48 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



kept in the rays until the little fish become strong 

 enough to bear the external temperature/' 



Not to derogate from the ingenuity of the celestial 

 nation, I have no doubt but that fowls may be dis- 

 pensed with, and that a river may be stocked with 

 any sort of common fish by transmitting the ova 

 and milt amalgamated, embedded in gravel, and 

 placed in a vessel filled up with water. One of our 

 best fish, namely Trout, cannot be sent alive even 

 to a moderate distance. It is worth while, there- 

 fore, to try the experiment. According to a letter 

 published by the late Sir Anthony Carlisle, some- 

 thing nearly approaching to this was done by him 

 in the river Wandle about thirty years ago. He 

 then imbedded the ova of the Salmon in the gravel 

 without the milt of the male, leaving the River 

 Trout to impregnate them : he asserts that they 

 did so, and that the river was afterwards full of the 

 fry so produced. It would be interesting to put the 

 Salmon eggs properly impregnated with the milt of 

 the same species in one of our best streams in the 

 upper parts of the Test, for instance and to in- 

 vestigate the result from year to year. 



Salmon keep on increasing in size till they attain 

 a prodigious weight, even up to eighty-three pounds ;* 



* This 83 pounder still remains the largest on record, so far as 

 I know. But a dead fish was found in the Wye in 1920 which might 

 conceivably have weighed as much when alive. It was 59^ inches 

 long with a girth of 33^ inches, dimensions which should give a 

 weight of over 80 Ib. As so often happens, however, the weight 

 was not taken at the time. The monster had been hooked by some 

 angler and had a minnow in its mouth. A week later the fish was 

 found again much decomposed and damaged, and it then weighed 

 43 Ib. (ED.) 



