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ver wears or hedges, or stops in the water, even to a height beyond common belief. known to be above eight feet high above water. Gesner speaks of such places as are Camden mentions, in his Britannia, the like wonder to be in Pembrokeshire, where the river Tivy falls into the sea; and And our that the tall is so downright, and so high, that the people stand and wonder at the strength and sieight by which they see the Salmon use to get out of the sea into the said river; and the manner and height of the place is so notable, that it is known far by the name of the "Salmon-leap." take this also out of Michael Drayton, my honest old friend, as he tells it you in his Polyolbion: Concerning which,

As when the Salmon seeks a fresher stream to find
(Which hither from the sea comes yearly by his kind,)
As he towards season grows; and stems the watery tract
Where Tivy, falling down, makes a high cataract,
Forced by the rising rocks that there her course oppose,
As though within her bounds they meant her to enclose;
Here, when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive,
And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive;
His tail takes in his mouth, and, bending like a bow
That's to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw,
Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand
That bended end to end, and started from man's hand,
Far off itself doth cast: so does the Salmon vault;
And if, at first, he fail, his second summersault
He instantly essays, and from his nimble ring
Still yerking, never leaves until himself he fling
Above the opposing stream..

This Michael Drayton tells you of this leap, or summersault, of the Salmon.*

And, next, I shall tell you, that it is observed by Gesner and others, that there is no better Salmon than in England; and that though some of our northern counties have as fat and as large as the river Thames, yet none are of so excellent a taste.†

And as I have told you, that Sir Francis Bacon observes, the age of a Salmon exceeds not ten years; so let me next tell you, that his growth is very sudden. It is said, that after he is got

In the Statistical Account of Benley, we are told of a Salmon leap, by the side of which a kettle was kept boiling, and the Salmon frequently, on missing their spring, fell into this kettle and were boiled alive.-J. R.

+ The following interesting article of intelligence appeared in one of the London Journals, 18th April, 1789.-"The largest Salmon ever caught was yesterday brought to London. This extraordinary fish measured up. wards of four feet from the point of the nose to the extremity of the tail, and three feet round the thickest part of the body; its weight was seventy pounds within a few ounces. one shilling per pound nd the whole was sold at immediately." A fishmonger in the Minories cut it up at

into the sea, he becomes, from a Samlet not so big as a Gudgeon, to be a Salmon, in as short a time as a gosling becomes to be a goose. Much of this has been observed, by tying a riband, or some known tape or thread, in the tail of some young Salmons which had been taken in weirs as they have swimmed towards the salt water, and then by taking a part of them again with the known mark, at the same place, at their return from the sea, which is usually about six months after; and the like experiment hath been tried upon young swallows, who have, after six months' absence, been observed to return to the same chimney, there to make their nests and habi tions for the summer following: which has inclined many to think, that every Salmon usually returns to the same river in which it was bred, as young pigeons taken out of the same dovecot have also been observed to do.

And you are yet to observe farther, that the he Salmon is usually bigger than the Spawner: and that he is more kipper, and less able to endure a winter in the fresh water than the she is yet she is, at that time of looking less kipper and better, as watery and as bad meat.

And yet you are to observe, that as there is no general rule without an exception, so there are some few rivers in this nation that have Trouts and Salmons in season in winter, as it is certain there be in the river Wye in Monmouthshire, where they be in season, as Camden observes, from September till April. But, my scholar, the observation of this and many other things I must in manners omit, because they will prove too large for our narrow compass of time, and, therefore, I shall next fall upon my direction how to fish for this Salmon.

*

And, for that: First you shall observe, that usually he stays not long in a place, as Trouts will, but, as I said, covets still to go nearer the spring-head; † and that he does not, as the Trout and many other fish, lie near the water-side, or bank, or roots of trees, but swims in the deep and broad parts of the water, and usually in the middle and near the ground, and that there you are to fish for him; and that he is to be caught, as the Trout is, with a Worm, a Minnow (which some call a Penk,) or with a Fly.

And you are to observe, that he is very seldom observed to bite at a Minnow, yet sometimes he will, and not usually at a Fly, but more usually at a Worm, and then most usually at a Lob, or Garden Worm, which should be well scoured, that is to

* In the River Lea, which runs into the sea at the Cove of Cork, Salmon are likewise in season the whole year round, as I can myself testify, having resided at Cork the greater part of a year.-J. R.

+ The Salmon delights in large rapid rivers, especially such as have pebbly, gravelly, and sometimes weedy bottoms.

say, kept seven or eight days in moss before you fish with them; and if you double your time of eight into sixteen, twenty, or more days, it is still the better; for the worms will still be clearer, tougher, and more lively, and continue so longer upon your hook. And they may be kept longer by keeping them cool, and in fresh moss; and some advise to put camphor into it.*

Note also, that many use to fish for a Salmon with a ring of wire on the top of their rod, through which the line may run to as great a length as is needful, when he is hooked. And to that end some use a wheel about the middle of their rod, or near their hand, which is to be observed better by seeing one of them, than by a large demonstration of words.

