The Brambling is a beautiful fish, and it rises very freely both
at the May fly and the artificial fly through the summer; it is
occasionally caught by anglers with the worm on the Salmon
spawning beds in the autumn, with the milt perfectly developed,
and in a fluid state. Although this fish is not found in the
Ribble, so far as my observations and inquiries have gone, I
believe that it is found in the Tweed, and perhaps also in other
rivers running into the German Ocean; for a letter addressed to
Mr. Kennedy, who was chairman of the select committee appointed to
investigate this subject, by a Mr. George Houy, states that the
Smolts are sometimes found there ten inches long, which he
attributes to their not being able to get down at the proper
period for want of a flood in the river. But I know that in the
Ribble Smolts will go down to the sea without there being a flood
at all, if that does not come within ten days or a fortnight of
the time at which they usually descend to the sea. I also know
that Brambling are found in the Wharfe, in years where there has
been no deficiency in that respect; yet why they should be common
in that river, when they are never met with in the Ribble, which
has ten times as many Salmon and Smolts in it, I am unable to
comprehend.

It is my opinion that the ova of the Salmon are not hatched before
March or April. Two anglers, who were in April wading in the river
Wharfe, came upon a spawning bed, which they had the curiosity to
examine; they found a number of ova, in which they could see the
young fry already alive, and one of them took these eggs home with
him. By regularly and frequently supplying them with fresh water,
he succeeded in hatching them, and kept some of the young fishes