THE SALMON AND SEWIN. 203 
rapid changes in the colour of fish which have come 
under my own observation. ‘Trout suddenly trans- 
ferred from their natural haunts into wooden, metallic, 
or earthenware vessels supplied with water recently 
taken from the same stream in which they were cap- 
tured speedily assume a lighter hue; and as this 
change does not appear wholly to depend upon the 
colour or capacity of the vessels in which they are 
placed, I am inclined to attribute it primarily to the 
influence of fear; and in this opinion I am the more 
confirmed from having frequently perceived a similar 
transition in the hue of Salmon soon after they have 
been hooked by the angler. That this is not the sole 
occasion of sudden alterations in the colour of fish I 
readily admit ; for I have often disturbed small Floun- 
ders in the Conway, which, on changing their situa- 
tion and reposing upon objects of a different hue from 
those they had last quitted, soon became accommodated 
to this circumstance of their novel position by under- 
going a modification of tint which harmonized with 
that of their resting-place and effectually served to 
conceal them from ordinary observation. Even death, 
as the disciples of Isaac Walton are well aware, and 
as the following anecdote clearly proves, does not im- 
mediately put a stop to this chameleon-like transition 
of colour. 
A gentleman of my acquaintance, a proficient in 
the art of fly-fishing, had taken a young Salmon 
weighing about a pound and a half, which, in conse- 
