SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Ioarirrotoor.

A Treatise on the Management of Fresh-water Fish, with a view of making them • source of profit to landed proprietors. By Gottlieb Boccius Van Voorst.

A History of British Fishes. By William Farrell. F.L.S., V.P.Z.S Illustrated

by 500 wood-engravings. In two volumes. Second edition. Van Yount.

COLONTZATION,

Hand-Book for Emigrants and others; being a History of New Zealand, its State and Prospects, previous and subsequent to the proclamation of her Majesty's authority. Also Remarks on the Climate and Colonies of the Australian Continent. By John Bright, M.R.C.S., resident for four years in the Southern Hemisphere.

Funlorr. Haoper.

Ten Thousand a-Year. In three volumes Blackwood and Sou.

BOCCIIIS ON THE BREEDING OF FRESH-WATER FISH. FARRELL'S HISTORY OF BRITISH FISHES.

ONE of the most striking effects of civilization is its increase of life. In America, there are only 28 inhabitants to the square mile ; whilst Europe, although naturally less favourable for pro- curing subsistence, maintains 61 persons to the square mile. This, however, is by no means the strongest example, as it in- cludes the results of civilization in the United States and the British Colonies : if we take the extreme cases, we shall find, that whilst the territory of the independent Indians only support's 0.2 to the square mile, the United Kingdom supports about 200. Whe- ther existence is a boon or not, may be left for satirists to discuss and philosophers to decide, but here at least is a tangible test to which human advancement may be submitted upon demonstrable principles. Taken at the lowest decimal proportion, the odds are 1,000 to 1 in favour of civilization.

Nor is it in human life alone that this great increase takes place : animals are not only multiplied, but much better cared for than when the creatures are abandoned to themselves or hunted to death both by man and other beasts. The data on this point are not furnished with any thing like the approximate calculation of human inhabitants ; but, according to M‘Gasuoa's Statistics of the Globe, there are in Great Britain about two millions of horses, ten and ahalf millions of horned cattle, forty-four millions of sheep, and upwards of five millions of swine—a total of more than sixty millions of useful animals, in a space one hundred and twenty times less than the continent of America.

It is questionable, however, whether we have yet reached the highest ratio by which life can be maintained from a given extent of land. And, not to speak of agricultural improvements, the volumes before us suggest the means of a considerable increase of human food, if not of an absolute increase of life, through a motre which has hitherto received little or no attention. To attempt to breed fish as a regular article for market, may not only seem Utopian, but needless, with the natural waters and their count- less multitudes at our disposal when we can catch them. Yet the argument is pretty much the same as might be raised against breeding sheep and cattle by a Red Indian, looking at his boundless prairies and their myriads of buffaloes. We must con- fess, we entertain less doubts about the practicability of rearing fish as a commodity, or the advantage of substituting a certain foi a very uncertain supply, than as to the value of fresh-water fish as an article of food, eels excepted. This, however, may be a peculiarity of taste ; and as Mr. Boectus's Treatise on the Ma- nagement of Fresh Water Fish is an express exposition of the befit mode of rearing them, and Mr. YARRELL'S History of British Fishes contains a good many facts bearing upon the subject, we will en- deavour to convey a sufficient view of the facts so far as they are at present known, especially as the matter is important in itself and will contain some curious illustrations of the natural history of fishes.

