270 THE FRESH-WATER FISHES OF EUROl'K. 



to the sea. The old feeble fishes are not palatable or commonly used for food, 

 though occasionally salted or smoked and known as kipper salmon. 



The size varies with the food and river. Buckland attributed the large 

 size of Salmon in the Tay and Rhine to the abundance of Smelts which the 

 fish finds at the entrance to those streams, but the principal growth takes 

 place in the sea. This has been proved by gradually changing the water in 

 which Salmon have been hatched and kept in an aquarium. As the water be- 

 came more salt the fishes grew more active and voracious, taking many times 

 the quantity of food which satisfied them when the water was fresh, and 

 growing with marvellous- rapidity. A Grilse-kelt of two pounds, marked on 

 going down to the sea, returned, and was captured four months later, weighing 

 eight pounds ; while marked Salmon of ten pounds have similarly increased in 

 six months to seventeen pounds. Pennant records a marked fish weighing 

 seven and three-quarter pounds on the 7th of February, which weighed 

 seventeen and a half pounds when taken on the 17th of March following. 



The age to which Salmon live is not known, but was estimated by 

 Buckland at not less than fifteen years, and the weight steadily augments with 

 age. The heaviest Tay Salmon recorded by Buckland weighed seventy pounds. 

 Mr. Lloyd noticed one which passed through the hands of a London fishmonger 

 and weighed eighty-three pounds; and Von Siebold saw Salmon at Grodno, 

 in Russia, which weighed ninety-three pounds. A large proportion of the 

 fish seen in London weigh from twenty to forty pounds, but fish of all sizes 

 are sent to market. 



Salmon fishing is prohibited between the 1st of November and the 1st 

 of February, and for a month earlier net fishing is unlawful, though anglers 

 are permitted to catch Salmon during September, and in some localities they 

 are allowed to fish during November. 



There is also during the fishing season a close time every week, which 

 varies in duration, but is usually from noon on Saturday till six o'clock on 

 Monday morning, during which time free passage is allowed to the fish to 

 ascend the rivers to spawn. 



The Salmon grows to a length of from four to five feet, though the 

 female becomes mature at a length of about fifteen inches, and the male at a 

 length of seven or eight inches. Salmon are entirely absent from the Medi- 

 terranean basin, but widely distributed in the rivers of northern and central 

 Europe, as far south as the north of Spain ; and they are found in North 

 America. The fish has popular names in all countries. In Sweden it is known 

 as Lax, in Finland as Lohi, in Germany as Lacks, and sometimes as Salm, in 

 Holland it is Zalm, in France it is Saumon, though the hook-nosed males are 

 designated Beeard. In Great Britain the name differs with the age, although 



