It is now time to tell you next, (according to promise) some observations of the _Salmon_; But first, I wil tel you there is a fish, called by some an _Umber_, and by some a _Greyling_, a choice fish, esteemed by many to be equally good with the _Trout_: it is a fish that is usually about eighteen inches long, he lives in such streams as the _Trout_ does; and is indeed taken with the same bait as a _Trout_ is, for he will bite both at the _Minnow_, the _Worm_, and the _Fly_, both _Natural_ 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.