THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 125 



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 their 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 following.* 



The Salmons having spent their appointed time, and done 

 this natural duty in the fresh waters, they then haste to the sea 

 before winter, both the melter and spawner ; but if they be 

 stopped by flood-gates, or weirs, or lost in the fresh waters, then 

 those so left behind by degrees grow sick, and lean, and unsea- 

 sonable, and kipper ; "that is to gay, have bony gristles grow out 

 of their lower chaps, not unlike a Hawk's beak, which hinder 

 their feeding ; and, in time, such fish so left behind pine away 

 and die. It is observed, that he may live thus one year from 

 the sea ; but he then grows insipid and tasteless, and loses both 

 his blood and strength, and pines and dies the second year. 

 And it is noted, that those little Salmons called Skeggers, 

 which abound in many rivers relating to the sea, are bred by 

 such sick Salmons that might not go to the sea, and that though 

 they abound, yet they never thrive to any considerable bigness.f 



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

 shews 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 the 

 former pleasures that there possessed him ; J for, as one has 

 wittily observed, he has, like some persons of honour and riches 

 which have both their winter and summer houses, the fresh 

 rivers for summer, and the salt water for winter, to spend his 

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

 History of Life and Death, above ten years. Arid 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 



* Walton's phrase, "some say," expresses a doubt; but I can affirm, 

 from repeated observation, that hia account is correct. J. R. 



f A great deal of this is obviously fanciful and erroneous. J. R. 



j The migration of the Salmon, and divers other sort-? of fishes, is anr.lo. 

 eons to that of birds ; and Mr Kay confirms Walton's assertion, by saying-, 

 thnt " Salmon will yearly ascend up ariver four or five huivir<>d miles, only 

 t>> ra<t their spawn, and secure it in banks of sand till the ycinvr be hatched 

 . -hided, and thi>n return to sea again." Wisdom of God maiiiferted 

 in (he Works of the Creation, p. 130. 



