40 The North Country Angler. 



some other fish, as we read of swallows, and 

 other birds of passage. 



The lightest and strongest go the farthest up 

 the rivers, and the larger and heavier press up as 

 far as they can get, if not to the place where 

 they were bred, choosing large pools, and pretty 

 deep gravelly streams. 



As they come up the river, they swim close 

 to the bottom, and generally in the middle and 

 deepest part of it, making tracks in the gravel 

 and sand like sheep tracks, by which we fishers 

 know when any salmon are in the river. And 

 It has been observed, that the pilots or guides, 

 as fishermen call them, often come to the top of 

 the water, as if to reconnoitre, if I may use a 

 modern military term, and see what coast they 

 are upon. They swim very fast, and generally 

 more at night than day; and rest when they 

 come to convenient places, under bushes, weeds, 

 banks, or stones, and then the whole shoal run 

 again : The reason, 1 suppose, of their swim- 

 ming in the middle, and at the bottom of the 

 river, is, because that part is the least disturbed 

 by a flood, and there is the safest and best 

 travelling. 



They generally choose streams to spawn in, 

 at the head of great deep pools, both for their 

 own security from their mortal enemy the otter, 

 and the greater preservation of the young fry, 

 which we may observe in the spring, very near 

 the shore of those streams Vhere they were bred, 

 waiting for a flood to carry them down. 



When the gib fish has found a stream that he 

 likes, he makes a hole, as a swine works in the 



