THE SALMON. 15 



when entering into fresh water; and some rare 

 instances are related of sprats and other small fish 

 being found in their stomachs at these times. 



The size of the salmon depends upon the river in 

 which they were spawned, some producing large 

 and others small fish. They have been taken in 

 the Tay about seventy, and in the Tweed and Clyde 

 between fifty and sixty pounds' weight. * In America, 

 even in their very large rivers, they seldom exceed 

 seventeen pounds. Indeed, every river has a dis- 

 tinct fish of its own, exhibiting not only a difference 

 in size, but in appearance, and perceived as evi- 

 dently as the variety in the breed of our beeves and 

 horses. 



It is not an easy matter to determine to what age 

 the salmon or other migratory fishes live, as they 

 have so many snares and dangers to encounter, both 

 in fresh and in salt waters, that few or none ever 

 reach the years nature has assigned to them. Bacon 

 says, but we think erroneously, " As the salmons 

 grow fast their lives are but short, the same with 

 the trouts ; but the perch grows slowly, and lives 

 long."f The old adage, "soon ripe, soon rotten " 

 is often applied with truth to the longevity of ani- 

 mals as well as of plants ; but it is a rule that does 



* A fish of the latter weight was, some few years ago, caught 

 in the Wye, near Monmouth, and presented to the Duke of 

 Beaufort, by J. Evans, Esq., of Chepstow. Edin. Ency. 



f Salmones cito grandescunt, brevi vivunt, quod etiam 

 faciunt truttae ; ac perca tarde crescit, et vivit diutius. Hist, 

 vita et mortis 



