ANGLING FOR SALMON. 97 



from twelve till half-past two o'clock, after severe 

 frosts in the morning ; and I once caught, under tnese 

 circumstances, a very fine dish of fish on the 7th of 

 November." 



ANGLING FOR SALMON. 



The salmon l is accounted by anglers the prince of all 

 fish, and when we consider that they weigh from ten 

 to fifty, or even seventy pounds, it must be obviously 

 a dexterous art to catch them with a hook and line, 

 which one fourth part of that weight would snap 

 asunder. The salmon is also, when in good season, 

 much finer for the table than other fish caught by the 

 angler, and many prefer it to turbot. 



Spawning Seasons, and Haunts of Salmon. 



The salmon lives a part of the year in the sea, or 

 at least in the mouths of rivers near the sea, and about 

 the end of autumn, or beginning of winter, runs up 

 rivers to spawn. In their ascent, there are scarcely any 

 difficulties which these fish will not surmount, ascend- 

 ing rivers for hundreds of miles, being frequently taken 

 in the Moselle, and even as high as Bale on the Rhine. 

 They will force themselves against the most rapid 

 currents, and will spring up several feet out of the 

 water to clear cataracts and mill dams, a feat I have 

 often witnessed on the river Ayr, during the autumn 

 floods. 



When they have got as high up as they can find 



(1) In Latin, Salmo salur. 

 H 



