THE COMMON SALMON. 29 



But not naturalists alone, who are apt to copy their 

 predecessors with somewhat too liberal a faith, but 

 even practical men, who have made their observations 

 from nature, have arrived also at false conclusions. 



Mr. Yarrell, in the second edition of his beautiful 

 work on British Fishes, has given so ample and so 

 scientific an account of the Salmon, deduced from the 

 late recent and important discoveries, that little 

 remains to be said on its natural history. 



I shall therefore be as brief on this subject as 

 possible ; adding, however, such remarks on the habits 

 of the three most valuable species of the Salmonidce 

 as my practical acquaintance with the subject may 

 enable me to supply. 



And. first, for the 



COMMON SALMON. 



Salmo Salar. 



Generic Characters. — " Head smooth, body cov- 

 ered with scales ; two dorsal fins, the first supported 

 by rays, the second fleshy and without rays ; teeth on 

 the vomer, both palatine bones, and all the maxillary 

 bones ; branchiostegous rays, varying in number, 

 generally from ten to twelve, but sometimes unequal 

 on two sides of the head of the same fish." — Yarrell. 



This splendid fish leaves the sea, and comes up the 

 Tweed at every period of the year in greater or lesser 

 quantities, becoming more abundant in the river as the 

 summer advances ; that is, provided sufficient rain falls 

 to swell the water to such an extent as will discolour 



