84 CONFUSION OF NAMES. 



mentioned in point, applicable to one of 



them. 



" Teque inter geminas species neutrumque et utrumque, 

 Qui necdum salmo, nee jam salar, ambiguusque 

 Amborum, medio Fario intercepte sub aevo." 



Now as Ausonius was a native of Gaul, of 

 Bordeaux, he might have had an opportunity 

 of becoming familiar with the names as applied 

 to the salmon provincially used, and the fisher- 

 men of the Garonne might have made as many 

 distinctions (which his words imply) as some of 

 ours do at present, or till very recently : take 

 the Eibble, for instance. Willughby informs 

 us, in his Historia Piscium, that the fishermen of 

 that river applied to the salmon no less than 

 six different names, according to the age of 

 the fish ; calling those of one year, smelts, 

 those of the second, sprods, of the third, morts, 

 of the fourth, fork-tails, of the fifth, ha]f-fish, 

 and of the sixth, lastly, when presumed to be 

 of full size, and not till then, salmon. And, 

 in Connemara, I have heard nearly as many 

 distinctive names used, founded on a like sup- 

 position as to age; thus they call there the 

 young fish, before descending to the sea, fry 

 (salmon-fry), on their first return, peel, on their 



