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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 obof a Salmon exceeds not ten years; so let serves, the age me next tell you, that his growth is very sudden, it is said, that after he is got 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 ribband, or some known tape or thread, in the tail of some young Salmons which have 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 habitations 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 dove-cote have also been observed to do.

(1) The following interesting article of intelligence appeared in one of the London Journals, 18 April 1789: "The largest salmon ever caught was yesterday brought to London. This extraordinary fish measured upwards 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. A fishmonger in the Minories cut it up at one shilling per pound, and the whole was sold almost immediately."

And you are yet to observe further, 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 watry, 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 'tis 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 directions how to fish for this Salmon.

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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 it 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 say, kept seven or eight days in moss before fish with them and if double your you time of eight into sixteen, twenty, or more days, it is still the better; for the worms will still be clearer, tougher,

you

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

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 a like time, they had

(1) 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 gaudy 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 (and some have three) 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.

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. "Tis left for a lover of 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 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 sudant balsamum oleo gelato, albicantique persimile, odoris verò longè suavissimi.”

""Tis supremely sweet to any fish, and yet assa fœtida do the like."

may

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(1) 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.; at the end of which is the following mystical recipe of "R. R." who possibly may be the "R. Roe" mentioned in the Prefuce. [to Walton.]

• Ivy

To bliss 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 ingenious author of the Angler's Sure Guide, published in 8vo. 1706; in the Preface, and elsewhere, ascribes this book to " that great practitioner, master and patron of angling, Dr. Donne." But I doubt as much, whether he was

But in these 1 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.1

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,3) which, I think are as different as the rivers in which they 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

an angler, as I do his being the author of the above book; neither of which circumstances would, I think, have been omitted by Walton, had the several facts been true.

(1) The following intelligence appeared in one of the London papers, 21st June, 1788, and should operate as a general caution against using, in the composition of baits, any ingredient prejudicial to the human constitution. "Newcastle, June 16. 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."

(2) 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 LastSpring, found only in the river 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.

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