130 ANGLING. 



CHARTER X. 



SALMON FISHING. 

 THE SALMON (Salmo salar). 



SALMON fishing is justly considered the highest branch of 

 the angler's art, and when we know that salmon occa- 

 sionally are to be taken by the rod up to between 501b. and 

 601b. in weight, we may well wonder what sort of tackle is 

 needed to subdue and draw to shore a fish of such size and 

 power; and when we consider the nature of the water 

 which the salmon constantly inhabits, the wonder may 

 even be increased tremendous currents, obstructed by 

 huge rocks, being their common habitat. There is little 

 need to dilate on the history of the salmon, but we must 

 give a short sketch of it. So far as we know it, it leaves 

 the sea and runs up the rivers to deposit its spawn, which 

 it does from November to the end of January chiefly. The 

 eggs, which are buried in the gravel, hatch in about 

 eighty or ninety days, or thereabout. The small fry, in 

 about a month or five weeks, when they have absorbed the 

 umbilical sac which is appended to them at their first 

 hatching, make their way out, and begin to seek for food. 

 From this time they grow more or less rapidly as parr, and 

 in about fourteen or fifteen months after birth a large pro- 

 portion of them become smolts ; up to that time they have 



