80 MORTS AND SPODS. 



burgh, amongst the rocks under that picturesque 

 wide-spanning arch, the utile dulci bridge, so 

 inscribed, and so fittingly. 



AMICUS. As a traveller I know well the 

 feeling to which you refer and its solemnity, 

 and could wish myself younger to have the 

 enjoyment as an angler unchecked by thoughts 

 of risk of health, and other prudential considera- 

 tions. Now to return to our fish; pray, what is 

 the fish which is here called a Mort, and what 

 that called a Spod ? 



PISCATOR, The terms, I need not tell you, 

 are provincial. Here, I believe, they are 

 indiscriminately applied to the white trout or sea 

 trout and to the salmon on its first advent from 

 the sea. The distinction between morts and 

 spods rests chiefly on size ; the former of larger 

 size, commonly from a pound and a half to four 

 pounds and a half, the latter, smaller, from ten 

 ounces to a pound and a half. 



AMICUS. Provincial as the terms are, they 

 sound oddly. What is their derivation and 

 meaning, if they have any ? If there be truth 

 in the Northmen original of the people, ought 

 we not to find that these terms have a Norwe- 

 gian root T 