A considerable trade is at present carried on in Saxony in the rearing of fresh-water fish, an acre of water being worth more than an acre of land ; and, according to Mr. Boccius, the fresh are as nutritious as salt-water fish, and more digestible, whilst the quality would be much improved under a proper system of breeding. To effect this, there should be three ponds in succes- sion, each increasing in size. The scale Mr. Boccius suggests is three acres for the first, four acres for the second, and five for the third pond—making altogether twelve acres of water ; which, after the first three years, will produce an annual income from each pond in rotation. The first pond should be on a slight elevation, as it is the principal feeder of the other ponds from its surplus waters, by means of a water-course and a sluice, the raising of which also drains off the water and facilitates the capture of the fish. The supply of the ponds should be from the drainage of the surrounding country ; and it is desirable to receive the refuse of a village or farm if possible, on account of the food it furnishes to the fish. The greater the distance between the ponds, the better, on account of the matter they may receive from their own independent drainage. As all foliage is pernicious, no trees should be permitted to overhang the ponds. A clayey soil is very unfavourable to fish, from its not supplying sufficient nutriment to insects, which form part of their food ; but the sides are of little consequence if the bottom is sandy. As Lord HOME, in a communication to Mr. YAREELL, attributes the superior flavour of the Blackadder (Blackwater) trout to the river rising in and flowing through mosses, it is probable the drainings of marsh- ands would be beneficial. The ponds need not be deep, excepting at the sluice : but the details of their formation may be found in the treatise.

The mode of stocking suggested by our author is 200 brood carp, 20 brood tench, and 20 brood jack, to each acre of water ; the brood being all of one season's spawn. The carp are selected for their fecundity and quality ; the tench for their quality, and a notion of their medicinal properties, indicated in the name of the German fisherman, "doctor-fish." The jack, besides their flavour, are chosen for their voracity, as a check to overpopulation. See the Malthusian check applied to fishes.

a Jack or pike is well known to be the most rapacious fresh-water fish that exists; but with all its voracity, it is absolutely necessary to have a sufficient quantity in the carp-stews or ponds, to check increase. " It has been fully proved that a given space of earth can produce only a • certain quantity ; so only can a given space or quantity of water produce a certain quantity either of vegetable matter or animalcules; and, curious as it may appear, yet it is as true as curious, that by storing only the proper num- ber of hell adapted to the water, the weight in three years will prove equal to what it would have been had twice the number been placed therein, so that the smaller number produces the same weight as the larger, from a given quantity of water. By overstocking the water, the fish become sickly, lean, and bony ; and on the contrary, when the regulations are attended to which I have laid down, the fish will be healthy, fleshy, and fat.

a By this it will be seen that jack become a useful appendage in well-regu- lated ponds, tantamount to an absolute necessity, but with the necessity a property, as it will be found that jack, carp, and tench, thrive and grow in equal proportion after this system. "In stocking ponds, it must be strictly observed that the jack, carp, and tench, be all of the same season or spring spawn ; and the period for brooding the pond is towards the end of October, or if the season be open and mild, early in November ; for the following reasons. Carp and tench being fish of the same habits, they slam or mud at the same period, lying torpid through the winter- months, so that they keep secure from the attacks of the juvenile jack ; the jack at that age finds sufficient food in worms, &c. to subsist upon : as the spring advances, when the carp and tench leave their winter-lairs, the jack then in turn become sickly as their spawning-season approaches, and conse- quently do not annoy the carp, much less the tench : this brings them through April, when the jack spawn; and they remain quiet from that time until the wet season of July.

" In June, both the carp and tench spawn ; and although in very small casts for the first season, yet they are far larger than would be beneficial for the stews were no jack in them ; and from this period the jack becomes useful, for as he gets more and more vigorous so does he keep down the brood and thrive himself. Thus, by making an easy prey, it seldom if ever occurs that a jack chases a carp of his own age : the result is, that through the clearance of the brood the stock finds sufficient food to live and thrive upon."

The profit Mr. Bocems estimates as follows-

" The calculation for three years out of three acres, would give on an everage as follows- 600 Carp, at 3if pounds each 2,100 pounds.

