CHAPTER III. 



THE SALMON. 



PLATE x. 1. 



" Along the silver streams of Tweed 

 Tis blythe the mimic fly to lead, 

 When to the hook the Salmon springs 

 And the line whistles thro' the rings ; 

 The boiling eddy see him try, 

 Then dashing from the current high, 

 Till watchful eye and cautious hand 

 Have led his wasted strength to land." 



MONG the ancient Greeks the Salmon was 

 not known. Pliny, among the Romans, in 

 his " Natural History," (ix. 12,) first 

 notices it, and Ausonius, in the " Mosella," 

 gives the first regular account of it. 

 As this beautiful and delicious fish spends a consider- 

 able portion of its life in the sea, it can be hardly with 

 propriety considered a fresh-water fish ; yet, as it is to be 

 found in most of our rivers which have direct communi- 

 cation with the sea, and as it is productive of such very 

 superior diversion to the Angler, it has been usual to give 

 it precedence as the king of fishes. 



It is not my purpose here to give the varied opinions 

 of naturalists concerning this noble fish, either with re- 



