SAXMONID^. 313 



the rivers Dordogne and Q-aronne in Aquitaine, to wliicli 

 rivers, before the days of ' kipper,* it would necessarily 

 be confined, and the only knowledge of it be derived 

 from the reports of French tourists visiting Rome. The 

 first Latin poet who mentions the salmon under its pre- 

 sent title is Ausonius : — 



Nee te puniceo mtilaatemviscere salmot 

 Transierim ; 



and elsewhere he distinguishes it by difierent names ac- 

 cording- to its age : — 



Teque inter gemimas species neutnunque et utrumque, 

 Quinecdum salmo neo jam salar ambiguusque 

 Amborum, medio Fario iutercepte sub aevo.J 



Of the salar he writes in another place, — 



Purpureusque salar stellatus tergora guttis. 



Olaus Magnus pronounces a procession of salmon shin- 



* Kipper is salmon (previously well scoured and cleaned) that 

 has received several dry rubbings of pepper' and salt, and after- 

 wards been dried either in the sun or else in the smoke of peat or 

 of jxmiper-berries. 



t ' SaJmonis nomen a Germanis Eheni accohs vel GaUis Aqui- 

 tanis (a saleP) Latini accepere.' — Willughby. 



X In those modem coimtries where salmon abounds,' it is 

 usual to designate it, as Ausonius has done, by a variety of names 

 according to its age : this is the case in Germany, and also in 

 some parts of England : thus Willughby tells us that of salars 

 caught in the B.ibble, those of the first year are called smalts ; 

 those of the second year, sprods; those of the third, trowts; those 

 of the fourth, fox-tails ; those of the fifth, half-fish ; and only 

 after that period, salmon. It is not improbable that Ausonius 

 may have mistaken, under the names salar and fario, different 

 species of fish, as, till quite lately, the parr which abounds in 

 some Scotch rivers, and notably in the Clyde, was erroneously 

 supposed to be juvenUe salmon ; indeed ' the similarity in the 

 markings of many species of young trout still makes it very diffi- 

 cult to say of a given specimen whether it will turn to a grilse, a. 

 young bullhead, a salmon trout, a river trout, or a true parr.' — 

 Sir W. Jardine. 



