238 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



expensive luxury ; but it bids fair to reach a price 

 prohibitive to most consumers. A prominent angling 

 authority wittily wrote, on a recent occasion, that the only 

 taste of Salmon which the general public have is through 

 the medium of a foreign tin. The difficulty of absolutely 

 determining to what species the fry of migratory salmon- 

 idae actually belong is sometimes considerable, and the 

 subject frequently gives rise to controversy. An old 

 work on angling by C. Bowlker, of Ludlow, contains a 

 paragraph concerning fish to which the peculiar name 

 of "Gravel Last-Spring" is given. This runs as follows: 

 "The Gravel Last-Spring is supposed by some to be 

 the fry of Salmon, but which is a distinct species ; the 

 rivers Severn and Wye abound with this fish. It spawns 

 in the month of August, and affords the angler excellent 

 diversion with a long line. The Red Ant is a very killing 

 fly, and all the flies may be used with success during 

 their proper seasons." Authorities are now agreed that 

 these "Gravel Last-Spring "are purely samlets, but there 

 are Severn anglers who yet maintain that such is not the 

 case. Some, like Bowlker, aver that the little fish belong 

 to a distinct species, and they support their contention by 

 stating that they have caught female specimens, only a 

 few inches in length, having roe pretty well developed. 

 In this connection the following may be quoted from the 

 Rev. W. Houghton's work on Fishes : " The female 

 Salmon is mature when about fifteen inches long; the 

 male, however, may be mature when in the smolt stage, 

 and about six or seven inches long." The Severn Con- 

 servancy Board forbids the capture of so called " Gravel 

 Last-Spring," holding of course that they are indubitably 

 the young of Salmon. The principal migration of mature 



