

THE FOURTH DAY 



(Continued.) 



CHAPTER VII. 



OBSERVATIONS OP THE SALMON : WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO PISH FOR 11151. 



PISCATOE. The Salmon is accounted the king of fresh- 

 water fish ; and is ever bred in rivers relating to the sea, yet 

 so high, or far from it, as admits'of no tincture of salt, or 

 brackishness. He is said to breed or cast his spawn, in 

 most rivers, in the month of August : ] some say, that then 

 they dig a hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel, and 

 there place their eggs 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. 



1 Their usual time of spawning is about the beginning of September ; 

 but it is said that those in the Severn spawn in May. H. The spawning 

 season varies in different rivers and from different causes (see Yarrell's 

 "Fishes," vol. ii. p. 1 70, and Supp. 1 8, where all that relates to the 

 salmon is elaborately treated). In the Tweed, salmon are found to spawn 

 from the end of September till the beginning of November. They are also 

 known to spawn at different times in the same river. This may account 

 for their running \ip m r ers, of all sizes, in summer and autumn. ED. 



