130 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



Next I 'shall tell you, that though they make very hard 

 shift to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea, yet they 

 will make a harder shift to get out of the salt into the 

 fresh rivers, to spawn, or possess the pleasures that 

 they have formerly found in them : to which end, they 

 will force themselves through flood-gates, or over weirs 

 or hedges, or stops in the water, even to a height beyond 

 common belief. Gesner speaks of such places as are 

 known to be above eight feet high above water. And 

 our Camden mentions, in his Britannia, the like wonder 

 to be in Pembrokeshire, where the River Tivy falls into 

 the sea ; and that the fall is so downright, and so high, 

 that the people stand and wonder at the strength and 

 sleight by which they see the salmon use to get out 

 of the sea into the said river ; and the manner and 

 height of the place is so notable, that it is known, far, 

 by the name of the " Salmon-leap." Concerning which, 

 take this also out of Michael Drayton,* my honest old 

 friend ; as he tells it you, in his Poly olb ion : 



And when the salmon seeks a fresher stream to find, 

 Which hither from the sea conies yearly by his kind ; 



Salmon cannot be called sick, except between the periods of spawn- 

 ing and going to sea. They are then called " kelts," and not 

 " kippers." A " kipper " now means a salmon cured by salt, sugar, 

 and drying. It is in the sea, and not in fresh water, that salmon 

 grow " big and fat." After the first year they do not increase in 

 size in fresh water, but, on the contrary, diminish in bulk. When 

 we say a " clear fresh-run " salmon, we mean one in good condition, 

 bright and fat, and caught just on its return from the sea to its native 

 river. In a few days afterwards, it is no longer clear and fresh-run, 

 and in two or three weeks loses its fat or curd, becomes compara- 

 tively lean, and almost black on the head, gill-covers and back. 

 This is the result of its sojourn in fresh water, in which it no longer 

 finds that food on which it thrived in its salt-water feeding-grounds. 

 E. 



* An excellent poet, born in Warwickshire, 1563. Among his 

 works, is the Polijolbion, a chorographical description of the 

 rivers, mountains, forests, castles, etc., in this island. Though this 

 poem has great merit, it is rendered much more valuable by the 

 learned notes of Mr. Selden. The author died in 1631, and lies 

 buried among the poets in Westminster Abbey. H. 



