6 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
river-nursery for the sea during the first spring, 
but this is not so. Some few early-spawned 
fish may do this, but the majority wait until 
the following year. Once in the sea, smolts. 
grow at a rapid rate, and after from four to 
twelve months, return to the rivers where they 
were bred, as “grilse.” As the grilse make up- 
stream they are pretty, silvery fish, and afford 
good sport. They vary greatly in weight, and 
it is somewhat curious that, upon their first 
arrival, they are invariably covered with “ sea- 
lice.” These uninvited guests are soon ridded 
in the rivers, as they do not long survive im- 
mersion in fresh water. 
Entering rivers to spawn, going down to the 
sea, and re-entering the rivers, constitutes, shortly, 
the life-history of the salmon. Speaking generally, 
it feeds but little in fresh water, and loses weight ; 
in the sea it feeds ravenously, and increases at 
a most remarkable rate. One British-killed 
salmon has attained to seventy pounds in weight 
and four-and-a-half feet in length. This fish was 
taken in the Tay, and a cast of it is now in 
the Buckland Museum. Although this was a 
monster fish, almost without precedent, yet forty- 
pound salmon are not at all uncommon. In 
rivers the food of the salmon consists mainly 
of ephemere and their larve, worms, and the 
