4 THE SALMON 



smolts or samlets, and come back again enormously 

 increased in size to the same rivers which they left in 

 their infancy. 



The able author of the Badminton volume on 

 fishing writes of the great progress of our knowledge 

 on the subject during the last two decades. No 

 doubt some problems have been solved by experi- 

 ment and observation, but I incline to rather a 

 modest view of the advance made, and to dwell upon 

 the difficulties still unsolved, rather than upon the 

 additions made to our stock of positive information. 

 Let me take old Izaak Walton's ' Complete Angler,' 

 published in 1653, to see what was known at that 

 time by that not very accurate compiler and observer, 

 premising that most of his information was what 

 lawyers would call ' hearsay ' only, and that it is not 

 certain that he ever saw a live salmon in his life. It 

 is true that he makes a casual allusion to having 

 caught them ; but he gives no account of his 

 adventures with them ; and they did not haunt his 

 usual hunting grounds. 



' The salmon is accounted the king of freshwater 

 fish, and is ever bred in rivers relating to the sea. 

 He is said to breed or cast his spawn in most rivers 

 in themo7ith of August, some say that then they dig a 

 hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel, and then 



