ON THE CLOSE SEASON. 25 



salted state, an ample supply for the scarcity of 

 the winter. Deprived of the rich and luxuriant 

 food of the ocean, and depending entirely on the 

 meagre productions of the fresh water, the rich- 

 ness of the salmon soon begins to diminish ; the 

 flesh then changes from a rich crimson to a pale 

 yellow ; and hence arises the notion of a salmon 

 being in season in different rivers at different times 

 of the year : while the fact is, that they are only in 

 season when they first come from the sea. After 

 the roe is formed, though the fish may be eatable 

 and tolerably good, yet from that period the flesh 

 gets worse and worse, until it becomes absolutely 

 disgusting to the sight and nauseous to the taste ; 

 consequently they are in season in all rivers at the 

 same time of the year, though individual fish may 

 be in season in the same or different rivers at dif- 

 ferent periods. It may happen that a fish taken 

 in the Exe shall be good, when one taken in the 

 Dart shall not be so, and vice Versa ; but a general 

 conclusion from a circumstance of this sort should 

 not be drawn when the goodness or badness of the 

 fish entirely depends on the time he has been ab- 

 sent from the sea, and returned to the rivers. A 

 bad and a good fish may be taken on the same day 

 in the same river. 



It is likely that salmon shed their ova at differ- 

 ent times : one author now before me says, so 

 early as August ; I have no doubt but some may, 

 but the great bulk certainly do not until later in 

 the year ; it is this difference in the time of spawn- 



