salmon n OED ~ sb1 1 (13..-), DAE 1 (1616-) for sense 1; for combs. in sense 2: cp NID ~ boat; OED crib sb 10 'wickerwork contrivance for catching salmon' (1873); OED leap sb 2 b ~ leap (1387, 1661); DAE ~ 4 b ~ net (1828 quot); DC ~ post (1770); DAE rack 3 (1735) for ~ rack; Cent ~ twine (1890). Salmon with words denoting condition, cure and seasonal occurrence are listed alphabetically: cp FALL n, SPRING2.
1 The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), object of an important commercial fishery conducted in inshore waters and river estuaries; freq in place-names.
[1555] 1915 HOWLEY 2 [The inhabitants] eate fysshe more than any other thyrige, and especially salmons. although they have fowles and fruits. [1583] 1940 Gilbert's Voiages & Enterprises ii. 406 [Hayes' narrative] [There are] no lesse varietie of kindes of fish in the sea and fresh waters, as Trouts, Salmons and other fish to us unknowen. 1620 WHITBOURNE 10 The Rivers also and Harbours are generally stored with delicate Fish, as Salmons, Peales... [1663] 1963 YONG E 56 At the head of this river are many salmon; we caught abundance and our master saved several hogsheads and dried abundance in the smoke. [1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 135 We had five salmon to-day, and I killed one with a fly. 1819 ANSPACH 401 The salmon here is excellent, and in great abundance from June to August; it is taken in nets, placed along the sea shores in bays and large harbours. 1925 Dial Notes v, 340 ~ The stages of growth have names running from fry through parr and grilse to kelt or slinks. 1936 SMITH 131 We landed our Labrador gear and crews, took on board more cod oil and salmon and left for St John's. 1976 PINHORN 34 Atlantic salmon landings from Newfoundland and Labrador [in] 1973 indicated a total catch of 2019 t, the highest since 1940. The fishery is conducted mainly by surface gillnets set out from shore.
2 Attrib, comb, cpd: salmon barrel: wooden container for the export of dried, salted or smoked salmon.
[1891] 1897 Nfld Law Reports 540 Upon further questioning the plaintiff yet added to the list, dry goods, boots and shoes, salmon barrels and salt, oil-clothes and twine.
salmon berth: particular station on inshore fishing grounds assigned by custom or lot to salmon fisherman; BERTH.
1969 HORWOOD 65 'How does he get his salmon berth, if he isn't home?' 'I draw for his berth, sir. The teacher lets me off from school, and I go to the store and draw for a berth with the men.' There was more than a touch of pride in his voice as he said it. 1977 BURSEY 14 We knew where there was a good salmon berth and we were aware that more than one fisherman would try to get his nets into it.
salmon boat: undecked boat used in the commercial salmon fishery.
[1888] 1897 Nfld Law Reports 310 Part of the salmon-boat crew of the defendant deposed to their having been at the nets early in the morning, of having overhauled them, and having left them moored all straight.
salmon box: shallow wooden container for the export of dried, salted or smoked salmon.
1849 [FEILD] 53-4 The seats on this occasion were salmon-boxes, i.e. oblong boxes, about fourteen inches deep and wide, and six feet long, in which the preserved salmon is packed for exportation.
salmon catcher: commercial salmon fisherman; SALMONIER.
1792 PULLING MS 8 This old man who was a salmon catcher and lived amongst the Northern brooks many years has frequently met with and parted from the Indians without offering to hurt each other. 1854 [FEILD] 88 One very respectable planter, a salmon-catcher, had come from his residence [near Flat Islands]. [1888] 1907 Our Country 3 [He was] a typical specimen of the old English salmon catcher and furrier, and one of the few of that class surviving.
salmon collector: buyer of salmon in the commercial fishery. Cp COLLECTOR, TRADER.
T 80/3-64 Well, there was a salmon collector then, an' we was told there was a salmon collector gone in the bay. Q 73-3 ~ This was a person who came around in a truck or a boat to collect the salmon from the fishermen.
salmon crew: group of persons engaged or 'shipped' to conduct afloat and on shore the various operations of the commercial salmon fishery; CREW.
[1777] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 229 The Fox was then laden with salt, and sailed for White-Bear River, with a salmon crew... I sent off a salmon-crew to Paradise in two skiffs.
salmon crib: wickerwork contrivance to trap salmon migrating up a river.
[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 139 Milmouth cut staves for a salmon-crib until the evening, when he and I brought the net on shore to shift it.
salmon flower: primrose, cowslip (Primula laurentiana) (1895 N S Inst Sci ix, 390).
1836 [WIX]2 162 There is a flower here resembling the English auricula, but smaller; it is the precursor of the salmon, and is, in consequence, called the salmon-flower.
salmon house: structure in which salmon are split, salted and stored for export.
[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 99 The sawyers were cutting beams and other timber, for a salmon-house. [1774] ibid ii, 11 I went down to the salmon-house ... and found the fish were very badly split, and not properly salted. [1783] ibid iii, 9 My houses ... now consist of a dwelling-house and store-house in one, sixty feet by twenty-five, and two stories high; a house for the servants, thirty feet by seventeen; three salmon-houses, ninety feet by twenty each; and a smith's shop, sixteen feet by twelve.
salmon leap: natural declivity or fall in a river up which migrating salmon jump.
[1776] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 182 [I] was going up to the salmon-leap myself, in the other skiff... I afterwards went up to the salmon-leap, which I found to be the most magnificent and beautiful cascade I ever saw.
salmon net: type of net moored in inshore waters or river estuaries to trap salmon; cp salmon trap below. Also attrib.
