SALMON-FISHING IN BRACKISH WATER. 199 



not actually at sea, salmon are either in brackish 

 water close to the river's mouth, or running up 

 and down with the flow and ebb, or else pushing 

 up above the influence of the tide : and, there- 

 fore, never stationed in the mid space, between 

 the stream and the mouth of the river; their 

 object being to ascend above the tide, if the 

 water be adapted to their taste, or else to retire 

 seaward till it suits them. 



Herb. Is it an ascertained fact that salmon 

 really float backwards and forwards with the tide, 

 as it ebbs and flows ? I had always thought that 

 they came right on straight up the river, as soon 

 as they once left the " deep, deep sea." 



Theoph. By no means so, as a general rule, 

 except it be such fish as, with spawn in an 

 advanced state, come to the mouth of the river 

 late in the season. These, indeed, if a river be 

 at all adapted to their taste, push up it at once 

 without the hesitation which the clear bright fish 

 exhibit ; but the latter hover to and fro, very 

 considerably, for days* often for weeks, almost 

 months,t before they finally ascend for the pur- 

 pose of spawning. Some persons conceive that 

 many fish, if the river continue low, or is not 

 otherwise suited to them, will leave its mouth 



* See Appendix to Second Report on Salmon Fisheries of the United 

 Kingdom, 3d June, 1825, pp. 13, 38, 71, 104, 109, 116, &c. Id. June, 

 1824, pp. 35, 74, &c. 



t Id. June, 1825, p. 116. 



