SALMON. 179 



on these fish too often to feel an apprehension of danger to 

 their health from the cause assigned; and therefore they have 

 no fear of proceeding to obtain the prize by first alluring them 

 within reach with a burning torch, of course in the hours of 

 darkness, and then piercing the male with a trident spear. 

 The sexes are readily distinguished, even in the water; and 

 when deprived of her mate, the female will go into the deeper 

 pools in search of another, which she obtains by meeting with 

 one not yet engaged; or perhaps by displaying superior attrac- 

 tions she draws away some one that had been already affianced 

 to another. But her second partner shares the fate of the 

 first, and when no other can be obtained, herself becomes the 

 final victim. Unfortunately, however, this is not all, nor even 

 the worst of these injurious proceedings; for somewhat early 

 in the seventeenth century a fisherman of the name of Barker 

 had made a discovery in the art of angling, which he com- 

 municated first to a noble patron, and then to the public; and 

 which consists in salting and drying the roe of the Salmon, to 

 be taken at the very time when it is ready to be shed. From 

 experience he pronounces this to be the best bait for Trout 

 he had ever used, and to be good also for several other sorts 

 of river fish. Each female Salmon is supposed to produce four 

 or five pounds of this valued roe, which is made into a paste, 

 and sold at from one to two shillings the pound, and even more; 

 so that the capture of a spawning Salmon is no contemptible 

 affair to a poor man, who may gain more in an hour in this 

 way than by the ordinary work of a week. 



But notwithstanding the condemnation which must fall on 

 these proceedings, which go far to destroy the prospects of 

 future seasons, and the Avealth of a nation, the complaint comes 

 with a bad grace from those who have contributed to the 

 destruction, by indiscriminately entrapping in the lower districts 

 those fish Avhich might have made their Avay upward in an 

 earlier season, and thus supplied the wants of the people above, 

 and at the same time filled up the requisite number of breeding 

 fish, and rendered the slaughter of them unnecessary. 



Before the comparatively modern inventions Avhich have been 

 stimulated into existence by the demands of fashion and luxury, 

 the Salmon-spear was deemed an honourable weapon, and as 

 such had been taken into their coat of arms by families of 



