64 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING 



this cause ; and it will be evident that the Salmon 

 taken in December and January are the most valu- 

 able produce : for though they appear to be only 

 one-third of the total number, yet from their size 

 they constitute more than half the weight/' 



The most forward rivers in Ireland, I am informed 

 by the London fishmongers, and from other sources, 

 are those on the western coast. In England, perhaps 

 the Severn produces the finest Salmon during the 

 winter months ; and the Lord Viscount Clive, pro- 

 prietor of a salmon fishery in the Severn, near Poole 

 Quay, says* the best fish are commonly taken there 

 in November, December, and January, though they 

 are not numerous, and that in the Dovey and Tivy, 

 two rivers with which he is well acquainted, the 

 Salmon are always in the best season at the period 

 when the Severn Salmon are in the worst condition. 



But if Salmon prefer the warmest rivers in the 

 winter, they spawn earliest in those that are most 

 cold. Thus in the shallow mountain streams which 

 pour into the Tay nearer its sources (I do not mean 

 such as may issue from lochs), the fish spawn much 

 earlier than those in the main bed of the river. The 

 late John Crerar, head fisherman and forester to the 

 Duke of Atholl, wrote thus in his manuscript : 



' There are two kinds of creatures that I am w r ell 

 acquainted with the one a land animal, the other 

 a water one : the red deer, and the salmon. In 

 October the deer ruts, and the salmon spawns. 

 The deer begins soonest, high up amongst the hills, 

 particularly in frosty weather ; so does the salmon 



* Minutes of Evidence taken in 18.25, etc., p. 14. 



