CHAPTER II 



" So dainty salmons, chevins thunder-scared, 

 Feast-famous sturgeons, lampreys speckle-starr'd, 

 In the spring season the rough seas forsake, 

 And in the rivers thousand pleasures take." Du BARTAS. 



THE three species of the genus Salmo which are to 

 be found in the Tweed, and which afford most 

 sport to the angler, are the common salmon, or 

 Salmo solar ; the grey, or bull trout, Salmo eriox ; 

 and the salmon trout, Salmo trutta. The Salmo 

 fario also, or common trout, is, or rather used to 

 be, in great abundance there ; but of this latter 

 species I do not mean to treat. 1 



Although the salmon fisheries are of considerable 

 national importance, affording a great supply of food 

 and employment to thousands ; yet, surprising as it 

 may appear, the natural history and habits of the 

 fish itself have almost up to this time been very 

 imperfectly known. Indeed naturalists have been 

 altogether mistaken as to the appearance of the 

 fry, which at a certain growth they have supposed 

 to be a distinct species of fish ; and had it not been 

 for the skill and diligence of Mr. Shaw, who has 



1 Since Scrope's day the grayling (Thymallus vulgaris) has been 

 introduced, and is tolerably abundant in the lower reaches. ED. 



