AND HOW TO CATCH HIM. 17 



pretty certain to happen early in the month, not the slightest 

 vestige of a salmon fry is to be met with, if we except a few soli, 

 tary parrs that may he found scattered about here and there in the 

 upper parts of the river, in which however they are far from nu- 

 merous ; for in a river so clear, and in most parts shallow, .they 

 could not remain there even if their size was less than that of 

 a minnow, without their presence being discovered. 



I have also had opportunities of seeing the rapid growth of the 

 salmon fry in the Test in Hampshire, particularly in the large 

 gutters in the water meadows between Nursling Mill and Moor 

 Court. Many of these contain wide channels, into which the 

 water is occasionally turned for the purpose of irrigating the mea- 

 dows, and which are let dry again when that end is accomplished ; 

 though at the hatch hole, where the waters are admitted a deep 

 pool usually remains. On passing one of these when trout fishing in 

 the river hard by, I discovered a shoal of a hundred or more of these 

 salmon fry, apparently about three or four inches long, swimming 

 about the pool, and rising eagerly at the gnats that were playing 

 about on the surface of the water. Passing the same spot about a 

 fortnight after, I again looked into the pool, and saw their number 

 had very considerably decreased, as I could not then count above a 

 dozen, but that they had visibly increased in bulk, being more 

 than twice as large as when I saw them last, much larger indeed 

 than salmon fry are usually found when they first descend to the 

 sea, and to which doubtless they would have taken their departure 

 ere then, but for the impassable barrier that kept them back ; by 

 which means doubtless many annually perished, being exposed to 

 herons and cormorants, the latter of whom often come up from 

 the sea for the purpose of foraging for food in the fresh water. I 

 afterwards mentioned this circumstance to the proprietor of the sal- 

 mon fishery at Testwood, and the following season, as soon as the 

 waters were turned out of the meadows, he went there with a net, 

 and, to use his own expressions, caught them " almost by bushel 

 fulls, and bundled them forth neck and crop into the river, to find 

 their way to sea as best they might :" but for this timely aid every 

 one of those fry must have perished. But numerous as the fry 

 are in this river, and in the Itchen also, both of which rivers dis- 

 charge themselves into the same estuary, yet few parrs are found 

 in either of them ; and all that I have seen caught there, have 

 been at least twice as large as the usual size of salmon fry when 

 they take their final leave for the salt water. D 



