katuhal history. 
75 
any particular description here. The Severn salmon 
IS particularly esteemed, and the river so swarmed 
with this fish formerly, that it is recorded to have 
been usually sold at twopence halfpenny per pound, 
and it was thought necessary in those days that a 
clause should be introduced into indentures providing 
that apprentices should not be compelled to eat 
salmon more than twice a week. Two and six- 
pence and three shillings per pound is now not an 
uncommon price for this delicious fish, particularly 
if fresh from the river.^ The salmon enters the 
Severn, for the purpose of spawning, in December, 
and the three successive months, and when this great 
law of nature is fulfilled, they return to the ocean ; 
but it is a curious circumstance, that their retreats 
in the deep ocean, from whence they issue in their 
highest vigour, and to which they return in their 
lean unwholesome state, is unknown. They leave their 
salt water haunts and are in season earlier in the 
Severn than in any other English river ; but from 
irregular and unlawful fishing they are now become 
comparatively scarce. It is obvious that if the old fish 
are indiscriminately destroyed in their progress to their 
spawning beds, there can be no young broods, while 
if the young salmon are not protected in their 
progress to the ocean, but few of them can arrive at 
maturity to return to their native fords. The law 
^ In January 1833, a very fine fish nearly a yard in length, was discovered near 
the shore, close to where the warm water enters the river from the city engine at tho 
bottom of Newport Street. It was speared and brought up into the city, where the 
captor refused a sovereign for it. 
