_ and _Artificial_: of this fish there be many in _Trent_, and
in the River that runs by _Salisbury_, and in some other lesser Brooks;
but he is not so general a fish as the _Trout_, nor to me either so
good to eat, or so pleasant to fish for as the _Trout_ is; of which two
fishes I will now take my leave, and come to my promised Observations
of the _Salmon_, and a little advice for the catching him.

CHAP. VI.

The _Salmon_ is ever bred in the fresh Rivers (and in most Rivers about
the month of _August_) and never grows big but in the _Sea_; and there
to an incredible bigness in a very short time; to which place they covet
to swim, by the instinct of nature, about a set time: but if they be
stopp'd by _Mills_, _Floud-gates_ or _Weirs_, or be by accident lost in
the fresh water, when the others go (which is usually by flocks or
sholes) then they thrive not.

And the old _Salmon_, both the _Melter_ and _Spawner_, strive also to
get into the _Sea_ before Winter; but being stopt that course, or lost;
grow sick in fresh waters, and by degrees unseasonable, and kipper,
that is, to have a bony gristle, to grow (not unlike a _Hauks_ beak) on
one of his chaps, which hinders him from feeding, and then he pines and
dies.

But if he gets to _Sea_, then that gristle wears away, or is cast off
(as the _Eagle_ is said to cast his bill) and he recovers his strength,
and comes next Summer to the same River, (if it be possible) to enjoy
the former pleasures that there possest him; for (as one has wittily
observed) he has (like some persons of Honour and Riches, which have
both their winter and Summer houses) the fresh Rivers for Summer, and
the salt water for winter to spend his life in; which is not (as Sir
_Francis Bacon_ hath observed) [In his History of Life and Death.] above
ten years: And it is to be observed, that though they grow big in the
_Sea_, yet they grow not fat but in fresh Rivers; and it is observed,
that the farther they get from the _Sea_, the better they be.

And it is observed, that, to the end they may get far from the _Sea_,
either to Spawne or to possess the pleasure that they then and there
find, they will force themselves over the tops of _Weirs_, or _Hedges_,
or _stops_ in the water, by taking their tails into their mouthes, and
leaping over those places, even to a height beyond common belief: and
sometimes by forcing themselves against the streame through Sluces and
Floud-gates, beyond common cre