Produced by R. L. Garnett
LONDON:PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS.1883.
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SALMON.
Introductory Observations
The Salmon enters and ascends Rivers for other purposes besides
Propagation
Suggestions for an alteration in the Laws regarding Salmon
Artificial Breeding of Fish
Artificial Propagation of Fish
Remarks on a Proposed Bill for the better Preservation of Salmon
LETTERS ON AGRICULTURAL SUBJECTS.
On the Cultivation of Wheat on the same Land in Successive Years
The Cultivation of Wheat
On the Gravelling of Clay Soils
Cotton
PAPERS ON NATURAL HISTORY.
Wrens' Nests
The Long-tailed Titmouse
Identity of the Green with the Wood Sandpiper
The Stoat
The Marsh Titmouse
Creeper
Wrens' Nests
Alarm-note of one Bird understood by other Species of Birds
Dates of the appearance of some Spring Birds in 1832, at Clitheroe
The Rook Serviceable to Man.—Prejudice against it
Sandpipers
On Birds Dressing their Feathers with Oil from a Gland
Mocking powers of the Sedge-warbler
The Water Ouzel
Scolopax, Sabines, Sabine's Snipe
Fish and other River Phenomena
Lampreys
On the Spawning of the Minnow
Eels
On the Possibility of Introducing Salmon into New Zealand and
Australia
On the Formation of Ice at the bottom of Rivers
On the Production of Ice at the bottoms of Rivers
Gossamer
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In the following observations I intend to offer some remarks onthe various migratory fish of the genus Salmo; and then somefacts and opinions which tend to show the importance of somechange in the laws which are now in force regarding them.
We have first the Salmon; which, in the Ribble, varies in weightfrom five to thirty pounds. We never see the fish here before May,and then very rarely; a few come in June, July, and August ifthere are high floods in the river, and about the latter end ofSeptember they become tolerably abundant; as the fisheries nearthe mouth of the river have then ceased for the season, and theSalmon run very freely up the river from that time to the middleor end of December. They begin to spawn at the latter end ofOctober, but the greater part of those that spawn here do so inDecember. I believe nearer the source of the river they areearlier, but many fish are seen on the spawning beds in January;and I have even seen a pair so late as March; but this last is ofvery rare occurrence.
Some of the male Kipper (Kelts) come down in December and January,but the greater part of the females remain in the river untilApril, and they are occasionally seen herding with shoals ofSmolts in May. In this state they will take a worm very readily,and are, many of them, caught with the fly in the deeps; but theyare unfit to eat, the flesh being white, loose, and insipid;although they have lost the red dingy appearance which they hadwhen about to spawn, and are almost as bright as the fresh fish,their large heads and lank bodies render it sufficiently easy todistinguish them from fish which are only ascending the river,even if the latter were plentiful at this season; but this isunfortunately not the case.
Secondly, we have the Mort. I am