[…] lost in such a jungle of intrigues, pettifoggings, treacheries, diplomacies domestic and foreign […]

Hockett and Ascher go back to the period of dessication in the Pliocene when the forests were disappearing and the savannah was opening up.

As spawning time approaches – autumn or very early winter in most rivers, though in some late-run streams salmon may spawn as late as January or February – the hen's colouration becomes first a matt-pewter and then a drab dark brown-grey. The cock fish, in contrast, begins to gain some brighter colours.

The solution has not yet been found, and it has not been for lack of trying.