THE SALMON. 101 



call them fry, or pinks, or smolts, or peal, go to the sea 

 usually a year after their birth, but with no invariable 

 regularity, and will then average six ounces in weight, 

 many undoubtedly waiting till the Fall, or eighteen 

 months after birth; that they return the succeeding 

 July grilse;* that the grilse spawn the following Novem- 

 ber, and after visiting the sea, reappear next Spring as 

 salmon. The young fish are taken with the fly through 

 the Summer in all the salmon rivers, and require a second 

 glance to distinguish them from young trout, although 

 they are very different, one decisive peculiarity being 

 that their backs are arched or hogged, and another, as I 

 have mentioned, that their eyes are large. The fry of 

 trout and recollect grown trout are not banded have 

 light sides, and are found usually in more quiet water. 

 It would be well if sportsmen should call the fish in 

 question respectively salmon fry, grilse, and salmon, and 

 eschew all other fanciful names, as leading only to con- 

 fusion. 



Salmon are never taken in fresh water with any food 

 in their stomachs; they are reported not to eat their 

 young, and do not apparently feed on flies. The fry 

 feed almost entirely on flies, and I have seen them pick 

 off one after another as skillfully as a trout ; but I have 

 never distinctly seen a salmon take a natural fly. When 

 they spring out of water, it is in play, and at such times, 

 contrary to the rule with trout, casting over them will 

 be in vain, they will not rise. Moreover, our flies do not 

 in the least resemble the natural flies of the rivers, which 

 are of a dull green, and the salmon rivers afford very 

 few flies at best. Observe me, I do not refer to mosqui- 



* Probably at least a year later than this. 



