25|f Mr D. Eliis ofi the Natural History of the Salmon, 



side and the other to the other side of tlie furrow : They then 

 throw themselves on their sides, again come together, and, rub- 

 bing against each other, both shed their spawn into the furrow 

 at the same time. This process is not completed at once : It re- 

 quires from 8 to \9> days for them to lay all their spawn, and 

 when they have done they betake themselves to the pools to recruit 

 themselves. He has seen three pairs on a spawning bed at one 

 time, and stood «nd looked at them while making the furrow 

 and laying the spawn *. 



The account given of the same process by Mr Little, agrees 

 with that just stated. He observes that the spawning commen- 

 ces in November in most rivers, and is continued through De- 

 cember and January ; that, when a pair of salmon are about 

 to spawn, they make a furrow in the shallow part or current of 

 the water into which the spawn is deposited, so that they work 

 - against the stream, increasing the number of furrows, until they 

 have formed a bed of perhaps 12 feet by 8 or 10 ; the bed be- 

 ing at first very little, but enlarging every d^y. He observed 

 the salmon to go leisurely down the side of the bed, and, turn- 

 ing round at the place where they had thrown up the gravel, 

 come back to that point next the stream ; they then threw them- 

 selves on their sides in the manner previously described, depo- 

 siting their spawn in the furrow as they moved upward, and, at 

 the same time, covering it over with the gravel as they went 

 along. In this manner they continued working for several days 

 till they completed their bed; and if it so happened that they 

 were frightened, they would swim away, and in a little time re- 

 turn to it again ; or, in some instances, would desert it alto- 

 gether, and begin at another place -f. Dr Fleming has never 

 himself seen the process of spawning so completely as to be able 

 to describe it minutely ; but he is satisfied that the description 

 given by Messrs Little and Halliday is accurate. Notwith- 

 standing the number of eggs to be deposited, they must, he 

 adds, be excluded one by one, which accounts for the long con- 

 tinuance of the process ; and if, during the act of spawning, the 

 male fish be destroyed, the female leaves the bed, and in the 

 deep pools endeavours to find another male |. 



• Report I. p 61-2. f Ibid. I. p. 108. 



t Ibid II. p. 66. 



