SALMON. 
193 
in that they have been hatched into activity; but with what 
further result as yet remains uncertain. 
We feel no surprise in being informed that the Salmon 
frequents the rivers of Kamtschatka; but it is also said to be 
common, and even in abundance in the Caspian Sea; if it be 
indeed the same species with our own. It is in season there 
m May, and in Mr. Frazer’s Travels we are told that it is 
rarely caught east of Eesht in that sea, but it is well known 
on the west and north-west shores. 
The value set on the Salmon in this country, whether fresh 
or in salt, has always been considerable, although Polydore 
irgil does not name it among our articles of trade; but we 
find It so from several incidents, and the strictness of the laws 
concerning it at an early date. Thus, in the fourteenth century, 
and perhaps long before, Ave are told in the life of the famous 
Thomas a Kempis, as written by his friend Franciscus Tolensis, 
that the love of that pious writer for the Book of Psalms was 
compared by his brother monks to their love for Salmon; for, 
adds the biographer, it is an exceedingly delicious fish;' and 
that in some places it was scarce and bore a high price was 
a subject of complaint in the fiftieth year of Edward the Third, 
appears from a petition then presented to the Crown, in which 
it was prayed that Avhereas the Salmon and other fish in the 
Thames were taken and destroyed by engines placed to catch 
the fry ; which fry Avas then used for feeding pigs, a law might 
be passed to take up all the trunks (tons les trynks) between 
London and the sea, and forbid them for time to come; also 
that no Salmon be taken between Gravesend and Henley 
Bridp in Avinter; that is to say, between the Feast of the 
Finding of the Cross and the Epiphany; and that the river 
pardians suffer no net but of large mesh. The petition (Avhich 
IS in French) concludes thus— “awaiting which, most redoubtable 
Eord, if It shall please Your Highness thus to make order for 
the next three years, all your people repairing to London or 
bordering the river, shall buy as good a Salmon for two shillings 
as they now get for ten.” (Notes and Queries, 1855.) 
ut it appears there was an omission in the recommendations 
o t IS petition, or the crime may not have begun to operate 
at this time ; for we are informed in Moule’s “Heraldry of 
■t’lsh,” that in remote times an offering of fish had been, and 
