THE ERIOX. 263 



is by no means uncommon, and the average weight may 

 be stated at ten or twelve pounds for adult fish. They 

 are thus no contemptible antagonists to deal with, as they 

 are not only heavy and powerful, but also very stubborn 

 and headstrong, and when on the hook exhibit nearly, if 

 not quite, as much game and bottom as the salmon, al- 

 though scarcely possessed of the same degree of vivacity 

 and unconquerable determination ; being more prone to 

 rut about among the stones at the bottom in order to 

 dislodge the hook from their jaws, than indulge in those 

 wild dashing spurts so characteristic of a vigorous fresh- 

 run salmon. Nevertheless a clean eriox will not un- 

 frequently be found a wild enough colt to halter, and 

 imitate, to a considerable degree of perfection, the impe- 

 tuous rushes and frantic somersaults of the former, so 

 frequently fatal to either rod, line, or hold, as every 

 experienced practitioner can testify, to his mortification. 

 It is a somewhat singular fact, that at the present 

 time, the eriox is the only species of the larger salmo- 

 nidse frequenting the river Coquet, although the true 

 salmon is occasionally met with in the sea all along the 

 coast off the mouth of the river, and though it is a 

 stream to all appearance eminently adapted to the breed- 

 ing of salmon. And what is more singular still, if true, 

 I have been told that upwards of half a century ago the 

 true salmon was abundant in the Coquet, while only an 

 occasional eriox was to be met with ; * but the latter 

 gradually increased in numbers year after year, while 



* An idea prevails among the salmon -fishermen on the east coast of 

 Scotland, that the appearance of the eriox in the rivers of that part of 



