42 COMMON SALMON. 



dually increase to the length of four or five inches, 

 and are then called Smelts or Smouts. About the 

 beginning of May the river is full of them; it 

 seems to be all alive ; and there is no having an 

 idea of their numbers without seeing them ; but a 

 seasonable flood then hurries then^ all to sea^ scarce 

 any or very few of them being left in the river. 

 About the middle of June the earliest of the fry 

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

 sea^ at that time about twelve, fourteen, or sixteen 

 inches in length, and by a gradual progress, in- 

 crease in number and size, till about the end of 

 July, which is at Berwick termed the Gilse time 

 {the name given to the fish at that age). At the 

 end of July, or the beginning of August, they 

 lessen in number, but increase in size, some being 

 six, seven, eight, or nine pounds weight. This 

 appears to be a surprising growth ; yet we have^ 

 received froni a geutleman at Warrington an in- 

 stance still more so. A Salmon weighing seven 

 pounds three quarters, taken on the seventh of 

 February, being marked with scissars on the back 

 fin and tail, and turned into the river, was again 

 taken on the seventeenth of the following March, 

 and then found to weigh seventeen pounds and a 

 half*. 



" All fishermen agree that they never find any 

 food in the stomach of this fish. Perhaps during 



* According to Dr. Bioch the growth of the Salmon appears to 

 be much slower than here stated. He informs us that a Salmon 

 f)f five or six years old weighs from ten to twelve pounds. 



