2660 Fishes. 



having outwardly the same appearance, and caught at the same time 

 and in the same place, is the supposition that, like human beings, 

 salmon have each their individual constitution, — that this constitution, 

 and consequently their state of health, may be affected in a thousand 

 ways which are imperceptible to the eye of man, — and that upon its 

 particular movements as to locality in the sea, and its success as to 

 quantity and richness of food in that great magazine of nature, must 

 depend the condition and the goodness of each particular fish at the 

 moment when it is captured. 



These marks, however, of first-rate excellence, of which we have 

 been speaking, are found to vanish when the salmon in which they 

 are present are allowed to remain in their natural state for but a very 

 limited period ; they will disappear even in the course of a day or 

 two, although the fish may have been preserved amid the coolest ma- 

 terials, packed with the utmost care, and transmitted with all due 

 expedition : and hence it should seem that the inhabitants of London 

 can hardly be said to possess the opportunity of eating salmon in its 

 most perfect state, unless a specimen of first-rate quality were to be 

 transferred, with no intermediate stage, from the waters of the Thames 

 to the vessel of the cook, — an event, I presume, which seldom or never 

 takes place. Englishmen, indeed, who ^isit a Scottish salmon river, 

 feel rather a dislike at first to what have been mentioned as the cha- 

 racteristics of the fish in its finest condition : they prefer it when it 

 has been kept till the fat has melted into another appearance, and till 

 the flakes are less hard and are becoming soft and oily. In the end, 

 however, it is generally the case that they give in their adhesion to 

 the belief and the practice of those who have been accustomed to re- 

 gard what has already been described as the highest excellence in 

 salmon. 



M. Boccius says, that " when taken up the stream, the flesh of the 

 salmon is weedy,* thin of flake, and wanting in fat." This, however, 

 is not always the case, and it depends very greatly on circumstances. 

 When, indeed, the fish has continued for some considerable time in 

 the fresh water, its flesh most undoubtedly falls off, both in appearance 

 and quality : but, as it is the opinion of the most experienced and 

 scientific ichthyologists that the salmon — when unimpeded by artifi- 

 cial obstructions — ascends from the sea with great rapidity, it is per- 

 fectly possible that specimens of the finest quality may be obtained 



* Weedy flesh is an expression to which I am unable to attach a precise and defi- 

 nite meaning ; but I suppose that the word is intended to intimate that the flesh is 

 of coarse and flimsy texture. 



