SPECIES OF THE SALMON, 33 



mon, they must mean fish of the salmo genus ; 

 such as a great variety of fish which have some 

 characteristics in common with the salmon, but 

 are no more salmon, or any thing like it, than a pig 

 is like a horse, further than that each has four legs. 

 This then is only opinion, but that species is a na- 

 tural distinction is a decided fact. They call a lit- 

 tle grayling, which never exceeds seven or eight 

 inches in length, a salmon, salmo salmoletus ; a 

 common trout, salmo fario ; and the different sorts 

 of chars are all ranked with the salmo, though 

 they are entirely fresh-water fish, and never go 

 into the sea. Authors may class 29,000 such fish 

 among the salmo species, if they will, but that will 

 scarcely make them salmon ; they are all a distinct 

 sort, having nothing to do with the salmo salar, or 

 common salmon, which I believe is the sole ob- 

 ject of the laws we have been just considering. I 

 also believe that "fish of the salmon kind" means 

 the peal and the sea-trout, which are now con- 

 tended to be young salmon ; and I do not think that 

 of this fish there is more than one species, but rather 

 that it is the same in England, Ireland, Scotland, 

 and the north of Europe. What the American 

 salmon may be, I know not, but I have been told 

 they are not different from our own. Some con- 

 tend for varieties of species, because the salmon 

 in some rivers differ a little in figure, colour, 

 and flavour from those in others : there is fifty 

 times greater apparent dissimilarity among the 

 oxen and the sheep of different parts of the king- 



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