302 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



I believe do not frequent any rivers farther south. In Gascony 

 I have fished numerous streams, the tributaries of the Garonne 

 and Adour, adapted as they would appear to be to the taste of 

 the fish for cool waters, by the melting of the Pyrengean snow, 

 but never met with, or heard of, the Salmo Salar ; and very 

 seldom found any trout, the smaller members of the family. I 

 have also fished with much care several of the Spanish and Por- 

 tuguese rivers, but never found a salmon or trout in any of 

 them. 



No salmon are to be met with in the Mediterranean, nor any of 

 its rivers. They are also strangers to- the Caspian and Black 

 Seas ; though a large coarse fish, bearing some resemblance to the 

 Salmo Salar, called the Hucho, is found in the Danube. 



Most intelligent persons are aware that the salmon is a great 

 and intrepid traveller, migrating annually from the sea to the 

 fresh water, and ascending the largest rivers to their distant 

 sources. Influenced by unerring instinct, it quits the deep sea 

 in spring or early summer, and repairs to the estuary of its native 

 stream. It remains some days in the brackish water ; probably 

 to prepare the gills for the great change in the fluid they will 

 have to breathe. At the mouths of small rivers the fish generally 

 wait for a flood ; moving up and down with the tide until the 

 stream swells. The salmon then boldly pushes on, dashing 

 through rapids, and even overleaping dams or other impediments 

 in its way. After the first rush from the salt water, it avails itself 

 of the convenient resting place of a deep pool, or other spot where 

 the current is gentle, to draw breath for some hours, or even a 

 day, if the stream is strong and rapid. It there recovers its wind, 

 and recruits its strength with a fly or a grasshopper as they float 

 down the river. The fish thus gradually approach the upper and 

 shallower parts of the streams they frequent ; journeying by day 

 when the weather is cloudy, or the water sufficiently muddy to 

 mask their movements ; but when the river is clear they travel 