60 Tench, at 4 pounds each 240 „ 60 Jack, at 3fr pounds each 210 „ Total weight of store 2,550 ,, Supposing the fish to be worth Is. per pound, the value would be 127/. 10s. for three years, or 421. 10s. per annum ; but were only half price obtained, then as the first expense is the only one, it must be termed a profitable rental, espe- cially as under the old system many gentlemen have large pieces of water which produce nothing." ,

The price of Is. a pound is not only evidently too high, but it may be questioned whether the breeders could realize 6d. unless they turned retailers themselves. At 3d. a pound, the receipt per acre would be only 3/. 15s., without allowing for expenses of manage- ment and the formation of the ponds. Unless Mr. Boectus has underrated the produce, or we have underrated the value, it does not appear that the formation of fish-ponds, in this country, would answer as a mere profitable investment of capital. Where water already exists which produces nothing, or a person possesses land that ylds him no rent, or where it is desirable to drain lands, and the formation of ponds offers a practicable receptacle for their waters, then the breeding of fish on our author's plan may benefi- cially be taken as a collateral speculation. Putting profit aside, irwill furnish a liberal and public-spirited series of experiments, not devoid of the interest attaching to observations of nature.

But from some scattered passages in Mr. YARRELL'S History, there is a probability that much more valuable fish than either carp, tench, or jack, may be raised in ponds ; no less than the salmon himself, with possibly soles and mullet.

SALMON IN STILL WATER.

I am now enabled, through the kindness of Thomas Lister Parker, Esq., to offer some remarks on the growth of the young salmon in fresh water : and in order to prevent any misconception of the terms employed, I shall speak of the young salmon of the first year as a pink ; in its second year, till it goes to sea, as a smolt ; in the autumn of the second year as salmon peal, or grilse; and after- wards as adult salmon.

In the autumn of the year 1835, Thomas Upton, Esq., of Ingmire Hall, si- tuated between Sedbergh and Kendal, began to enlarge a lake on his property ; and in the spring of 1836, some pinks from the Lune, a salmon-river which runs through a valley not far from the lake, were put into it. This lake, called Lillymere, has no communication with the sea, nor any outlet by which fish from other waters can get in, or by which those put in can get out. The pinks when put into Lillymere did not certainly exceed three inches and a half in length. Sixteen months afterwards, that is, in the month of August 1837, Thomas L. Parker, Esq., then visiting his friend, fished Lillymere, desirous of ascertaining the growth of the pinks; and with a red palmer fly caught two salmon-peal in excellent condition, silvery bright in colour, measuring fourteen inches in length, and weighing fourteen ounces. One was cooked and eaten; the flesh pink in colour, but not so red as those of the river ; well fla- voured, and like that of a peal. The other was sent to me in spirit of wine, and a drawing of it immediately taken. In the month of July 1838, eleven months after, another small salmon was caught, equal to the first iu condition and colour, about two inches longer and three ounces heavier. No doubt was entertained that these were two of the pinks transferred to the lake in the spring of 1836, the first of which had been retained sixteen months, and the other twenty-seven months, in this fresh-water lake. • • • A knowledge of the growth of young salmon in a fresh-water lake, as here described, and the experiment has succeeded elsewhere, may he useful to those gentlemen who possess lakes near salmon-rivers, from which they can supply them with pinks : whether the salmon thus prevented going to salt-water will still retain sufficient constitutional power to mature their roe, and by depositing it in the usual manner, as far as circumstances permit, produce their species, would be a subject worthy of further investigation. That the rate of growth in young salmon has some reference to the size of the place to which they are restricted, receives further confirmation in these river, lake, and well specimens. The smolt taken from the well in July 1838, where it bad been confined for eight months, was rather smaller in size at that time than the smolt& in the Hodder in the preceding April, though both were pinks of the same year, namely 1837. The smolt taken from the lake in August 1838, which then measured seven inches and a half, had also grown more rapidly than that in the well, but had not acquired the size it would have gained had it been allowed to go to sea. Further, it may be observed, that the salmon-peal from the lake in August 1837, then eighteen months old, though perfect in colour, is small for its age ; while that of July 1838, or twenty-nine months old, ie comparatively still more deficient in growth.

SOLES IN FRESH-WATER.

