Of about fifteen known species of gurnards, five are caught near the British coasts. These are the GREY GURNARD, RED GURNARD, PIPER, TUB-FISH, and STREAKED GURNARD, of which the two former are considered best for the table. Their flesh is white, firm, and good, though somewhat insipid; and they are thought to be in greatest perfection from about the beginning of May to the end of July.
ORDER. IV.—ABDOMINAL FISH.
231. The COMMON SALMON (Salmo salar, Fig. 68) is a fish known by its forked tail, the upper jaw being somewhat longer than the lower, and by the extremity of the under jaw, in the male, being hooked and bent upward.
All the fish of the salmon tribe have their hindmost dorsal fin fleshy.
At an early season of the year salmon begin to leave their winter haunts in the ocean, and to pass up the fresh water rivers, sometimes to vast distances, to deposit their spawn. And it is in these peregrinations that they are chiefly caught. The British rivers that are most celebrated for salmon are the Tweed, the Tyne, the Trent, the Severn, and the Thames. Sometimes they are taken in nets, sometimes in traps or engines, and sometimes by harpoons. They have been known to ascend the rivers to the distance of more than 200 miles.
Vast numbers of salmon are annually pickled at Berwick for the London markets, and for sale on the Continent. These are packed in small tubs, and are usually sold under the name of Newcastle salmon.
The season for catching salmon commences towards the end of the year, but the principal capture is in the month of July; and instances have occurred in which more than 1000 fish have been caught at one haul of a net. Fresh salmon are frequently sent to London from the northern rivers packed in ice. The Severn salmon are earlier in season than those of any other river in England, though not so early as what are caught in some parts of Scotland and Ireland. The Thames salmon are principally taken near Isleworth, and are sold at a most extravagant rate in London. In Ireland the most considerable salmon fishery is as Cranna, on the river Ban, about a mile and a half from Coleraine. At a single haul of one of the nets, about the year 1776, there were taken as many as 1356 fish; this circumstance was so extraordinary as to be recorded in the town books of Coleraine.
In the Severn, Trent, and some other northern rivers of England, no salmon measuring less than eighteen inches from the eye to the middle of the tail is allowed to be caught; nor any whatever betwixt the eighth of September and the eleventh of November (except in the Ribble, where they may be caught betwixt the first of January and fifteenth of September), under the penalty of 5l. and forfeiture of the fish. And no salmon of less weight than six pounds are permitted to be sent by fishmongers to their agents in London, under a similar penalty.
When these fish, about the beginning of May, are five or six inches in length, they are called salmon smelts, and, when they have attained the weight of from about six to nine pounds, they have the name of gilse.
Salmon are a very general and favourite article of food. When eaten fresh, they are tender, flaky, and nutritive; but are thought to be difficult of digestion. The flesh of the salmon is of red colour, and the beauty of its appearance is increased by soaking slices of it in fresh water before they are cooked. Immediately after the salmon have deposited their spawn they become so flabby and bad as to be unfit for food. Raw salmon is a favourite dish with even the first nobility of Stockholm, insomuch that they seldom give a great dinner in which this food is not presented on the table. It is prepared by merely cutting the fish into slices, putting these into salt, and, when salted, leaving them for three days in a wooden dish, with a little water. In this state it is said to be very delicious eating.