192 THE SALMON 



will always be, a delicacy of the rich. We are far from 

 saying that size is in itself a recommendation. On 

 the contrary, in our opinion, he is never in greater 

 perfection than in 6 Ib. or 8 Ib. grilse. But when- 

 ever a portentous fish comes to town, he not only 

 figures on the slabs of some fashionable fishmonger, 

 but is glorified in special paragraphs in the journals, 

 as if he were some star of song or a Christianised 

 heathen potentate. When the papers are chronicling 

 the events of the past year, the monster salmon have 

 their obituary memorials with statesmen and the 

 distinguished lights of science. For the most 'part 

 the mighty departed have been netted in Tweed or 

 Tay ; and Scotland, the land of the mountain and the 

 flood, is/w- excellence among European countries the 

 home of the salmon. Indeed, Scotland would be the 

 ideal Paradise of the fish were it not for the cruives, 

 which blockade the upper waters and deny him fair 

 play with the angling sportsman. Even the alderman 

 and gourmand may sympathise with his wrongs, for 

 the firmness and richness of the flaky flesh comes of 

 constant exercise and hard condition. Naturally he is 

 an athlete in highest training, and his vaulting ambi- 

 tion might take Excelsior for its motto. The most 

 affectionately domesticated of all living creatures, his 

 marvellous instincts bring him ever back to his birth- 



