I ob 



102 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



bred by such sick salmons that might not go to the sea ; and 

 that though they abound, yet they never thrive to any con- 

 siderable bigness. 



But if the old salmon gets to the sea, then that gristle, which 

 shows him to be kipper, wears away, or is cast off, as the 

 eagle is said to cast his bill ; and he recovers his strength, and 

 comes next summer to the same river, if it be possible, to enjoy 

 Jhe former pleasures that there possessed him ; jbr, as one has 

 f wjttLlx observed, he has, like some persons of honour arid 

 I richegj_wlucjrjia3^^ winter and summer houses, the 



\ fresh rivers for summer, and the salt water for winter, to spend 

 I his life in ; which is not, as Sir Francis Bacon hath observed in 

 his History of Life and Death, above ten years. And it is to be 

 observed that though the salmon does grow big in the sea, yet 

 he grows not fat but in fresh rivers ; and it is observed that the 

 farther they get from the sea, they be both the fatter and better. 

 Next I shall tell you, that though they make very hard shift 

 to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea, yet they will make a 

 harder shift to get out of the salt into the fresh rivers, to spawn, 

 or possess the pleasures that they have formerly found in them : 

 to which end they will force themselves through flood-gates, or 

 over weirs or hedges, or stops in the water, even to a height 

 beyond common belief. Gesner speaks of such places as are 

 known to be above eight feet high above water. And our 

 Camden mentions, in his Britannia, the like wonder to be in 

 Pembrokeshire, where the river Tivy falls into the sea; and that 

 the fall is so downright, and so high, that the people stand and 

 wonder at the strength and sleight by which they see the 

 salmon use to get out of the sea into the said river; and the 

 manner and height of the place is so notable, that it is known, 

 far, by the name of the " Salmon-leap." Concerning which, 

 take this also out of Michael Drayton, my honest old friend, as 

 he tells it you in his Polyolbion: 



" And when the salmon seeks a fresher stream to find, 

 Which hither from the sea comes yearly by his kind ; 

 As he tow'rds season grows, and stems the wat'ry tract 

 Where Tivy falling down, makes a high cataract, 



