28S SAL M O N. Class IV. 



are obferved to have abundance of infedts adher- 

 ing to them, efpecially above the gills : thefe are 

 the Lerncea Salmons of Linnceus^ and are figns that 

 the iifh are in high feafon. Thefe animals die and 

 drop Oil, foon after the falmon have left the fea. 



About the latter end of March the fpawn begins 

 to exclude the young, which gradually increafe to 

 the length of four or five inches, and are then itrm- 

 td'^Smelts ov Smouts : about the beginning of May 

 the river is full of them •, it feems to be all alive*, 

 there is no having an idea of the num.beTS without 

 feeing them ; but a feafonable flood then hurries 

 them all to the fea, fcare any or very few being 

 left in the river. 



About the middle of June the earlieft of the fry 

 begin to drop, as it were, into the river again 

 from the fea, at that time about twelve, fourteen. 

 Of fixteen inches, and by a gradual progrefs, in- 

 creafe in number and fize till about the end of 

 Jidy^ which is at Berwick termed the height of 

 Gilfe time, the name given to the fi{h at that age : 

 the end of y?/^'; • or beginning of Augtift they lef- 

 fen in nuniber, but increafe in fize, fome being fix, 

 feven, eight, or nine pounds in weight; this ap* 

 Quick pears to be a furprifing quick growth, yet we have 

 received from a gentleman at Warrington^ an in- 

 fiance dill more fo: a kipper falmon weighing 71b. 

 three quarters, taken on the 7th of February^ be- 

 ing marked with a fcifiars, on the back, fin, 

 s^r^A tail, and turned into the river, was agaia 



taken 



Growth. 



