DUBUN NATUEAL niSTORT SOCIBTT. 115 



know of that family that the shad — both Alosa finta and Alosa commonii 

 cend in the early part of summer from the sea to the fresh water, to spawn ; bnt 

 they seek the sluggish parts of a rirer, or the quiet waters of the lake, where the 

 ova float, to be impregnated, similar in habit to the herring. The shad has been 

 taken in salmon-nets in the lakes at Killarney, and in rivers in Kerry. Some 

 discussion also arose in the Society coucerning the clean spring fish ascending 

 the Oaragh River, in the county of Kerry, in January, remaining in the fresE 

 water throughout the summer, and spawning the following autumn without re- 

 visiting the sea in the interval. It is necessary, for the proper development of 

 the ova and milt, that the fish should be in the healthiest state of vigour; but a 

 sojourn in the fresh water for so many months must greatly deteriorate the con- 

 dition of the fish, and render them uneaual to such important functions. The 

 wild and romantic districts in Kerry, which supply the waters of the Laune and 

 the Caragh, have for years been familiar to me. Its salmon-fisheries, therefore, 

 would naturally interest me. Salmon are found ascending the Caragh very 

 early in the autumn for the spawning-beds, having at that time, in August and 

 early in September, the ova largely developed. These are the early breeding 

 fish, and, subsequently, the run of early spring salmon. After the operations are 

 completed in the spawnin";-beds, the fish return to the sea to recruit, and are 

 again to be met early in January, in the fresh water, in the primest condition. 

 1 nese fish do not then visit the river or lake for the purpose of spawning, nor 

 remain until that time approaches. Seasons and localities alone influence the 

 salmon to proceed to the spawning-beds, according to the condition of the early 

 and late breeding fish. Mr. Shaw's experiment proves that the salmon which he 

 captured for the purpose of obtaining the ova for artificial impregnation, and 

 placed in ponds aiter he had successfully effected the object, on being liberated 

 from the ponds, at once moved towards the sea. Frequent remarks have been 

 made, that to the destructive floods of 1848 and 1849 were to be attributed the 

 scarcity of salmon the following years. I was on the south-west coast in the 

 season of 1849 and 1850. Our salmon-fisheries in the Feohanagh and the Cle- 

 hane were complete failures in 1850; and there certainly was a scarcity of peal 

 this season. Our western rivers are very late, and salmon do not, in the gene- 

 rality of them, approach until late in the season. After the season had closed, 

 the salmon were plentiful in the estuaries, and this was strikingly the case late 

 in the season of 1850; for great quantities of fish were hanging about the 

 mouths of the rivers, unable or uninclined to ascend until very late in the sea- 

 son. The season of that year was uncommonly dry, and the rivers were low the 

 greater part of the autumn ; and it was not until October that the fish entered 

 the rivers. At that time, I heard that those that were taken were in prime con- 

 dition. On inquiries, the same season, I found that similar causes, to some 

 extent, affected the Lee and the Slaney, and that, long after the season had 

 closed, the salmon were to be found going up the rivers, and in prime condition. 

 This went to prove that, in some of those late rivers, the season closes much too 

 early (at least for the rod); and, on the other hand, the season should not com- 

 mence too early. Again, there are exceptions, for in some rivers there is a good 

 run of clean fish the greater part of the year. It is quite clear that salmon do 

 not desert the rivers of their origin, for, whatever natural causes may induce or 

 oppose their earlier or later ascent from the sea, they invariably seek the parent 

 stream. Their visits to the sea are confined to those depths off the coast where 

 the river disembogues, and where rocky ledges and sandy and shingly channels 

 afford protection, and abundance of marine animals for the proper nourishment 

 of their rapid growth. Experience has proved to me the unsound riews ad- 

 vanced concerning the migration offish. Cod, ling, haddock, hake, pollock, and 

 herrings are, throughout the year, in the deep water— their proper feeding- 

 grounds bordering the parts of the coast, and the bays and estuaries, where they 

 each soason approach to spawn. All oviparous fish visit the shoaler parts of a 

 coast to spawn, and those periods are now the seasons of the fishermen's har- 

 Test. An experimental cmise in 1850 prored the correctness of these views. 



