OF THE SALMON. 61 



dress they'J entirely* change their habits, for they 

 gather in bands, leap and sport through the pond, 

 feed greedily, and search round every corner of the 

 pond either for more food or for an outlet, or more 

 likely for both, for it seems that at this age their 

 hunger increases, and they partake more of the glut- 

 tonous nature that produces their rapid growth in the 

 sea, where only they can get that desire fully satisfied, 

 and where they arrive at perfection. At the real 

 smolt state, such as we see in rivers as well as in 

 artificial ponds, their size varies from and between 

 four and six inches, but the great majority are about 

 five inches ; those above and below that are merely 

 exceptions. When they get into the river in this 

 hungry state, and are convinced that those bred in 

 the river are the same, they go in bands like locusts, 

 and devour up every thing in the shape of flies, 

 worms, and insects; from this nature arises the 

 fearful destruction of them by rods and flies, crooked 

 pins and worms, or whatever can be offered to them 

 in the shape of food ; and also at mills where it has 

 been a practice from time immemorial to fix creels at 

 the bye spout of the trough, and in the morning the 

 creel was found full to the brim of the smolt that had 

 come down the lead. This is a system of poaching 

 that, with the exception of a few rivers, has been 

 entirely neglected, although it be among the very 

 worst kinds of it. When the smolts get down past 

 all these traps and into the open river they gather 

 together in bands, and may be seen for many yards as 

 close as herrings ; but in a calm evening, a time when 

 they scatter over the river in search of food, they are 

 seen leaping as thick as a hail shower, which shows 

 the immense numbers that are then in the river, and 

 going down. The greatest throng of them is in April 

 and May, corresponding with the greatest throng of 