Soles appear to thrive well in fresh-water. Dr. M'Culloch, in his papers on " changing the residence of certain fishes from salt water to fresh," says, he was intormed that a sole had been kept in a fresh-water pond in a garden for many years; and adds, that in Mr. Arnold's pond at Guernsey, which has been before referred to, the sole becomes twice as thick as a fish of the same length from the sea. A letter from a gentleman residing on the banks of the Arun contains the following statement—" I succeeded yesterday in seeing the person who caught the soles about which you inquire, and who has been in the con- stant habit of trawling for them with a ten-feet beam trawl in this river for the last forty years. The season for taking them is from May till November. They breed in the river Arun ; frequenting it from the mouth five miles up- wards, which is nearly to the town of Arundel, and remain in it the whole year, burying themselves in the sand during the cold months. The fisherman has occasionally taken them of large size, two pounds weight each, but fre- quently of one pound ; and they are thicker in proportion than the soles usually caught at sea, in other respects precisely the same; and it is evident they breed in great numbers in the river, from the quantity of small ones about two inches long that are constantly brought on shore when drawing the net for gray mullet."

GRAY MULLET IN FRESH. WATER.

The partiality exhibited by the gray mullet for fresh-water, has led to actual experiment of the effect of confining them to it entirely. Mr. Arnould put a number of the fry of the gray mullet, about the size of a finger, into his pond at Guernsey, which is of about three acres area, and has been before referred, to under the article Besse. After a few years, mullet of four pounds weight were caught, which proved to be fatter, deeper, and heavier, for their length, than others obtained from the sea. Of all the various salt-water fishes intro- duced, the gray mullet appeared to be the most improved. A slight change in the external colour is said to be visible.

SMELTS IN FRESH-WATER.

The smelt is generally in great request, from its delicate and peculiar flavour. This quality, coupled with the circumstance of the fish passing six or seven months of the year in fresh-water, has induced two or three experiments to re- tain it in ponds ; one of which was attended with complete success, and the at- tempts might be multiplied with advantage. Colonel Meynell, of Yarm, in Yorkshire, kept smelts for four years in a fresh-water pond, having no com- munication with the sea : they continued to thrive, and propagated abundantly. They were not affected by freezing ; as the whole of the pond, which covered about three acres, was so frozen over as to admit of skating. When the pond was drawn, the fishermen of the Tees considered that they had never seen a finer lot of smelts. There was no loss of flavour or quality.

And fish may not only be reared, but positively bred, according to the experiments of Sir FRANCIS A. MACKENZIE. Having formed a pond, and caught " four pair" of salmon in the spawning-season, they were placed in the pool, and-

" Observed to commence spawning on the day following. Caught them carefully. Squeezed gently about 1,200 ova from a female into a bason of water, and then pressed about an equal quantity of milt from a male fish over them.

" Stirred the two about together gently, but well, with the fingers ; and after allowing them to rest for an hour, the whole was deposited and spread in one of the wicker baskets recommended by Professor Agassiz, having above four inches of gravel below and two or three inches of gravel above them."

Other experiments were made, and here are the results-

" On the 19th February, examined the ova ; and life was plainly observed in the baskets, wire-bags, and unprotected gravel: both were placed artificially, and were deposited by the salmon themselves.

" On the 19th March, the fry had increased in size, and went on gradually increasing, much in proportion to the temperature of the weather. "On the 22d, the eyes were easily visible ; and a few of the ova had burst, the young fry having a small watery bladder-like bag attached to the throat. " On the 18th April, the baskets and bags were all opened. The bags had become detached from their throats : the fry measured about three-quarters of an inch in length ; and they swam about easily, all distinctly marked as parr." • • "There can be no doubt, from the success which has attended the above- described experiments, that the breeding of salmon or other fish, in large quasi- titles, is comparatively speaking easy ; and that millions may be produced, protected from every danger, and turned out into their natural element at the proper age; which Mr. Shaw has proved, by repeated experiments on a small scale, to be when they have attained about two years of age, when the parr marks disappear : they assume the silvery scales of their parents, and distinctly show a strong desire to escape from confinement, and proceed downwards towards the sea."

