SALMON. 
1 77 
sand or gravel : the hole in which the spawn is de- 
posited is about eighteen inches deep ; this they 
carefully cover, it is supposed, with their tails ; for 
after spawning they are observed to have lost the 
skin on that part. As soon as this operation is 
completed, the parents hasten to the sea to recruit 
their strength ; for after spawning they become 
very poor and lean, and then are called kipper. 
When the fish first enter the rivers they are ob- 
served to be infested with the salmon-louse, lemcta 
salmonea Linn.: these insects adhere in abundance 
above the gills, and are signs that the fish are in 
high season. Soon after the salmon have left the 
sea, the insects die and drop off. 
The spawn, which lies buried all the winter, be- 
gins about the latter end of March to exclude the 
young, which gradually increase in size to the 
length of four or five inches, and are then called 
salmon smelts : about the beginning of May the 
river is full of them ; they swarm in such myriads 
that the water seems all alive ; but the first flood 
sweeps them all into the sea, scarcely leaving one 
behind. About the middle of June the largest of 
these return again into the river, and are at that 
time between twelve and sixteen inches long ; after 
this they increase in size and number till about 
the end of July, which is at Berwick termed the 
height of gilse time, a name given to the fish at that 
age: the beginning of August they lessen in num- 
ber, but increase very much in size, some of them 
VOL. II. 
N 
