6 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 



river-nursery for the sea during the first spring, 

 but this is not so. Some few early-spawned 

 fish may do this, but the majority wait until 

 the following year. Once in the sea, smolts 

 grow at a rapid rate, and after from four to 

 twelve months, return to the rivers where they 

 were bred, as " grilse." As the grilse make up- 

 stream they are pretty, silvery fish, and afford 

 good sport. They vary greatly in weight, and 

 it is somewhat curious that, upon their first 

 arrival, they are invariably covered with " sea- 

 lice." These uninvited guests are soon ridded 

 in the rivers, as they do not long survive im- 

 mersion in fresh water. 



Entering rivers to spawn, going down to the 

 sea, and re-entering the rivers, constitutes, shortly, 

 the life-history of the salmon. Speaking generally, 

 it feeds but little in fresh water, and loses weight ; 

 in the sea it feeds ravenously, and increases at 

 a most remarkable rate. One British-killed 

 salmon has attained to seventy pounds in weight 

 and four-and-a-half feet in length. This fish was 

 taken in the Tay, and a cast of it is now in 

 the Buckland Museum. Although this was a 

 monster fish, almost without precedent, yet forty- 

 pound salmon are not at all uncommon. In 

 rivers the food of the salmon consists mainly 

 of ephemerae and their larvse, worms, and the. 



