THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 165 



then those so left behind by degrees 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. It is 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 it is 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 shows him to be a kipper wears away 

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

 and he recovers his strength and comes next sum- 

 mer to the same river, if it be possible, to enjoy the 

 former pleasures that there possessed him ; for as 

 one has wittily observed, he has, like some per- 

 sons of honor 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 ob- 

 served that the farther they get from the sea, they 

 be both the fatter and better. 



