ON THE GROWTH OF THE SALMON. 



often that such large fish as those last-mentioned fre- 

 quent Tweed. 



I have heard of salmon sixty or even seventy pounds 

 in weight. One of the latter size or nearly so was 

 brought to Billingsgate in 1795, and sold subsequently 

 by a fishmonger at one shilling per pound. On the 

 Wye, a few years ago, a fish of sixty pounds was taken 

 by J. Evans, Esq., and presented to the Duke of Beaufort. 

 Pennant states that he has heard of one seventy-four 

 pounds, and I recollect mention being made in some 

 newspaper, not very long ago, of the capture of two 

 salmon on the north-west coast of Scotland weighing 

 eighty pounds each. According to Mr. Yarrell, in 

 1821, Mr. Groves, of Bond Street, had one in his 

 possession of the extraordinary weight of eighty-three 

 pounds, and Mr. Lascelles, in his " Letters on Sport- 

 ing," says " The largest salmon I ever knew taken 

 with a fly was in Scotland ; it weighed fifty-four and 

 a half pounds." 



What is designated by fishermen the " grey schule" 

 is the largest and most compactly built order of the 

 salar or salmon proper. The fish so called ascend, for 

 the purpose of spawning, late in the year, seldom be- 

 fore the last week of October, and continue leaving the 

 sea as stragglers, until February. They are evidently, 

 from their make, fish of greater age than the general 

 run of salmon, varying from these, in the same propor- 

 tion, in respect to external appearance, as they do from 

 the grilses. 



The power of the salmon, in surmounting cascades 

 and waterfalls, has frequently been discussed. Mr. 

 Yarrell states that its highest leaps are from eight to 

 ten feet. At the falls of Bogie, on the Black-water 

 in Ross-shire, I have frequently had an opportunity 