Thus far we have dealt with fresh-water, and with fish wholly or partially inhabiting it. Experiments seem to show that salt- water fish will live and thrive in salt-water ponds : whether they would breed there, or could be kept to produce a profit, is yet a matter of experiment.

SEA-FISH IN PRESERVES.

Cod have been kept in salt-water ponds in different parts of Scotland, and found to maintain their condition unimpaired. Of these ponds there are three; one in Galloway, snot her in Fife, and a thistl in Orkney. That in Galloway is at Logan, the seat of Colonel M'Dowall: it is a basin of thirty feet in depth and one hundred and sixty in circumference, hewn out from the solid rock, and communicating with the sea by one of those fissures that arc common to bold and precipitous coasts. A fisherman is attached to this preserve, whose duty it is constantly to supply the fish with the necessary quantity of food ; which several species soon learn to take eagerly from the hand. In the course of the fishing for this daily supply, such fish as are not too much injured are placed in the reservoir; the others are cut in pieces for food for the prisoners. The whelks, limpets, and other testacea, are boiled to free them from the shells; and no sooner does the keeper or his son appear with the well-known basket of prepared food, than a hundred mouths are simultaneously opened to greet the arrival. The cod-fish are the most numerous in this preserve; one of which has lived twelve years in confinement, and attained a large size. Dr. Parnell mentions that cod are observed to thrive better while under con- finement than most of the species of the same family ; and iu some instances they are found improved by the change. Elias Cathcart, Esq., of St. Marga- ret's, near North Queensferry, has kept for some time a number of marine fishes in a salt-water pond of about two hundred feet in length and five fathoms deep, in which the tide flows and ebbs twice in the day. The principal fishes preserved are cod, haddock, whiting, flounders, and skate; which are re- tained prisoners by means of an iron grating, placed at that part of the pond which communicates with the Frith. They are fed by the keeper with sprats, young herrings, and other small fishes, besides, occasionally, with the intestines of sheep, which the cod are observed to devour with avidity. All the fish ap- pear to thrive well, especially the cod, which are found to be firmer in the flesh and thicker across the shoulders than those obtained from the Frith of Forth,

whence the Edinburgh market is supplied. • • • When kept in confinement in the salt-water preserve referred to in the ac- count of the common cod, the haddocks were found to be the tamest fishes in the pond, and took limpets one after another from the hand.

We have thus gathered together some of the most striking points connected with a plan for the regular supply of fish upon prin- ciples analogous to that of poultry or sheep. Under favourable economical circumstances, there seems no doubt that the markets may be supplied with choice fresh-water fish at a reasonable rate, and with a profit to the owners. Whether this could be done ge- nerally through the country—whether a higher class of fish might not be bred, or at least reared in fresh-water—and whether salt- water ponds could be formed and stocked at a profit—are all fair .subjects of experiment to landlords with whom immediate gain is -not an object, and who may desire a liberal and public-spirited pursuit, which, attentively followed, will enrich natural history, if it do not make the experimentalists any richer.

Of the books that have supplied the materials for this notice, the Treatise on the Management of Fresh-Water Fish, by Mr. Boccres, may be praised as an excellent practical disquisition. Clear, close, and brief, it may be understood by the most obtuse of the " landed proprietors " to whom it is addressed, and cannot weary the most impatient. Of a work like YARHELL'S History of British Fishes, which, expensive as the elaborate execution of the engravings renders it, has already reached a second edition, not much needs be said. The new edition contains nearly forty additional subjects, that have been discovered as frequenting or at least found in the British seas since the publication of the first edition. Many additional remarks have been sent to the author from private individuals, which he has incorporated in his work ; and about sixty plates, either entirely new or reengravings from better specimens, have been added to this edition. So that, whether considered as a scientific description of the structure and anatomical characters of fishes, or a general account of their habits so far as is known, the History of British Fishes may be held unrivalled; though Mr. YARRELL perhaps has drawn somewhat too much of his knowledge from specimens in the market-place, instead of from observation in the waters. Even this remark may be hypercritical, considering the extent of the work; for Mr. YARRELL himself has exhibited a good deal of living know- ledge, and much is supplied by correspondents. Of this less strictly scientific but more generally interesting matter, we will ex- hibit a few specimens to close with.

