470 SUPPLEMENT ON 



which they annually abandon with the reflux, and are some- 

 times favoured by a wind, which, in several places, is called 

 the salmon-wind. 



The sooner a river is freed from ice, the sooner the salmons 

 enter it, and they arrive there in so much the greater number 

 as the wind and tide are stronger. They are, however, almost 

 always impelled by nature to enter those streams in which 

 they have been born. This was very sufficiently proved by 

 an experiment of Deslandes, who bought a dozen salmons 

 from the fishermen of Chanteaulin, placed a ring of brass upon 

 the tails of each, and restored them to liberty. In the follow- 

 ing year five, in the second three, and in the third three 

 more of these fishes were retaken. An invisible power 

 traces the route which they have to follow, brings them 

 back exactly to the places of their birth, and all of them re- 

 assembled without tumult, appear to follow its guidance with 

 implicit respect ; just as we see the swallows every spring 

 return to their nest of the preceding year. 



On reascending the rivers, the salmons are united in great 

 numbers, in enormous shoals, in embodied armies, which 

 seem to dart from the bosom of the sea, to invade the empire 

 of the fresh waters. They always proceed in long bands, 

 disposed in two lines, which form the sides of a triangle, the 

 summit of which is occupied by the largest female who leads 

 the van, while the younger or the smaller males constitute 

 the rear-guard. If this order should be interrupted by any 

 cause, it is re-established as soon as possible, and so great 

 sometimes is the multitude of individuals which voyage in 

 this style together, that they are capable of tearing the 

 strongest nets, and thus escaping the hands of the 

 fishers. 



These troops in general swim with a great noise, in the 



middle of the river, and near the surface of the water. They 



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