SALMON. 29 



preserve the balance in such frail and fragile machines. 

 The net was attached to the two boats, and connected 

 them. When all was clear, the fishermen made with their 

 paddles a considerable circle, and then reunited, drawing 

 in cautiously the sweep. They seemed very dexterous in 

 the management of their canoes, and perfectly unconscious 

 of danger. The first essay was a failure ; a Salmon of 

 ten or twelve pounds' weight leaped over the corks." Long 

 doubly-walled trammel-nets are now in use near Shrewsbury. 

 The length of the head of the Salmon, as compared to the 

 whole length of the fish, is as one to five : the eye rather small, 

 placed nearer to the point of the nose than to the posterior edge 

 of the gill-cover : the peculiarities of the teeth and the parts 

 of the operculum have been already described : the origin of 

 the last ray of the dorsal fin about half-way between the 

 point of the nose and the end of the tail ; the first two rays 

 simple and shorter than the third, which is the longest and 

 branched ; all the other rays of this fin branched ; the last 

 ray double, but arising from a single origin, is only counted 

 as one : the posterior edge of the base of the adipose fin is 

 half-way between the origin of the last dorsal fin-ray and the 

 end of the tail, and over the origin of the last ray of the anal 

 fin. The pectoral fin two-thirds of the length of the head ; 

 ventral fin in a vertical line under the middle of the dorsal 

 fin, with an axillary scale two-fifths of the length of the 

 ventral fin itself; the anal fin commences about half-way 

 between the origin of the ventral fin and the commencement of 

 the lower caudal fin-rays, the third ray the longest, the first 

 two rays simple, the others branched : the form of the tail 

 has been already noticed. The body is elongated ; the 

 dorsal and abdominal line about equally convex ; the lateral 

 line near the middle of the body, dividing it equally ; the 

 fleshy portion of the tail slender, and ending in the form 



