FABLES ABOUT SALMON. 209 



the season after that of 24 lbs., and the season 

 after that of 48 lbs. Here we must stop, for 

 though we sometimes, very rarely assuredly, see 

 salmon weighing 48 lbs., we never see them of 

 double that weight, or of 96 lbs. What is my 

 conclusion from this most fair calculation ? Why, 

 that salmon grow very slowly after they have been 

 three seasons at sea, that is, after they have at- 

 tained their fourth year of existence, and arrived 

 at the weight of 20 lbs. I mean very slowly in 

 comparison with the rapidity of their growth du- 

 ring the second and third years of their age, and 

 I believe that the OTOwth of sahiion after the sixth 

 year or fifth visit to the sea is merely nominal, 

 but at the same time I am of opinion that a fish 

 of that age may weigh 40 lbs. Finally, if I were 

 to be shown a Shannon or a Tweed salmon of the 

 weight of 50 lbs., and asked its age, my answer 

 would be ten years, or thereabouts. 



Many fables have been seriously related as to 

 the mode and means practised by salmon in leap- 

 ing, and error has extensively prevailed in refer- 

 ence to the distance they can spring obliquely or 

 perpendicularly beyond the surface of the water. 

 It is a very prevalent opinion that salmon put 

 their tails in their mouths, and by bending them- 

 selves like a bow-string to extreme tension, and 

 p 



