the Salmon, Herring, and Fendace> 475 



. 



bed seemed larger than those aroundj and much cleaner on their 

 surface, and a fanciful mind might readily describe this appear- 

 ance as a sort of pavement ; of course there is not the slightest 

 ground for an expression of this kind. At a depth below the sur- 

 face of the gravel above described, varying from nine inches to 

 twelve, hundreds of ova of the usual size were turned up with 

 the spade, on the 25th of February. They were clear, transpa- 

 rent, and seemingly unchanged. We know from other facts that 

 the depth of the deposited ova may be in some instances twice 

 that stated, or about two feet below the surface of the gravel ; 

 but on what this may depend is doubtful. The ova taken up 

 by me in 1830 were in a similar stream, and at a similar depth; 

 but the stream was narrower and deeper, and the stones occupy- 

 ing the surface of the gravel much coarser. Thus the ova had re- 

 mained 116 days without any visible alteration or change. The 

 winter was considered one of the mildest ever observed in this 

 country, there having been in some measure neither frost nor snow. 

 The trout took readily enough with the fly (25th February), and 

 indeed there were a few natural flies on the river. We took two 

 dozen of trout, which were in very good condition, particularly 

 those of a small size. The stomachs of these trout were full of small 

 insects, as beetles, screws, &c., as they are called by the country 

 people, larvae of flies, and cod bait generally, with which the gravel 

 of the stream abounds in an incredible degree. In the gravel-bed 

 the ova of salmon and trout lie safe from every living enemy, and 

 in the midst of a profusion of food whose habitat is the same 

 as their own, and whose progress of incubation and subsequent 

 rise through the gravel is quite similar. The bed of the river, 

 then, is the soil which furnishes at the same time the matrix for 

 the young salmon and trout, and the secure and ample supply 

 of food for the young of both species of fish. The great variety 

 and quantity of these insects, together with the depth of their 

 situation, (for the spade which took up the ova was also full of 



VOL. XII. PART II. 3 P 



