20O EVIDENCE OF DESIGN IN MIGRATION OF SALMON. 



It will be perfectly impossible to understand aright 

 tlie natural habits of the salmon unless we regard 

 them from the proper point of view, viz., that the 

 goings and comings of these curious migratory crea- 

 tures are independent of human interference, and that 

 they simply obey the Divine laws which have been laid 

 down for them from the beginning of time. 



In the whole history of the salmon we may discern 

 a wonderful order and foresight on the part of the 

 Creator. The parent fish run up tlie rivers when the 

 floods are coming down. These floods enable them to 

 reach the only places which are fit for the hatching 

 out of their ova. Floods also cover over entirely, or 

 else reduce to a minimum, the height of the weirs, 

 and dilute the pollutions from town sewage, from 

 paper and other manufactories. Cold water is neces- 

 sary for the development of the ova when dex^osited 

 (the temperature should be from 44° to 48°), and this 

 low temperatm^e occurs only in the winter months, at 

 which time the fish deposit their eggs. The young fish 

 come out of the egg with their food provided for them 

 ill their umbilical vesicle. The albuminous contents 

 of this provision bag being gradually absorbed, lasts 

 them till they are grown large enough to catch their 

 own food. In the spring of the year this food appears 

 abundantly in the form of insect life. The parent fish, 

 which have risked their own lives for the benefit of 

 their young, drop back to the sea to recruit their 

 exhausted strength,''' and both they and the smolts (their 



* In this state a large number of fish are annually found dead ; 

 having examined a large number of them, I can find no cause of 

 deo.th except an anasmic condition and a laxity of fibre in the 

 muscular tissue. I conclude, therefore, that the natural cause of 

 death is (except in cases of violence or wounds from fighting) 

 simple exhaustion ; most of these fish found dead are males. It 



