80 AMERICAN FISHES. 



Salmon I ever knew taken with a fly, was in Scotland ; it weighed fifty- 

 four pounds and a half." 



In this country, except in Canada, where there are many excellent 

 and enthusiastic Salmon-fishers, this noble sport is but little followed, 

 and there are few records extant of the number or size of fish taken. 



It will be sufficient to observe, however, that in the St. Lawrence 

 and its tributaries, especially those great streams coming in from the 

 Northward, the Saguenaw particularly, the number and size of the 

 Salmon are at least equal to those in the finest English or Scottish 

 rivers ; an intimate friend of my own having killed within a few years, 

 on the St. Lawrence, near the mouth of the river named above, twenty 

 fish in a single day's fishing, one of which weighed above forty pounds, 

 while the smallest, if I am not greatly mistaken, exceeded sixteen. 

 This was all done with the fly. 



" It may be stated generally," says Yarrel, " that Salmon pass 

 the summer in the sea, or near the mouth of the estuary ; in autumn 

 they push up the rivers, diverging to their tributary streams ; in winter 

 they inhabit the pure fresh water, and in spring again descend to the 

 sea." 



These habits of the fish are unquestionably more or less modified by 

 climate and other influences, and it is certain that in America the 

 Salmon enter the rivers, and begin to run up them in June ; by Sep- 

 tember they have arrived at the shallow and gravelly head waters of 

 the streams, and are preparing to spawn ; and I presume that as soon 

 as that operation is finished they return to the salt-water to recruit, 

 and consequently that here they do not pass the winter in fresh-water. 



It has been supposed by many observers, that the Salmon do not go 

 very far out to sea, but remain constantly within soundings, and not 

 very far distant from their native streams, to which, whenever it is 

 practicable, they return ; this is, however, very questionable. 



Many are taken on the British coasts, while running along the shore 

 in the summer months, and searching for the mouths of the rivers 

 which they desire to ascend ; but very few are taken here until they 

 have made their way up the estuaries, when they are captured in great 

 numbers by means of stake-nets. 



They do not, it is true, invariably return to the streams in which 

 they were bred, although they do so, beyond doubt, in a very great 