1792 PULLING MS 8 He ... sent eight of his men the latter end of February to go up the Main Brook in pursuit of some Indians who had the preceding summer taken away some of his salmon nets, traps and many other things. [1866] 1975 WHITELEY 117 Fine—got three seals—Got the salmon nets. 1873 CARROLL 35 The twine they are made of is about three times the size of salmon net twine. 1941 SMALLWOOD 258 [statistics] Salmon Nets ... 11,415. Q 67-94 The first thing done in making the [salmon] net is that the linnet is roped onto the headrope. Then the floats are put onto the float rope about 1/2 fathom apart. They are kept in place by pieces of twine that are wound around the head and float ropes at each end of the float. The skirt ropes are then put on each end of the net and then the lead line is roped onto the bottom of the net. This line sinks the net and keeps it in fishing order. 1979 Evening Telegram 8 June, p. 1 A number of other explanations have been put forward to explain the lack of salmon this year: dirty water, slub on salmon nets, the fact that caplin haven't begun rolling on the beaches.
salmon peel: OUANANICHE; a variety of trout. Also attrib.
1846 TOCQUE 128 Angling is now pursued, as our ponds at this season abound with myriads of trout (Salmo fario) and salmon peel. 1888 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 31 [The lake] is well stocked also with fine trout, mostly salmon peel. I caught one very large one. 1902 Christmas Bells 14 As the morning advanced the big ones got mighty shy and nothing could be procured but small, trashy salmon peel which appeared in galore wherever and however we tried. 1929 BURKE [15] "Damm the Ever": I married a girl called Ann Steer, / She had a face like a man on the Beer, / When she opened her mouth, / Like a Salmon peel trout, / It thought her a duck of a deer. T 80/3-64 You had containers to bring 'em in for the winter, all these four-pound salmon—what they call salmon peel. 1964 SCOTT & CROSSMAN 26 Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar (thought by some to be a trout and called 'salmon peel'). P 127-79 ~ A five- to ten-inch fish which has the coloration and form of a full grown salmon. They are sometimes called land-locked salmon.
salmon pip: see PIP1.
salmon plantation: area of foreshore with or without buildings upon it for the prosecution of the commercial salmon fishery; PLANTATION, ROOM.
[1812] 1966 Evening Telegram 27 May, p. 6 [To be sold] dry goods store, net loft ... cook room, fisherman's house, fish store, salt store, small salmon plantation [at Trinity] without buildings.
salmon post: see salmon station below.
[1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 14 Upon landing at the salmon-post, I found the crew to consist of three men. [1865] 1971 CASEY 36 [Conche] is the only place I have visited where ... ill-feeling exists between the English and French, owing in a great measure to the English being prevented from putting down salmon nets, it being an excellent salmon post.
salmon pound: enclosure to trap salmon in a river.
[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 168 This morning, we discovered that the salmon pound was carried away by the current; the river being much higher now than at any time since I came to the place.
salmon punt: see salmon boat above; PUNT.
[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 106 I accompanied them to Seal Island; and the Indians carried their provisions, traps, and a salmon-punt upon their sled.
salmon rack: type of obstruction to trap salmon migrating up a river.
[1779] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 485 I ... made him a present, by a written deed of gift, of my houses and all my interest in that place and Deer Harbour, which is an appendage to it, and also of what salmon-racks and cribs I had at Charles Harbour.
salmon station: area on the foreshore, or on the banks of a river, often with buildings, from which the commercial salmon fishery is prosecuted; STATION.
[1811] 1818 BUCHAN 4 Mr Miller's upper Salmon station. [1888] 1907 Our Country 2 The Gander, the Exploits, and the Indian Brook of Hall's Bay were the three most important salmon stations of the Island.
salmon tierce: wooden cask for the export of split and cured salmon.
T 90-64 We would get our stock from the sawmills, and we would make herring barrels and salmon tierces.
salmon trap: type of fixed fishing gear used in inshore water, box-shaped with a length of net stretching from shore to entrance through which migrating salmon enter and are trapped; TRAP1.
1941 SMALLWOOD 258 [statistics] Salmon Traps ... 543. T 250-66 We had salmon nets, and an old man to Norris Point, he was in the salmon business and he recommended the salmon trap. Where you'd get one in the net, you'd get three or four or five in the trap. 1976 Evening Telegram 2 Mar, p. 24 Fishermen here are now busy preparing for this year's fishery. Salmon traps, and nets, cod traps, trawls, herring nets, lobster traps and other gear are being overhauled in stores.
salmon twine: stout linen line used in the knitting of salmon nets, seines and traps. Also attrib.
[1785] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 96 Mr Collingham and two hands finished the shortest seal-net, and the people then carried them both, as also the killicks, &c. to the yawl; but the wind being too high to put them out, they left them there, and two hands began to mend the old net with salmon-twine. 1874 MURRAY & HOWLEY 353-4 I have received a coil of salmon twine, 90 fathoms in length, which I assume to be the depth found by a trapper I engaged to try the soundings. 1910 Nfld Qtly Oct, p. 23 You speak of salmon, and we have nothing to catch them with except a withered bamboo[,] a John Winter cast with three flies and a ball of salmon twine. P 102-60 In the fall we order a quantity of salmon twine and stormy days engaged some of the native men to come to the store and knit salmon twine. In the spring we had completed 100 nets and three salmon traps. T 80/3-64 An' at that time 'twas all salmon twine, salmon twine linnet, see, 'cause there was no cotton then; an' 'twas heavy, boy. A man heaved a cod seine was a able man.
