SALMON. 521 



gradual progress, increase in number and size, till about the end 

 of July, which is at Berwick termed the Gilse time (the name gi- 

 ven to the fish at that age). At the end of July, or the beginning 

 of August, they lessen in number, but increase in sze, some being 

 six, seven, eight, or nine pounds weight. This appears to be a 

 Surprising growth; yet we have received from a gentleman at 

 Warringion an instance still more so. A salmon weighing seven 

 pounds three quarters, taken on the seventh of February, being 

 marked Vth scissars on the back fin and tail, and turned into the 

 river, was again taken on the seventeenth of the following March, 

 and then found to weigh seventeen pounds and a half*. 



H All fishermen agree that they never find any food in the sto- 

 mach of this fish. Perhaps during the spawning time they may 

 entirely neglect their food, as the Phocae, called sea-lions and sea- 

 bears, are known to do for months together during the breeding 

 season ; and it may be that, like those animals, the salmon return 

 to sea lank and lean, and come from it in good condition. Ft is 

 evident, that at times their food is both fish and worms, for the 

 angler uses, both with good success, as well as a large gaudy arti- 

 ficial fly, which the fish probably mistakes for a gay libellula or 

 dragon-fly. The capture about the. Tweed is prodigious : in a 

 good fishery, often a boat load, and sometimes near two, are 

 taken in a tide. Some few years ago there were above seven hun- 

 dred fish taken at one hawl, but from fifty to a hundred is very 

 frequent : the coopers in Berwick then begin to salt both salmon 

 and gilses in pipes and other large vessels, and afterwards barrel i 

 them to send abroad, having then more than the London markets 

 can take oft their hands. Most of the salmon taken before April, 

 or to thf setting-in of warm wea.tnr, is sent fresh to London in 

 baskets, unless now and then the vessel is disappoint d by con- 

 trary winds of sailing immediately ; in which case the fish is 

 brought ashore again, to the cooper's oflues, and boiled, pickled, 

 and kitted, and sent to the London markets by the same ship, and 

 fresh salmon put into the baskets in lieu of the stale ones. At the 

 beginning of the season, when a ship is on the point of sailing, 



* According to Dr. Bloch, the growth of the salmon appears to be much 

 slower than here stated. He informs us that a salmon of five or six years old 

 weighs from ten to twelve pounds. 



f The salmon barrel holds above forty-two gallons wine measure. 



