THE SALMON. 117 



prevented by a grating of peculiar contrivance 

 from making their escape. On the flats in 

 Solway Frith, a large funnel-shaped net, with a 

 wide mouth, is used. Different localities and 

 accidental varieties in the characters of the 

 shore, or any given part of a salmon river, 

 require different methods, and hence the various 

 kinds of traps, decoys, and nets that are in 

 vogue, each in its appropriate place. In the 

 Severn, for example, the fishermen proceed in 

 coracles (or wicker boats, covered with canvass, 

 tarred and painted,) to the fishery, using several 

 kinds of drag-nets. 



In the salmon rivers of Scotland, a small fish, 

 having transverse dark marks across the back to 

 the lateral line, is known under the name of the 

 parr. By many observers it has been, and still 

 is asserted, that the parr is only the young or 

 smolt of the salmon at a certain stage of growth ; 

 some, on the other hand, regard it as a variety 

 of the young of the common trout. It is the 

 Salmo salmidus of Willoughby, and we believe, 

 with Mr. Yarrell and sir W. Jardine, that it is 

 a distinct species from either, one of the smallest 

 of the family ; and it is remarkable, that in 

 those unprotected rivers, from which poaching 

 has driven the salmon, it abounds in profusion, 

 as well as in some streams wliich the salmon 