THE MILLER'S THUMB.

As the term bullhead is thus considered to refer to the large size of the head, so the name of miller's thumb given to this species, it has been said, is sug- gested by and intended to have reference to the particular form of the same part. The head of the fish, it will be observed by the accompanying vignette, is smooth, broad, and rounded; and is said to resemble exactly the form of the thumb of a miller, as produced by a peculiar and constant action of the muscles in the exercise of a particular and most important part of his occupation.

It is well known that all the science and tact of a miller is directed so to regulate the macIlijacry of his mill, that the meal produced shall be of the most valuable descriptierthat the operation of grinding will permit when performed under the most advantageous circumstances. His profit or his lose, even his fortune or his ruin, depend upon the exact adjustment of all the various parts of the machinery in operation. The miller's ear is constantly directed to the note made by the running-stone in its circular course over the bed-stone ; the exact parallelism of their two surfaces, indicated by a particular sound, being a matter of the first consequence : and his hand is constantly placed under the meal-spout, to ascertain by actual contact the character and qualities of the meal produced. The thumb by a particular movement spreads the sample over the fingers : the thumb is the gauge of the value of the produce ; and hence has arisen the sayings of " Worth a miller's thumb ; " and " An honest miller bath a golden thumb "; in reference to the amount of the profit that is the reward of his skill. By this incessant action of the miller's thumb, a peculiarity in its form is produced, which is said to resemble exactly the shape of the head of the fish constantly found in the mill-stream, and has obtained for it the name of the Miller's Thumb: which occurs in the comedy of Wit at several Weapons, by Beaumont and Fletcher, act v. scene i.; and also in Merrett's Pinar. Although the improved machinery of the present time has diminished the necessity for the miller's skill in the mechanical department, the thumb is still constantly resorted to as the best test for the quality of floor.

MACKEREL—SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

In May 1807, the first Brighton boat-load of mackerel sold at Bilingagate for forty guineas per hundred—seven shillings each, reckoning six score to a hundred ; the highest price ever known at that market. The next boat-load produced but thirteen guineas per hundred. Mackerel were so plentiful at Dover in 1808, that they were sold sixty for a shilling. At Brighton, in June of the same year, the shoal of mackerel was so great, that one of the boats had the meshes of her nets so completely occupied by them, that it was impossible to drag them in : the fish and nets, therefore, in the end sunk together ; the fishermen thereby sustaining a loss of nearly 60/., exclusive of what the cargo, could it have been got into the boat, would have produced. The success of the fishery in 1821 was beyond all precedent. The value of the catch of sixteen boats from Lowestoffe, on the 30th June, amounted to 5,252!.; and it is sup- posed that there was no less an amount than 14,0001. altogether realized by the owners and men concerned in the fishery of the Suffolk coast. In March 1838, on a Sunday, four Hastings boats brought on shore ten thousand eight hun- dred mackerel ; and the next day, two boats brought seven thousand fish. Early in the month of February 1834, one boat's crew from Hastings cleared 100L by the fish caught in one night; and a large quantity of very fine mackerel appeared in the London market in the second week of the same month. They were cried through the streets of London three for a shilling on the 14th and 22d March 1834, and bad then been plentiful for a month. The boats engaged in fishing are usually attended by other fast-sailing vessels, which are sent away with the fish taken. From some situations these vessels sail away direct for the London market ; at others, they make for the nearest point from which they can obtain land-carriage for their fish. From Hastings, and other fishing towns on the Sussex coast, the fish are brought to London by vans, which travel up during the night.

