SIXTH DAY.] STRA Y SALMON. 159 



tremendous flood, catching with the fly a large 

 salmon, that had mistaken his river, having come 

 into the Bush, near the Giant's Causeway, instead of 

 the Bann. No fish can be more distinct in the same 

 species than the fish of these two rivers, their length 

 to their girth being nearly in a ratio of 20 : 9 and 

 20 : 13.* I am going; good sport to you. 



EVENING. 



HAL. I am sure I may congratulate you on your 

 sport, for I see on the bank a fine salmon, three 

 grauls or grilses, and three large sea trout. 



ORN. You have not seen all, for we have crimped 

 two fish one a large salmon, and the other a trout 

 almost a yard long, and both in excellent season. 

 We have had great sport, and sport even of a kind 



[ * A striking example of a migratory fish losing its way, came to my 

 knowledge in Malta. I was assured there by a gentleman, who had 

 made Icthyology a special study, that he once saw a salmon, brought 

 for sale into the market of Valetta, which had been caught in the sea 

 washing that island. Now, as there are no rivers flowing into the 

 Mediterranean resorted to by this fish for breeding in, it may be 

 inferred, that the fish in question was a stray one that had lost its way 

 in the Atlantic, and had entered the Mediterranean by mistake in the 

 current from the ocean flowing through the Gut of Gibraltar. By 

 similar accidents it is easy to comprehend how all rivers communicating 

 with the ocean, fit by the qualities of their waters, may become the 

 habitual resort and breeding streams of migratory fish. J.D.] 



