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FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SALMON.

In the following observations I intend to offer some remarks on
the various migratory fish of the _genus Salmo_; and then some
facts and opinions which tend to show the importance of some
change in the laws which are now in force regarding them.

We have first the Salmon; which, in the Ribble, varies in weight
from five to thirty pounds. We never see the fish here before May,
and then very rarely; a few come in June, July, and August if
there are high floods in the river, and about the latter end of
September they become tolerably abundant; as the fisheries near
the mouth of the river have then ceased for the season, and the
Salmon run very freely up the river from that time to the middle
or end of December. They begin to spawn at the latter end of
October, but the greater part of those that spawn here do so in
December. I believe nearer the source of the river they are
earlier, 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 of
very 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 until
April, and they are occasionally seen herding with shoals of
Smolts 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 they
are unfit to eat, the flesh being white, loose, and insipid;