SPAWyLVG SALMON, &'c. 85 



spawning in the Cannington River, a small tributary 

 of the Parrett that runs into the tidal portion of that 

 stream below Bridgewater, but they are generally 

 killed by poachers, and I was told that smolts were 

 unknown. Now I believe this account to be true. 

 There is only one water bailiff employed, whose sole 

 duty appears to be to prevent nets being worked 

 during the close time. What, then, are these salmon 

 which are caught in the estuary and tideway of the 

 River Parrett ? I do not believe they are natives of 

 any of the neighbouring Devon or Cornish rivers, as 

 salmon rarely appear there until the autumn. It is 

 very certain they do not belong to either the Parrett, 

 the polluted Somersetshire Avon, or Glamorgan- 

 shire Taff or Ely, and the inference is, they are 

 Severn, Wye, or Usk fish, feeling their way along 

 the Somersetshire coast, en route to their own 

 waters from their own feeding-grounds. I think 

 some of them, instead of crossing the estuary 

 below Burnham, having tasted fresh water, are 

 enticed up the Parrett by the flood tide, never to 



