Salmonia: Or: Days of Fly Fishing. In a Series of Conversations; with Some Account of the Habits of Fishes Belonging to the Genus Salmo |
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2lbs amusement anal fin angler angling animals appear artificial fly autumn bait beautiful believe birds body bright catch caught char character colour common snipe crimped Danube dare say deep dinner dorsal fin doubt eels eggs England favour feeding fish rising fisher fisherman flies flood fly fisher fly fishing gillaroo grayling habits hackle HAL.-It HAL.-The HAL.-You Halieus haunt hook hope hucho Illyria imitation insects instinct killed kind lake large fish large trout larger larvæ likewise May-fly migration minnow motion mountains natural fly never offspring Ornither pectoral pectoral fin peculiar PHYS PHYS.-I Physicus POIET POIET.-I POIET.-You pool quantity racter rapid sea trout season seen small fish snipe solitary snipe sometimes spawn species spines sport spots spring stomach stream summer sure surface tackle tail taken Traun usually varieties weather wings winter yellow young young snipes
Popular passages
Page 97 - He is the glad prophet of the year — the harbinger of the best season : he lives a life of enjoyment amongst the loveliest forms of nature : winter is unknown to him ; and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of Africa...
Page 189 - All the instances of omens you have mentioned are founded on reason ; but how can you explain such absurdities as Friday being an unlucky day, the terror of spilling salt, or meeting an old woman ? I knew a man, of very high dignity...
Page 111 - I daresay has the mean temperature of the atmosphere in this climate, and is much under 50° — place him there, and let him remain for ten minutes, and then carry him to the pot, and let the water and salt boil furiously before you put in a slice, and give time to the water to recover its heat before you throw in another, and so with the whole fish, and leave the head out, and throw in the thickest pieces first.
Page 120 - ... liable to decompose, and by keeping it cool the decomposition is retarded, and by the boiling salt and water, which is of a higher temperature than that of common boiling water, the albumen is coagulated, and the curdiness preserved. The crimping, by preventing the irritability of the fibre from being gradually exhausted, seems to preserve it so hard and crisp, that it breaks under the teeth ; and a fresh fish not crimped is generally tough."— pp.
Page 31 - I may almost say, a pastoral scene. The meadows have the verdure which even the Londoners enjoy as a peculiar feature of the English landscape. The river is clear, and has all the beauties of a trout stream of the larger size, — there rapid, and here still, — and there tumbling in foam and fury over abrupt dams upon clean gravel, as if pursuing a natural course. And that island, with its poplars and willows, and the flies making it their summer paradise, and its little...
Page 221 - T. xiv. p. 70) says, that the little eels, according to his observation, are produced within reach of the tide, and climb round falls to reach fresh water from the sea. I have sometimes seen them, in spring, swimming in immense shoals in the Atlantic, in Mount Bay, making their way to the mouths of small brooks and rivers. When the cold water from the autumnal...
Page vi - HALIEUS, who is supposed to be an accomplished fly-fisher ; ORNITHER, who is to be regarded as a gentleman generally fond of the sports of the field, though not a finished master of the art of angling ; POIETES, who is to be considered as an enthusiastic lover of nature, and partially acquainted with the mysteries of fly-fishing ; and PHYSICUS, who is described as uninitiated as an angler, but as a person fond of inquiries in natural history and philosophy.
Page 186 - I have observed generally a coppery or yellow sunset to foretel rain ; but, as an indication of wet weather approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round the moon, which is produced by the precipitated water ; and the larger the circle, the nearer the clouds, and, consequently, the more ready to fall. Hal. I have often observed that the old proverb is correct — A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning : A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight.
Page 186 - A rainbow can only occur when the clouds containing, or depositing the rain, are opposite to the sun, — and in the evening the rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west ; and as our heavy rains, in this climate, are usually brought by the westerly wind, a rainbow in the west indicates that the bad weather is on the road, by the wind, to us ; whereas the rainbow in the east, proves that the rain in these clouds is passing from us.
Page 26 - Africa is no more for an animal that can fly, with the wind, one hundred miles in an hour, than a journey for a Londoner to his seat in a distant province. And the migrations of smaller fishes or birds always occasion the migration of larger ones, that prey on them. Thus, the seal follows the salmon, in summer, to the mouths of rivers ; the hake follows the herring and pilchard; hawks are seen in great quantities, in the month of May, coming into the east of Europe, after quails and land-rails ;...