The North Country Angler, 33 



or second flood that happens in April, or begin- 

 ning of Mny: I have observed in March, when 

 the spawn heaps swell to a considerable height, 

 and the young fry make their first appearance, 

 that many of them had the bag or skin of the roe 

 hanging at the vent of them, which had nourished 

 and fed them till they could procure it for them- 

 selves ; and then they made to the shallows, close 

 to the shore, where the larger fish could not get to 

 prey upon them: As they grew, they fed greedily 

 in the shallow streams till the time I have men- 

 tioned, when these salmon smelts are all gone, and 

 the fry of salmon trouts, either along with them, 

 or soon after; between which and the salmon fry 

 I could never observe any specific difference; 

 only that it is not so finely shaped, nor its tail so 

 much forked as the salmon smelt, and its back 

 is of a darker colour: and this, indeed, is all the 

 difference between the salmon itself, and the sal- 

 mon trout, except further, that the salmon trout 

 never g^ows to such a size as the salmon will, 

 though I have taken many of them a yard long, 

 and is never, in its best season, so red as the sal* 

 mon, nor of so delicious a taste. When these 

 are all gone to sea, the pink stays in the streams 

 all the summer. 



This pink differs from the salmon smelt, in its 

 having a row of dark oval spots, reaching with 

 the lower end to the line that goes down the 

 middle of each side, which I have not observed 

 in any other fish whatever. The number of these 

 spots, I think, is the same in all of them, 

 though I cannot now be certain what the 

 ber is. 