TENACITY OF Lira IN TENCH.

A piece of water which had been ordered to be filled up, and into which wood and rubbish had been thrown for years, was directed to be cleared out. Persons were accordingly employed ; and, almost choked up by weeds and mud, so little water remained that no person expected to see any fish except a few eels, yet nearly two hundred brace of tench of all sizes and as many perch were found. After the pond was thought to be quite free, under some roots there seemed to be an animal which was conjectured to be an otter : the place was surrounded, and on opening an entrance among the roots, a tench was found of most singular form, having literally assumed the shape of the hole, in which he had of course for many years been confined. His length, from eye to fork, was thirty-three inches; his circumference, almost to the tail, was twenty-seven inches; his weight, eleven pounds nine ounces and a quarter ; the colour was also singular, his belly being that of a char, or vermilion. This extraordinary fish, after having been inspected by many gentlemen, was care- fully put into a pond ; and at the time the account was written, twelve months afterwards, was alive and well.

OBSERVE EVERY THING.

The tench spawns about the middle of June, with some variation depending on the season. Willughby says it happens when wheat is in bloom. Such coincident circumstances in the seasonal progress of animals and vegetables particularly deserve to be studied, recorded, and remembered ; they may be made subservient to many useful purposes : one, which has a direct reference to fishing, will serve as an illustration. Some London friends, who are enthu- siastic fly-fishers, know exactly when to leave home and find the mayfly on the water in different counties of England, by the flowering of certain shrubs and plants in the neighbourhood of London.

Some of the most racy observations to the present edition are from the communications of the Earl of HOME, a veteran fisher, and of a family not undistinguished in the gentle craft. Here is a resume of his own exploits with the rod and line-

" The first salmon I ever caught was with the minnow, in the month of June 1783, when I was a boy of thirteen, fishing for trout. That fish weighed eighteen pounds ; and since that time I have frequently killed ten or twelve salmon in one day with a minnow. The worm also is a very deadly bait, when the river gets low in summer ; and in the upper parts of the river the worm is the principal bait used during the whole of the spring fishing season. * • • " I may here mention, that I have killed, and all with the fly, many hun- dreds of salmon weighing twenty-five pounds and upwards. The two largest I ever killed weighed, one forty-five pounds, in July 1795, the other forty pounds. The latter fish was sent to the late Duke of Buccleucb, at BowhilL Wl'ten his old cook saw the fish, he declared it was absolutely impossible that any man could kill such a fish with the rod, and to this moment does not believe I caught it. The fish, which weighed forty-five pounds, killed also in the month of July 1795, was a fresh-run fish, with what are called tide-lice on it, and the

finest I ever tasted. •

" I may hem be permitted to mention, that in the month of April 1795, I killed thirty-six salmon in one day, rod-fishing; one of which, eighteen pounds, I took home. Mr. Yarrell may form some idea of the size and quality of the fish, when I tell him that the fisherman received twenty-five guineas for that day's work, not including the fish I took home. The day after, I caught twenty-six. " In the month of June of that year, 1795, I killed in one week, between the Monday morning and Saturday night, eighty-two clean salmon, all in the finest condition, and many of them large fish ; which averages near fourteen per day, all but two salmon." LAWSUIT wirn A DOG.

" My uncle, the same who caught the seventy-pound salmon, had a New- foundland dog which was celebrated for catching salmon. He knew the Mon- day mornings as well as the fishermen themselves, and used to go to the cauld or mill-dam at Fireburn Mill on those mornings. He there took his station at the cauld slap, or opening in the dam, to allow the salmon to pass; and has been known to kill from twelve to twenty salmon in the morning. The fish he took to the side. The then Lord Tankerville instituted a process against the dog. I had a copy of the proceedings, but I regret to say it was lost when the old library was altered. This case was brought before the Court of Session ; and the process was entitled " the Earl of Tankerville versus a dog, the property of the Earl of Home." Judgment was given in favour of the dog.