And now I shall tell you that which may be called a secret. I have been a-fishing with old Oliver Henley, now with God, a noted fisher both for Trout and Salmon; and have observed, that he would usually take three or four worms out of his bag, and put them into a little box in his pocket, where he would usually let them continue half an hour or more, before he would bait his hook with them. I have asked him his reason, and he has replied," He did but pick the best out to be in readiness against he baited his hook the next time:" but he has been observed, both by others and myself, to catch more fish than I, or any other body that has ever gone a-fishing with him could do, and especially Salmons. And I have been told lately, by one of his most intimate and secret friends, that the box in which he put those worms was anointed with a drop, or two or three, of the oil of ivy-berries, made by expression or infusion; and told, that by the worms remaining in that box an hour, or á like time, they had incorporated a kind of smell that was irresistibly attractive, enough to force any fish within the smell of them to bite. This I heard not long since from a friend, but have not tried it; yet I grant it probable, and refer my reader to Sir Francis Bacon's Natural History, where he proves fishes may hear, and, doubtless, can more probably smell; and I am certain Gesner says, the Otter can smell in the water; and I know not but that fish may do so too. It is left for a lover of

* Baits for Salmon are: Lob-worms, for the ground; smaller Worms and Bobs, cad bait, and, indeed, most of the baits taken by the Trout, at the top of the water. And as to Flies, remember to make them of the most gandy colours, and very large. There is a Fly called the Horse-leech fly, which he is very fond of: they are of various colours, have great heads, large bodies, very long tails, and two pairs of wings, placed behind each other. In imitating this Fly, behind each pair of wings whip the body about with gold or silver twist, or both; and do the same by the head. Fish with it at length, as for Trout and Grayling. If you dib, do it with two or three Butterflies of different colours, or with some of the most glaring small Flies you can find.

angling, or any that desires to improve that art, to try this conclusion.

I shall also impart two other experiments (but not tried by myself,) which I will deliver in the same words that they were given me, by an excellent angler and a very friend, in writing: he told me the latter was too good to be told but in a learned language, lest it should be made common.

"Take the stinking oil drawn out of the polypody of the oak by a retort, mixed with turpentine and hive honey, and anoint your bait therewith, and it will doubtless draw the fish to it."

The other is this: "Vulnera hederæ grandissimæ inflicta sudunt balsamum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris vero longe suavissimi."

"It is supremely sweet to any fish, and yet asafoetida may do the like."

But in these I have no great faith; yet grant it probable; and have had from some chemical men (namely, from Sir George Hastings and others) an affirmation of them to be very advantageous. But no more of these: especially not in this place.†

I might here, before I take my leave of the Salmon, tell you, that there is more than one sort of them, as namely, a Tecon, and another called in some places a Samlet, or by some a Skegger, (but these, and others which I forbear to name, may be fish of another kind, and differ as we know a Herring and a Pilchard do;) which, I think, are as different as the rivers in which they

There is extant, though I have never been able to get a sight of it, a book, entitled, the Secrets of Angling, by J. D[avors]; at the end of which is the following mystical recipe of "R. R." who possibly may be the "R. Roe" mentioned in the Preface to Walton:

To bless thy bait, and make the fish to bite,

Lo here's a means, if thou canst hit it right:
Take gum of life, well beat and laid to soak
In oil well drawn from that which kills the oak.
Fish where thou wilt, thou shalt have sport thy fill;
When others fail, thou shalt be sure to kill.

The following melancholy catastrophe should operate as a general caution against using, in the composition of baits, any ingredient prejudicial to the human constitution: "Newcastle, June 16, 1788. Last week, in Lancashire, two young men having caught a large quantity of Trout by mixing the water in a small brook with lime, ate heartily of the Trout at dinner the next day; they were seized, at midnight, with violent pains in the intestines; and though medical assistance was immediately procured, they expired before noon in the greatest agonies."

There is a fish in many rivers, of the Salmon kind, which, though very small, is thought by some curious persons to be of the same species; and this, I take it, is the fish known by the different names of Salmon-pink, Shedders, Skeggers, Last-springs, and Gravel Last-springs. But there is another small fish very much resembling these in shape and colour, called the Gravel Last-spring, found only in the rivers Wye and Severn, which is, undoubtedly, a distinct species. These spawn about the beginning of September and in the Wye I have taken them with an Ant-fly as fast as I could throw. Perhaps this is what Walton calls the Tecon.

* Ivy

breed, and must, by me, be left to the disquisitions of men of more leisure and of greater abilities than I profess myself to have.*

And lastly, I am to borrow so much of your promised patience as to tell you, that the Trout, or Salmon, being in season, have, at their first taking out of the water, (which continues during life,) their bodies adorned, the one with such red spots, and the other with such black or blackish spots, as give them such an addition of natural beauty, as I think was never given to any woman by the artificial paint or patches in which they so much pride themselves in this age. And so I shall leave them both; and proceed to some observations on the Pike.

CHAPTER VIII.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE, OR PIKE, WITH DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM.

Piscator. THE mighty Luce, or Pike, is taken to be the tyrant, as the Salmon is the king, of the fresh waters. It is not to be doubted, but that they are bred, some by generation, and some not; as namely, of a weed, called pickerel weed, unless learned Gesner be much mistaken; for he says, this weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of the sun's heat, in some particular months, and some ponds apted for it by nature, do become Pikes.† But, doubtless, divers Pikes are bred after this manner, or are brought into some ponds some such other ways as are past man's finding out, of which we have daily testimonies.

It does not appear to me that Walton had much, if any, personal experience in Salmon angling, particularly with the fly, which is undoubt edly by far the best sport of this kind.-J. R.

It is surely not needful here to tell the reader that this is unfounded fancy; yet have similar doctrines of spontaneous generation been maintained in our times by such men as Lamarck, Baron Cuvier, and Blumenbach. I once asked a disciple of the school, if he thought an Elephant could be so produced? "No," he said. "A mite, then?"-he hesitated, but thought it might.-J. R