CHAP, vil.] THE FOURTH DAY. 125 



This Michael Drayton tells you, of this leap or summersault of 

 the Salmon. 



And, next, I shall tell you, that it is observed by Gesner and 

 others, that there is no better Salmon than in England ; and that 

 though some of our northern counties have as fat, and as large,* 

 as the river Thames, yet none are of so excellent a taste. ^ 



And as I have told you that Sir Francis Bacon observes, the 

 age of a Salmon exceeds not ten years ; so let me next tell you, 

 that his growth is very sudden, it is said, that after he is got into 

 the sea, he becomes, from a Samlet not so big as a Gudgeon, to 

 be a Salmon, in as short a time as a gosling becomes to be a 

 goose. Much of this has been observed, by tying a riband, or 

 some known tape or thread, in the tail of some young Salmons 

 which have been taken in weirs as they have swimmed towards 

 the salt water ; and then by taking a part of them again, with the 

 known mark, at the same place, at their return from the sea, 

 which is usually about six months after ; and the like experiment 

 hath been tried upon young swallows, who have, after six months' 

 absence, been observed to return to the same chimney, there to 

 make their nests and habitations for the summer following ; which 

 has inclined many to think, that every Salmon usually returns to 

 the same river in which it was bred, as young pigeons taken out 

 of the same dovecote have also been observed to do. 



And you are yet to observe further, that the He-Salmon is 

 usually bigger than the Spawner ; and that he is more kipper, 

 and less able to endure a winter in the fresh water than the She 

 is : yet she is, at that time of looking less kipper and better, as 

 watery, and as bad meat. 



And yet you are to observe, that as there is no general rule 

 without an exception, so there are some few rivers in this nation 

 that have Trouts and Salmon in season in winter, as 'tis certain 



VARIATION. 



5 And 'tis observed by Gesner, that there is none bigger than In England, nor none 

 better than in Thames. — i.st edit. 



and *' the poor man " have both been long consigned to their kindred dust ; but the 

 contrast, with respect to their memories, is more strildng than the difference in their situa- 

 tions when living — complete oblivion is already the lot of the one ; whilst the fame of 

 the other is identified with the English language, and will endure when insignificant 

 nobles are *' forgotten as fools, or remembered as worse." 



* The following appeared in one of the London Journals, i8 April 1789 : *' The 

 largest salmon ever caught was yesterday brought to London. This extraordinary fish 

 measured upwards of .four feet, from the point of the nose to the extremity of the tail ; 

 and three feet round the thickest part of the body : its weight was seventy pounds within 

 a few ounces. A fishmonger in the Minories cut it up at one shilling per pound, and the 

 whole was sold almost immediately." — H. 



