FISHES OF THE DISTRICT 167 



salmon which is now placed outside the range of 

 controversy. It is definitely known that in the 

 great majority of cases salmon return to spawn in 

 the river where they were bred. What it is that 

 enables a fresh-run fish to do this is not accurately 

 known, though Buckland was of the opinion that 

 the chief sense employed was that of smell. A 

 fact that bears on this point is that salmon are 

 turned back by pollution that they refuse to enter 

 impure rivers which they once frequented. 



This aristocrat of the waters is essentially a sea- 

 fish ; and at whatever season it may enter a river, 

 the act is closely connected with the reproduction 

 of its kind. Salmon run in English rivers from 

 January to December, although the autumn months 

 mark the time of the heaviest migrations. Entering 

 rivers to spawn, going down to the sea, and 

 re-entering the rivers constitutes, shortly, the life- 

 history of the salmon. Speaking generally, it feeds 

 but little, if at all, in fresh water and loses weight ; 

 in the sea it feeds ravenously, and increases at a 

 remarkable rate. 



It is not my intention this is not the place to 

 enter into vexed questions concerning the salmon ; 

 but it may be well to set down a few facts 

 concerning the fish in the rivers of the Lake 

 District. That salmon has always been plentiful 

 here there is abundant evidence. Our rivers were 

 systematically netted as early as the fourteenth 

 century. At quite early dates the importance of 

 protection was appreciated and close-times insti- 

 tuted. Primitive methods of marking salmon to 

 ascertain their rate of growth (by sticking pins into 

 their fins) was practised in the Eden upwards of 

 two centuries ago. 



