62 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



was always privileged earlier than any river in 

 Scotland from this cause ; l and it will be evident 

 that the salmon taken in December and January 

 are the most valuable produce : for though they 

 appear to be only one third of the total number, 

 yet from their size they constitute more than half 

 the weight." 



The most forward rivers in Ireland, I am in- 

 formed by the London fishmongers, and from 

 other sources, are those on the western coast. In 

 England, perhaps the Severn produces the finest 

 salmon during the winter months ; and the Lord 

 Viscount Clive, proprietor of a salmon fishery in 

 the Severn, near Poole Quay, says 2 the best fish 

 are commonly taken there in November, December, 

 and January, though they are not numerous, and 

 that in the Dovey and Tivy, two rivers with which 

 he is well acquainted, the salmon are always in the 

 best season at the period when the Severn salmon 

 are in the worst condition. 



But if salmon prefer the warmest rivers in the 

 winter, they spawn earliest in those that are most 

 cold. Thus in the shallow mountain streams which 

 pour into the Tay nearer its sources (I do not 

 mean such as may issue from lochs), the fish spawn 

 much earlier than those in the main bed of the 

 river. The late John Crerar, head fisherman and 

 forester to the Duke of Atholl, wrote thus in his 

 manuscript : 



1 The Thurso and Helmsdale freeze very readily, yet they are fully 

 as early as the Ness. It is no uncommon thing to take fish with the 

 fly in these rivers after thick ice has been poled off the pools. ED. 

 2 Minutes of Evidence taken in 1825, &c. p. 14. 



