WHENCE THE NAME SALMO f 81 



PISCATOK. They are as local as they are 

 provincial ; but whence derived is somewhat 

 uncertain. Perhaps mort may be from old 

 Norse, murta ; Danish, murt ; Suiv-Grothic, mbrt 

 a trout ; and spod, from the Danish, speed, signify- 

 ing tender, delicate. I am indebted for these 

 derivations, conjectural as they are, to the author 

 of the work of which we were speaking ; and they 

 are as plausible as the derivations of many 

 others in common use, especially the names of 

 fishes. 



AMICUS. That I had not thought of. Pray 

 are the words by which the Salmonidse are 

 now known, such as you speak of, so obscure 

 and unintelligible as regards their signification ? 



PISCATOR. I fear I must answer in the 

 affirmative. Let us go over them, beginning 

 with the generic name Salmo. You will smile 

 when I say it is a question whether the word 

 is derived from a river, the Sale, a branch of 

 the Elbe, frequented by the fish, or from sal, 

 salt, it having been chiefly known to the 

 Eomans, and in the market of Eome as a 

 salted fish. Pliny, I believe, is the earliest 

 author in which mention is made of it, and that 

 very briefly and not very correctly, seemingly 



