NATURAL HIS 'WRY 7 



is in them that cuckoos turn into sparrow-hawks in the 

 winter, that the hairs of cows' tails are transformed 

 into eels, and other and even stranger delusions. 



Izaak Walton goes on : ' The salmon having 

 spent their appointed time and done their natural 

 duty in the fresh waters, they then haste to the sea 

 before winter, both the melter and spawner ; but if they 

 be stopped by floodgates and weirs, or lost in the 

 fresh waters, then those left behind grow sick and 

 lean and unseasonable, and kipper, that is to say, 

 have bony 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 salmon 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.' 



This paragraph is, of course, extremely inaccurate. 

 Salmon certainly do not go back to the sea before 

 the winter, merely leaving behind those unfortunate 

 companions who are stopped on their return by 



