perhaps hurt themselves in the attempt, they make new efforts. Where the water is low, or sand-banks oppose them, they place themselves on one side, and, in that position, work themselves over into deep water beyond. It is in falling back, however, that the fish are frequently taken by the inhabitants, who place baskets near the edge of the pool for the purpose of catching them. This custom prevails in Ireland and Scotland.

Mr. Mudie, in the British Naturalist, describes the pool below the Fall of Kilmorac, on the Beauly, in Invernesshire, as thronged with Salmon, which are continually attempting, but in vain, to pass the fall. They often kill themselves by the violence of their exertions to ascend; and sometimes they fall upon the rocks and are taken. He records an ingenious but cruel mode occasionally adopted, of catching and killing Salmon for the amusement of a company! "It is said that one of the wonders which the Frasers of Lovat, who are lords of the manor, used to show their guests, was a voluntarily-cooked Salmon at the Falls of Kilmorac. For this purpose a kettle was placed upon the flat rock on the south side of the fall, close by the edge of the water, and kept full and boiling. There is a considerable extent of the rock where tents were erected, and the whole was under a canopy of overshadowing trees. There the company are said to have waited until a Salmon fell into the kettle, and was boiled."

There are many ways of taking Salmon, while pursuing their course up the streams;—as by nets, or by building across the water weirs or dams, which prevent the advance or return of the fish. Spearing Salmon, either by day-light or torch-light, is also practised in the north. The spear with which the fish is struck in the act of leaping is barbed like a fish-hook.

In London, a Thames Salmon, when fortunately met wit, obtains an extremely high price. The Severn Salmon are also much esteemed.

THE TROUT is a well-known inhabitant of most of the rivers and lakes of Great Britain. It is a voracious feeder, but so vigilant, cautious, and active, that much skill and patience are necessary for taking it. Its food generally consists of flies, though worms and small fish are eagerly devoured by it. Mr. Stoddart, a writer on Angling, mentions an interesting experiment, which was made some years ago in the south of England, in order to ascertain the effect of different kinds of food on this fish. "Some Trout were placed in three separate tanks, one of which was supplied daily with worms, another with live minnows, and the third with those small dark-coloured water-flies which are to be found moving about on the surface under banks and sheltered places. The Trout fed with worms grew slowly, and had a lean appearance; those nourished on

minnows, at which they darted with great voracity, became much larger; while such as were fattened upon flies only attained in a short time prodigious dimensions, weighing twice as much as both the others together," although the quantity of food swallowed by the fly-eaters was not so great.

Trout sometimes reach a vast size, and are said to

live to a great age. One was caught at Salisbury, in January, 1822, in a small stream, branching from the Avon, which weighed twenty-five pounds; but this was an extraordinary specimen. They are met with of good size in the Thames near Kingston, Hampton Court, Shepperton, and Chertsey. Some deep pools in the Thames above Oxford afford excellent Trout. "Few persons," says Mr. Yarrell, "are aware of the difficulty of taking a Trout, when it has attained twelve or fourteen pounds weight: it is very seldom that one of this size is hooked and landed, except by a first-rate fisherman. Such a fish, when in good condition, is considered a present worthy of a place at a royal table."

The age to which Trout may live has not been ascertained. We are told, in Mr. Yarrell's work,* "that in August, 1809, a Trout died, which had been for twenty-eight years an inhabitant of the well at Dumbarton Castle. It had never increased in size from the time of its being put in, when it weighed about a pound; and it had become so tame, that it would receive its food from the hands of the soldiers." In August, 1826, the "Westmoreland Advertiser" contained a statement that a Trout had lived fifty-three years in a well in an orchard at Board Hall, near Broughton-in-Furness.

The Trout is fond of its own particular place in the stream; and the peasants, in Devonshire and elsewhere, frequently catch the fish with their hands, the water being rendered turbid. This they call tickling

Trout."

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* Vol. II. p. 55, ed. 1836.

THE tribe to which this fish belongs is very numerous, including the fish represented above, the Haddock, Hake, Whiting, and some others. The several species inhabit the ocean, and seldom visit the fresh waters. The flesh of most of them is white, firm, and of good flavour.

:

The common Codfish is excellent as an article of food and it is taken in vast numbers, in various seas. In this country it is found all round the coast: it abounds among the islands to the north and west of Scotland, and is also met with near the shores of Ireland. In the United Kingdom alone, this fish, in the catching, curing, and selling, affords employment and profit to many thousands of persons.

Codfish feed near the ground, on various small fish, worms, &c., at the depth of from twenty-five to

forty, or even fifty fathoms. Thirty-five crabs, none less than the size of a half-crown piece, have been taken from the stomach of one Cod. These fish are, therefore, taken with lines and hooks. A long line is laid across the tide, and secured at each end by buoys and anchors, or grapples. At regular distances along the length of this line hooks are fastened by shorter and smaller cords. The hooks, which are near the ground, but do not quite touch it, are baited with limpet, crab, whelk, &c., and are taken up about six hours after they have been laid in their order. While the hooks thus arranged are under water, the fishermen are engaged in taking fish with hand-lines. About five hundred have been caught on the banks of Newfoundland in ten or eleven hours, by one man; and eight men, fishing for the London market, off Dogger Bank, on the coast of Holland, in twenty fathoms of water, have taken one thousand six hundred Cod in one day. The Dogger Bank fish are highly esteemed. They are brought in vessels, called store-boats, having wells, in which the fish are preserved alive. Boats of this kind are said to have been first built at Harwich in the year 1712. They remain as low as Gravesend, where the water is sufficiently salt to keep the fish living; if they were brought higher up, the fresh water would kill the fish.

Cod are in the best state for eating in the cold months of the year. Vast quantities of this fish are

salted.

There is a small species, called the Poor or Power Cod, the appearance of which in some seas is a source of pleasure to the fishermen. It is called the fishconductor, being generally followed by shoals of the larger kind, which prey upon their diminutive companions. "The fishermen," says Mr. Yarrell, “in their turn, prey upon them."