526 Fishes. 



is of course correct ; but when he has adopted his inferences or as- 

 sumptions, it becomes necessary to receive his statements cum grano. 

 Scientific naturalists even, with the advantage of being skilful fisher- 

 men, have been in this manner led into error : witness the Natural His- 

 tory of the salmon during the first two or two and a half years of its life. 

 It must be acknowledged that the subject is one of no ordinary dif- 

 ficulty : and with the sea-fish in general this difficulty is apparently 

 so far insurmountable that there is great reason to fear an accurate 

 knowledge of their habits will ever be a desideratum. But there is no 

 reason that this should ever be the case with river or pond fish. Mr. 

 Waterton says that the naturalist who is more conversant with books 

 than with bogs, must always be liable to error : and, if I remember 

 right, he asserts also that the converse of this proposition is true. And 

 in like manner if he, the naturalist, will take the trouble to study the 

 brook rather than, or at least as much as, his books, I venture to fore- 

 tell that we shall speedily receive most interesting accessions to the 

 Natural History of fishes. The field is very extensive, is almost un- 

 trodden, and is open in the most favourable manner to every one who 

 has sole access to a small part of a brook, or a pool capable of subdi- 

 vision. Mr. Shaw's recent discoveries with respect to the young sal- 

 mon, show in a very strong light what may be done by a person who 

 has such an opportunity, and adds to it a strong taste for the investi- 

 gation of Nature's secrets, and a perseverance not easily discouraged. 

 It has not been the naturalist only who has suffered from the preva- 

 lent ignorance as to the history of different species of fish : the public 

 at large, and especially the owners of salmon-fisheries, have experi- 

 enced great loss. I refer particularly to the wholesale destruction of 

 the salmon-fry in various parts of the kingdom ; which, even yet, in 

 some districts, is not discontinued, and in others, only partially put 

 down.* Thus, three years ago, when I was resident in Herefordshire, 

 nothing was more common than to hear of the capture by one rod (and 

 there were hundreds of anglers) in one day of from a hundred and fif- 

 ty to two hundred of these little fish, which were afterwards publicly 

 offered for sale, and readily found purchasers at one shilling per score. 

 Some of the fishermen certainly did suspect that the spring shoals — 

 the converted par of Mr. Shaw — must be the young salmon : but I 



* Even in this part of the country where the matter is better understood, and great 

 expense is incurred for the conservation of the fisheries, I have strong reason to be- 

 lieve that thousands of the fish in question are weekly destroyed in the Tweed and its 

 tributaries during the angling season ; and that the destruction is mainly owing to 

 ignorance on the part of both anglers and fishermen. 



