92 SALMONIDiE. 



an art which has sunk into neglect, partly owing, doubtless, to 

 the abolition of fast-days, and partly to the great facility 

 Avith which the finest sea-fish are transported throughout the 

 country. 



If the fish I have last mentioned were so introduced, it must 

 have been by some such process as that which I have here de- 

 scribed ; for they are all of so sensitive and delicate a nature, 

 that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be kept alive for 

 an hour or two after being captured, and that only by a con- 

 stant change of fresh spring water ; circumstances which would 

 have made it utterly impossible that they should have been 

 transported from the continent, after they had arrived at 

 maturity. 



Even to this day, in Austria, Illyria, and parts of the Tyrol, 

 the greatest attention is paid to the nurture of the most delicate 

 fresh-water fishes in confined situations; and Sir Humphrey 

 Davy states in his " Salmonia," that, " at Admondt, in Styria, 

 attached to the magnificent monastery of that name, are abun- 

 dant ponds and reservoirs for every species of fresh-water fish ; 

 and the Charr, Grayling, and Trout are preserved in different 

 waters — covered, enclosed, and under lock and key." 



And now having at length come to the end of this sort of 

 dissertation on the breeding, growth, and specific generation of 

 the Salmon, I shall briefly consider his characteristics, distin- 

 guishing marks and habits, before passing to his nearest relation, 

 in this country at least, the Brook Trout. 



The Salmon {Salmo Salar), of Linneeus and all authors, is, I 

 have observed before, a soft-finned fish of the Abdominal division, 

 his ventral fins being attached to the parietes of the belly. His 



