THE COMPLETE ANGLER. Ill 



stances, a very fine dish of fish on the 7th November, 1816." The whiter 

 of 1838 was a very severe one : in February of that year, with snow 

 upon the ground, but with the weather frosty and clear, and the water 

 low and bright, I caught grayling in the Dove with very small dun 

 'hackles. The best summer fly for grayling, on dark days, and morning 

 and evenings, is the fern-fly (described in note' to p. 91), which 1 have 

 used in the Dove with very great success. In a list of flies to be given 

 hereafter in chapters vii. and viii. of part ii. of this work, I shall point 

 out some eagerly taken by grayling. ED.] 



CHAPTER VII. 



OBSEKVATIONS ON THE SALMON ; WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH 

 FOB HIM. 



[JF ourtf) Bap.] 



Pise. The salmon is accounted the king of fresh-water 

 fish j and is ever bred in rivers relating to the sea, yet so 

 high or far from it, as admits of no tincture of salt or brack- 

 ishness. He is said to breed, or cast his spawn, in most 

 rivers, in the month of August : some say, that then they 

 dig a hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel, and there 

 place their eggs or spawn, after the melter has done his 

 natural office, and then hide it most cunningly, and cover it 

 over with gravel and stones,* and then leave it to that 

 Creator's protection, who, by a gentle heat which He infuses 

 into that cold element, makes it brood and beget life in the 

 spawn, and to become samlets early in the spring next fol- 

 lowing, t 



The salmons having spent their appointed time, and done 



* See observations at the end of the chapter on the formation of the salmon- 

 bed. ED. 



t If salmon spawned in August, which not one in many thousand does, there 

 would be young salmon (salmon-fry) in December, nay in November. Salmon 

 ova are incubated in about 120 days on the average in the winter months in 

 140 days ; in those of autumn and winter in about 100 days. The duration of 

 the incubating time depends on the temperature of atmosphere and water. 

 Salmon spawn deposited and impregnated on the 1st of August, would be 

 hatched very probably by the 1st of November, whereas spawn deposited in 

 November would not be incubated before March. The temperature at the two 

 periods would make the difierence. I entreat the reader to study carefully the 

 remarks on the natural history and habits of the salmon, which I shall append 

 to this chapter. ED. 



