96 SALMONID.E. 



noticed one of seventy-four pounds : the largest known, as far 

 as I am aware, came into tlie possession of Mr. Groves, the fish- 

 monger in Bond Street, about the season of 1821. This Salmon, 

 a female, weighed eighty-three pounds; was a short fish for 

 the weight, but of very unusual thickness and breadth. When 

 cut up, the flesh was fine in colour, and proved of excellent 

 quality. 



" The Salmon of the largest size killed by angling, of which 

 I have been able to collect particulars, are as follows : — In 

 the Thames, October 3, 1812, at Shepperton Deeps, Mr. 

 G. Marshall, of Brewer Street, London, caught and killed a 

 Salmon that w^eighed twenty-one pounds four ounces, with a 

 single gut, without a landing net." 



Sir Humphrey Davy is recorded as having caught an 

 immense fish, weighing about forty-two pounds, immediately 

 above Yair-bridge, and captured him after a severe struggle. 



Mr. Lascelles, in his *"' Letters on Sporting," says, "The largest 

 Salmon I ever knew taken with a fly was in Scotland ; it 

 weighed fifty-four pounds and a half." 



In this country, except in Canada, where there are many 

 excellent and enthusiastic Salmon-fishers, this noble sport is 

 but little followed, and there are few records extant of the 

 number or size of fish taken. 



It will be sufiicient to observe, however, that in the St. Law- 

 rence and its tributaries, especially those great streams coming 

 in from the northward, the Saguenaw particularly, the number 

 and size of the Salmon are at least equal to those in the finest 

 English or Scottish rivers ; an intimate friend of my own having 

 killed within a few years, on the St. Lawrence, near the mouth 



