APPENDIX 173 



salmon. Iron Mill Pond extends from the mill nearly 

 up to Funtley flour mill, and in the little river called the 

 back river, which goes as far as Long Water Bridge 

 hatches, salmon-peel from i lb. to 5 and 6 lbs. have been 

 caught. In the month of February, should the weather be 

 mild, which some years it is, good sport can be had fishing 

 with an artificial palmer fly, taking some trout from i to 

 2 lbs., as well as salmon-peel from |^ to 2 lbs., with a breeze 

 from the south-west to cause a ripple on the water. In 

 the small river named above, salmon and salmon-peel 

 spawn from just below the iron mills on different beds 

 of gravel, and opposite to them^ and also in the little 

 back river as far as Long Water Bridge. There are 

 lampreys in the rivers all the way, and they spawn in 

 the beds of gravel used by the salmon and salmon-peel, 

 commencing in April. 



"Many persons labour underagreat mistake concerning 

 salmon at their spawning time. The male is of a red 

 colour, with a hook in its lower jaw, which rises above 

 its upper jaw, and they fancy it is a different species of 

 fish, and call it the trout bouger. The hook in the jaw 

 is caused by its being poor. That there has been fish 

 in Southampton Water with large red spots on them, as 

 have river trout, I know, for one year I caught them in 

 my nets from i lb. up to 7 and 8 lbs., but no larger, as many 

 as sixteen in one week. They were the same year caught 

 in the Haven, and up the Old River. Iheir flesh was 

 of a bright red colour, and gentlemen who purchased 

 them said they were most delicious, preferable to salmon. 

 They left suddenly, and I never saw any of the kind 

 afterwards. 



*' Salmon and salmon-peel are very silly fishes, for when 

 they enter the river, and a person happens to espy them 

 as they are swimming along, they will make for the first 

 hollow under a bank, and should they be unable to hide 

 their whole bodies within it, so long as their head is out 

 of sight, they will allow themselves to be thrown out of 

 the water. This is so with regard to trout also. 



"A mullet can swim fast. I have seen in the summer 

 large salmon-peel swimming along with roaches, and 

 now and then the salmon-peel would dart at and catch 

 a roach of J lb. or so, in the same manner as a trout will 



