98 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING. 



water to swim in, they select a rather shallow gravelly 

 stream, in the bed of which, as I have often witnessed 

 in Ayrshire, they make a trench with their nose, and 

 deposit their roe, the male and the female, as it is 

 reported, assisting in excavating the same trench. 



The spawn is not hatched till the latter end of 

 March, and by the beginning of May the young 

 samlets, or smouts, are four or five inches long, and 

 are swept down by the first flood to the sea. Here 

 they become salmon in as short a time, says Walton, 

 " as a gosling becomes a goose." About the middle 

 of June some of these come back from the sea, and 

 about the end of July, they take the name of gilse, 

 grilse, or graul, and weigh from five to seven pounds 

 or more. 



The salmon delights in large rapid rivers, especially 

 such as have pebbly, gravelly, and sometimes weedy 

 bottoms, and, when feeding, generally prefers the rough 

 and upper parts of gentle streams, and the tails of large 

 ones; after their feeding time, they retire to the deep 

 and broad water, and swim very fast, usually in the 

 middle of the river near the ground, and more at night 

 than in the day, resting at convenient places, under 

 bushes, weeds, banks, or stones, and then the whole 

 shoal run again. Salmon bite best from six until 

 eleven in the forenoon, and from three in the after- 

 noon until sun-set, especially when there is a moderate 

 breeze upon the water ; the chief months to angle for 

 them are March, April, May, and June, though they 

 will take a fly until October, but they are then out of 



