It is difficult to imagine how anyone could possibly make the story of an Atlantic salmon as exciting and dramatic as the adventures of the great white shark so much in the news these days. Yet Roderick Haig-Brown in his [Silver: The Life of an Atlantic Salmon] does just that…. All the facts are presented with commendable accuracy and specificity….

Haig-Brown has obviously observed the salmon in great detail, but Silver is far from a mere catalogue of facts. Rather, it is an intensely captivating drama of life and survival, brought alive by the author's own delight and interest in the salmon's saga. No text on the subject could offer such delightful vignettes as the month old fry ganging up on the water-boatman for sport, or Silver irritably snapping at two pesky birds on the shore. Purists might object to personalizing a fish, but this is handled with...