H4 The Complete Angler 



gristles grow out of their lower chaps, not unlike a 

 hawk's beak, which hinders their feeding ; and, in 

 time, such fish so left behind pine away and die. 

 'Tis observed, that he may live thus one year from 

 the sea; but he then grows insipid and tasteless, 

 and loses both his blood and strength, and pines 

 and dies the second year. And 'tis noted, that 

 those little Salmons called Skeggers, which abound 

 in many rivers relating to the sea, are bred by such 

 sick Salmons that might not go to the sea, and that 

 though they abound, yet they never thrive to any 

 considerable bigness. 



But if the old Salmon gets to the sea, then that 

 gristle which shews him to be kipper, wears away, 

 or is cast off, as the eagle is said to cast his bill, 

 and he recovers his strength, and comes next 

 summer to the same river, if it be possible, to 

 enjoy the former pleasures that there possest him ; 

 for, as one has wittily observed, he has, like some 

 persons of honour and riches which have both their 

 winter and summer houses, the fresh rivers for 

 summer, and the salt water for winter, to spend his 

 life in; which is not, as Sir Francis Bacon hath 

 observed in his History of Life and Death, above 

 ten years. And it is to be observed, that though 

 the Salmon does grow big in the sea, yet he grows 

 not fat but in fresh rivers ; and it is observed, that 

 the farther they get from the sea, they be both the 

 fatter and better. 



Next, I shall tell you, that though they make very 

 hard shift to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea, 

 yet they will make harder shift to get out of the salt 

 into the fresh rivers, to spawn, or possess the pleasures 

 that they have formerly found in them : to which 

 end, they will force themselves through floodgates, 

 or over weirs, or hedges, or stops in the water, even 

 to a height beyond common belief. Gesner speaks 



