SALMON-NETTING AT CHRISTCHURCH 47 



freshness alone would justify their reputation in the 

 London markets. But there is a quality and refine- 

 ment alike of flavour and appearance in the salmon 

 of Christchurch which lifts them into a rank just 

 one degree higher than that enjoyed by any others, 

 even of their justly honoured race. The delicacy of 

 their flavour is beyond verbal description ; and while 

 some vainly point to analogies in this or that taste 

 of other and baser fishes, or find a reason for their 

 excellence in the luxurious food of the fish on the 

 Solent shore, pointing to the fact that a Christchurch 

 salmon fresh from the sea will look at no less dainty 

 bait than the pink-fleshed tail of a prawn, others 

 more justly claim that their flavour is due to their 

 being taken at the exact psychological moment in 

 which their spirits reach the acme of salmonoid 

 exuberance, at the instant of leaving the sea and 

 entering the river ; and, as extremes meet, the taste 

 of the salmon which has met its death in an ecstasy 

 of pleasure may well excel even that of the sucking- 

 pig to which a gusto may be imparted, according to 

 ancient writers, if its death be caused by flagellation, 

 in an intenerating ecstasy of pain. 



Contrary to experience, the largest fish taken from 

 the Christchurch river seem to have been captured 

 with the rod. In the casts of fish in the room at 

 South Kensington, which contains the collections of 

 the late Frank Buckland, is one of a 52 Ib. salmon 

 taken at Christchurch with the rod. It was a female 

 fish, in the very brightest and best condition. A 



