaten. 



After spawning, salmon doubtless become exhausted and more easily sus- 

 ceptible to disease and capture, and it has been proposed to kill all the male kelts 

 from the commencement of February ; and all of either sex from the commence- 

 ment of March. Now, although there can scarcely be a doubt that some at least 

 of the kelts return to riversj after recovering their strength in the sea, still many 



He continued that these early, clean, and barren salmon have inside them several grains of the 

 ova of last season still undischarged. 



* The hook, or kype, in the lower jaw of the spawning male is doubtless the origin of this 

 term, while it has been surmised that they were first known as " kipper " salmon. Mr. Dunbar 

 Brander remarked {Field, October 20th, 1886), that "A kip-nosed man, in Scotch, means a man 

 with a turned-up pug nose. As these kip-nosed or kipper fish are soft and flabby, they are 

 generally dried and smoked, and the process they undergo has been named from the fish that are 

 utilized in this way. It is almost impossible to ci;re and dry a fresh-run fish during March, 

 April, May, and June. In July and August they are so full of oil, curd, and fat, that they spoil 

 in the process ; but by the month of October the fish get kip-nosed, and they can be dried and 

 cured. The curd and oil is very much absorbed. Eeference to a Scotch dictionary will show that 

 anything turned up at the corners is said to be ' kippered.' " 



t Such arguments as the following would soon be again brought forv/ajd, that " another cause 

 of disease may be the spring-run fish remaining fully a year in the river, which must be injurious to 

 them. Could all these early-run fish be captured, and the late autumn fish strictly preserved, the 

 markets would benefit and the bi'eeding stock would not be diminished." Or that " I cannot help 

 thinking that, with regard to kelts, our laws might be revised with considerable benefit alike to 

 anglers and rivers. Have any of my readers ever tasted these fish when well made up ? So well 

 mended are they at times that some experience is positively necessary to detect them when 

 caught from new fish. I have tasted them ; and, although I do not pretend to say they are equal 

 in delicacy of flavour, yet, as respects an article of food, they are perfectly wholesome and good 

 eating." 



X It has been shown that salmon after having spaAAoied die, as has been asserted by Stella, 

 Pallas, and Sir John Richardson when writing respecting the salmonoids of Kamtschatka and 

 North-Western America. Although this, no doubt, is found to be true in some parts of the world, 

 it is not invariably so here. If all kelts died, how could grilse or even male par which have been 

 known to breed ever reach salmonhood ? Still many old kelts Buccumb from exhaustion and 



