SALMON 53 



it is with great difficulty he can be brought within 

 sight of it. This fish lay in a dormant state for five 

 months in the year, during which time she would 

 eat nothing, and was likewise very shy."* 



That Salmon and some other fish assume in some 

 degree the colour of the channel they lie upon, from 

 whatever cause, is a circumstance pretty generally 

 admitted by those who have paid any attention to 

 the subject ; and this, perhaps, is the reason why 

 fishermen tell you that they can distinguish the 

 Salmon of one river from those of another contiguous 

 to it. Indeed, I myself could easily distinguish the 

 Isla from the Tay Salmon by their colours, when I 

 rented fisheries on both those rivers. This fact I 

 thought so curious, that I had some correspondence 

 with my eminent friend Sir David Brewster on the 

 subject ; and at the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society of St. Andrew's, Dr. Gillespie read the 

 following paper, entitled " Recollections of the 

 Habits, Colours, and Sufferings of Fishes." 



' My chief experience is with trouts such as 

 are found in our mountain lakes and streams ; and 

 it is mainly to these that my few recollections refer. 

 Trouts seem to have a generic type, comprehending 

 several apparently different species ; which differ- 

 ence, however, in many cases, disappears when the 

 circumstances under which they are viewed are the 

 same. I know a locality in Dumfries-shire, amidst 

 the hills of Queensbery, where three mountain 

 streams, all of different character, meet the one 



* This account seems to have been sent to a Devonshire news- 

 paper by Mr. Dormer himself, or some of his family. 



