Young salmom are taken from the river Tweed at certain season to be marked. This process is performed by inserting in the upper part of the tail a piece of fine silver wire with a small plate attached, on which is inscribed in cipher a number, referring to a corresponding number in a book, where the date of the capture and the weigh of the fish are recorded. The fish is then returned to the river.
By this practice many interesting facts relative to the growth and habits of salmon may be ascertained, especially in regard to their migrations. Its proper residence is the sea, which it leaves between June and September, and proceeds many miles up the rivers for the purpose of spawning.
Its perseverance in making its way up stream is wonderful. No stream is rapid enough to to daunt it, nor is it even checked by falls of considerable height. Salmon have been known to leap fourteen feet out of the water and to describe a curve of at least twenty feet in order to surmount a cascade or dam which impeded their ascent of a chosen river. It is popularly believed that the salmon return every year to the river in which they were hatched.
Thank you to Ron McCombe of Tweed Guide for sharing this with FishPal and Marshall Adame from Jacksonville, North Carolina USA. He was reviewing some old “Harper’s Weekly” Magazines from the 1800s regarding the U.S. Civil War and I came across the article on salmon.
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