THE SALMON. 27 



CHAPTER HI. 



OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FISH. 



THE SALMON. 



THE Salmon is the noblest of fresh-water fish, and stands highest 

 in the angler's estimation. He is the prince of the streams ; and 

 his title to precedence has never yet been questioned. Ilis mag- 

 nitude, his keen and lively eye, his muscular po^yers, his rapid and 

 graceful motions, his beautiful proportions, his shining silvery 

 scales, his intellectual instinct, and his superior, rich, delicate 

 flavour, all unite in establishing superiority over all other fish. 

 Neither should it be forgotten that salmon-fishing is considered 

 the angler's highest sport, whilst it affords the best criterion of 

 his professional skill. Indeed, angling for this noble fish, may be 

 deemed the measure or standard of the angler's dexterity, the test 

 of his art, the legitimate object of his loftiest aspirations ; afford- 

 ing an undeniable proof of his fitness to take his stand amongst the 

 most accomplished adepts of this interesting craft. 



The Salmon was not known to the ancient Greeks. The first 

 notice we have of it is in Pliny's " Natural History" (9, 12), and the 

 first regular account we have of it in any Latin classic author, is 

 contained in the " Mosella" of Ausomus. Here we have the 

 progressive stages in the growth of the fish. The salar is the sea- 

 trout, ^ the fario is what in Scotland is called the grilse, and the 

 salmo is the full-grown fish. A recent writer on the subject says, 



" It is pretty certain that the ancients knew some members of 

 the salmon family ; as to that prince of river fish, however, salmon 

 the glory and representative of this large family the Greeks 

 have left us no extant proof that they were at all acquainted with 

 it; and though we know that many of their treatises on fish, 

 wherein mention of the salmon might have occurred, have not come 

 down to us, we can hardlv imagine such a noble species, if at all 

 known in Greece, should by any possibility have escaped alike e the 

 notice of Aristotle, and of the host of diepnosaphist fish fanciers, 

 quoted in Athenseus. Among the Latins, Pliny is the only author 

 who makes a cursory mention of the salar, and he does not speak 

 of it as an Italian fish, but as frequenting the rivers Dordoarne and 

 Garonne, in Aquitaine. It was thus, before the days of ' Kippes/ 

 plainly out of the reach of the luxurious Romans, whatever favour- 

 able reports they may have received of its merits from passing 

 tourists."* 



The natural history of the salmon is still wrapped in considerable 



* Frazer's Magazine, December, 1853. 



