128 SALMON-FISHEBY OF SCOTLAND. 



ocean months before those of other rivers begin to take their 

 departure. If this were not the case, the salmon of the late 

 rivers would be all collected en masse at the mouths of their 

 respective rivers, till the water became sufficiently pure, or to 

 their taste, to induce them to enter. The fish of all the rivers 

 come with regularity at their respective seasons, be the taste 

 or quality of the water what they may, all proceeding, like 

 machines, obedient to their instincts : we observe the facts, and 

 that is all we can know of the matter. 



Mr Steavenson farther states (we, like to follow those scien- 

 tific gentlemen, there being always something new and particu- 

 larly edifying to be learnt from them) 



" I would wish to state, generally, that the fish taken in rivers are 

 always of finer or inferior quality according to the state the river is 

 in to receive them. When a river is in a state (that is, when the 

 water is exactly to their taste) to induce fish, we get them of much 

 finer quality than at a period when they do not enter so readily : 

 they are apparently better fed in better health, and in every 

 respect superior fish." 



This is a rare discovery. The feeding, and health, and 

 quality, and appearance of the fish depend, not upon the parts 

 they have come from, but upon the state of the water that is 

 to receive them. Cela est piquant ! It is no wonder if Mr 

 Steavenson was a favourite witness of the Committee. 



" The nearer (continues this poetical salmon-fisher) salmon are 

 got to salt water, the finer is their quality ; so much so, that any 

 one versed in the state of salmon, would at once be able to pick out 

 from five hundred head of fish those that had been more than two or 

 three days in the river : indeed, I am not sure that I could not dis- 

 tinguish the fish which had been taken ONE MILE from the sea !" 



Now, a salmon will run a mile in less than ten minutes or a 

 quarter of an hour. What an admirable coup d'ceil Mr Steaven- 

 son must have qu'il a le nez fin ! Baron Munchaussen himself 

 could scarcely do more. Messrs Hogarth, Little, and Wilson 

 all great salmon-fishers declare that it would be impossible to 

 see any difference in a salmon that had been only a week in 

 fresh water ; but these men are mere drivellers compared with 

 this salmon-fishing Mattadore, who can perceive the difference 



