THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 115 



young swallows, wlio have, after six months' absence, been 

 observed to return to the same chimney, there to make their 

 nests and habitations for the summer following : which has 

 inclined many to think, that every salmon usually* returns 

 to the same river in which it was bred, as young pigeons 

 taken out of the same dove-cote have also been observed to do. 



And you are yet to observe farther, that the he-salmon is 

 usually bigger than the spawiier ; and that he is more kipper, 

 and less able to endure a winter in the fresh water than she 

 is : yet she is, at that time of looking less kipper and better, 

 as watery, and as bad meat.t 



And yet you are to observe, that as there is no general 

 rule without an exception, so there are some few rivers in 

 this nation that have trouts and salmons in season in winter, 

 as it is certain there be in the river Wye, in Monmouthshire, 

 where they be in season, as Camden observes, from Septem- 

 ber till April. J But, my scholar, the observation of this and 

 many other things, I must in manners omit, because they 

 will prove too large for our narrow compass of time, and 

 therefore I shall next fall upon my directions how to fish for 

 this salmon. 



And for that, first you shall observe, that usually he stays 

 not long in a place, as trouts will, but, as I said, covets still 

 to go nearer the spring head ; and that he does not, as the 

 trout arid many other fish, lie near the water-side, or bank, or 

 roots of trees, but swims in the deep and broad parts of the 

 water, and usually in the middle, and near the ground, and 



* Not only " usually," but always, if not disabled or killed. ED. 



f This short paragraph is sadly erroneous. A female salmon may be twice 

 as large, or twice as small, as the male with which she consorts on the spawn- 

 ing bed. She is frequently obliged to mate with male fish of all sizes and ages, 

 nay, with small male trout. If a male and female salmon, the produce of the 

 same brood, were to consort, after having been the same time on the same feed- 

 ing-ground at sea, the female would be the larger fish. She suffers more from 

 the effects of spawning than the male, and he is better, not " less, able to endure 

 a winter in the fresh water than she is." He more promptly recovers from the 

 ' kelt" state, and is sooner fitted for his sea voyage. ED. 



I I do not think there are any rivers in the empire which have the common, 

 non-migratory trout " in season in winter." But there are a few rivers, the 

 majority of which are Welch, in which salmon are in season, or at least clean 

 and fresh-run in winter in November and December. These fish are late 

 spawners. Very early spawners may be taken, in very small numbers in 

 January, in what are considered the " early" salmon rivers of Ireland and 

 Scotland. ED. 



The salmon, in coming up the estuaries, seldom swims in the middle, but 

 by the sides, and for that reason he is caught in the stake-nets that project, 

 some hundred yards, or more, into the tidal waters. In rivers his haunts are 



H2 



