LARGE FISH. 221 



over most points of interest in connection with the 

 natural history of the salmon. My views and con- 

 jectures are possibly erroneous, but they are not, it will 

 be granted, altogether without foundation. In regard 

 to impregnation or the breeding of the fish, they are 

 certainly more plausible than the commonly received 

 notions on this subject those whereupon a series of 

 experiments have been conducted, the results of which, 

 were there no defect in this principle to counteract 

 them, involve monster or unnatural productions, and 

 reflect, without attempt at palliation, upon the con- 

 gruity of Nature' s ongoings. 



I shall now, in connection with the leading matter of 

 this chapter, viz., the growth of the salmon, adduce one 

 or two facts relative to the size it occasionally arrives 

 at in our British rivers. During its condition as a grilse 

 it has been known to attain the weight of sixteen pounds. 

 I have frequently seen grilses captured in Tweed weigh- 

 ing eleven or twelve pounds. These were late-run fish 

 that left the sea in the month of October ; but what I 

 consider to be a singular, if not an unexampled circum- 

 stance in the history of Tweed fish, is that in 1846, a 

 year remarkable for the scarcity of grilses throughout 

 Scotland, among the first fish of this description that 

 were sold at Kelso, in the month of July, were two 

 weighing seven pounds each ; nor, throughout the sea- 

 son referred to, was there visible, in keeping with the 

 month, that gradual increase in the growth of the fish, 

 so manifest during ordinary seasons. Salmon, how- 

 ever, were more than usually plentiful throughout the 

 summer, and these exceeding the average size. The 

 largest captured with the fly weighed about thirty 

 pounds, but two were taken in the neighbourhood 

 of Berwick upwards of forty pounds. It is not very 



