The Compleat ^Angler 



winter, both the melter and spawner ; but if they be stopped by 

 flood-gates or weirs or lost in the fresh waters, then those so left be- 

 hind by degrees grow sick, and lean, and unseasonable, and kipper ; 

 that is to say, have bony gristles grow out of their lower chaps (not 

 unlike a hawk's beak) which hinders their feeding ; and in time such 

 fish, so left behind, pine away and die. 'Tis observed that he may 

 live thus one year from the sea ; but he then grows insipid and taste- 

 less, and loses both his blood and strength, and pines and dies the 

 second year. And 'tis noted that those little salmons called skeggers, 

 which abound in many rivers relating to the sea, are bred by such sick 

 salmons that might not go to the sea ; and that though they abound, 

 yet they never thrive to any considerable bigness. 



But if the old salmon gets to the sea, then that gristle, which 

 shows him to be kipper, wears away, or is cast off (as the eagle is 

 said to cast his bill) and he recovers his strength, and comes next 

 summer to the same river, if it be possible, to enjoy the former 

 pleasures that there possessed him ; for (as one has wittily observed) 

 he has, like some persons of honour and riches, which have both 

 their winter and summer houses, the fresh rivers for summer, and the 

 salt water for winter, to spend his life in ; which is not (as Sir 

 Francis Bacon hath observed in his History of Life and Death} above 

 ten years. And it is to be observed that though the salmon does 

 grow big in the sea, yet he grows not fat but in fresh rivers ; and it 

 is observed that the farther they get from the sea, they be both the 

 fatter and better. 



Next I shall tell you, that though they make very hard shift to 

 get out of the fresh rivers into the sea, yet they will make a harder 

 shift to get out of the salt into the fresh rivers, to spawn, or possess 

 the pleasures that they have formerly found in them : to which end 

 they will force themselves through flood-gates, or over weirs or 

 hedges, or stops in the water, even to a height beyond common belief. 

 Gesner speaks of such places as are known to be above eight feet high 

 above water. And our Camden mentions (in his 'Britannia'} the like 

 wonder to be in Pembrokeshire, where the river Tivy falls into the 

 sea ; and that the fall is so downright, and so high, that the people 

 stand and wonder at the strength and sleight by which they see the 



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