THE SALMON. IQl 
call them fry, or pinks, or smolts, or peal, go to the sea 
usuallj a year after their birth, but with no invariable 
regularity, and will then average six ounces in weight, 
many undoubtedly w^aiting till the Fall, or eighteen 
months after birth; that they return the succeeding 
July grilse ; that the grilse spawn the following l^ovem- 
ber, and after visiting the sea, reappear next Spring as 
salmon. The young fish are taken with the fly through 
the Summer in all the salmon rivers, and require a second 
glance to distinguish them from young trout, although 
they are very different, one decisive peculiarity being 
that their backs are arched or hogged, and another, as I 
have mentioned, that their eyes are large. The fry of 
trout — and recollect grown trout are not banded — have 
light sides, and are found usually in more quiet water. 
It would be well if sportsmen should call the fish in 
question respectively salmon fry, grilse, and salmon, and 
eschew all other fanciful names, as leading only to con- 
fusion. 
Salmon are never taken in fresh water with any food 
in their stomachs ; they are reported not to eat their 
young, and do not apparently feed on flies. The fry 
feed almost entirely on flies, and I have seen them pick 
off one after another as skillfully as a trout ; but I have 
never distinctly seen a salmon take a natural fly. When 
they spring out of water, it is in play, and at such times, 
contrary to the rule with trout, casting over them will 
be in vain, they will not rise. Moreover, our flies do not 
in the least resemble the natural flies of the rivers, which 
are of a dull green, and the salmon rivers afford yqyj 
few flies at best. Observe me, I do not refer to mosqui- 
