SALMON. 
179 
on these fish too often to feel an apprehension of danger to 
their health from the cause assigned; and therefore they have 
no fear of proceeding to obtain the prize by first alluring them 
within reach with a burning torch, of course in the hours of 
darkness, and then piercing the male with a trident spear. 
The sexes are readily distinguished, even in the water; and 
when deprived of her mate, the female will go into the deeper 
pools in search of another, Avhich she obtains by meeting with 
one not yet engaged; or perhaps by displaying superior attrac- 
tions she draws away some one that had been already affianced 
to another. But her second partner shares the fate of the 
first, and when no other can be obtained, herself beeomes the 
final victim. Unfortunately, however, this is not all, nor even 
the worst of these injurious proceedings; for somewhat early 
in the seventeenth century a fisherman of the name of Barker 
had made a discovery in the art of angling, which he com- 
municated first to a noble patron, and then to the public; and 
which consists in salting and drying the roe of the Salmon, to 
be taken at the very time when it is ready to be shed. From 
experience he pronounces this to be the best bait for Trout 
he had ever used, and to be good also for several other sorts 
of river fish. Each female Salmon is supposed to produce four 
or five pounds of this valued roe, which is made into a paste, 
and sold at from one to two shillings the pound, and even more; 
so that the capture of a spawning Salmon is no contemptible 
affair to a poor man, who may gain more in an hour in this 
Way than by the ordinary work of a week. 
But notwithstanding the condemnation which must fall on 
these proceedings, which go far to destroy the prospects of 
future seasons, and the wealth of a nation, the complaint comes 
with a bad grace from those who have contributed to the 
destruction, by indiscriminately entrapping in the lower districts 
those fish which might have made their way upward in an 
earlier season, and thus supplied the wants of the people above, 
and at the same time filled up the requisite number of breeding 
fish, and rendered the slaughter of them unnecessary. 
Before the comparatively modern inventions which have been 
stunrdated into existence by the demands of fashion and luxury, 
the Salmon-spear was deemed an honourable weapon, and as 
such had been taken into their coat of arms by families of 
