178 



SALMON. 



not only to raise the eggs from the ground, and thus to 

 distribute them in the stream, but to throw up a mass of 

 dirt and stones, the latter not unfrequently of yery considerable 

 weight. When the spawning has once commenced it seems 

 that the male can no longer retain his milt, nor the female 

 her roe, the emission continuing under all circumstances. This 

 has been often noticed even long after death. The specific 

 gravity of the roe is but little greater than water. After the 

 female commences spawning he has never but on one occasion 

 seen the male in actual company with her. His station at 

 that time is at the distance of six or seven feet, directly in 

 her wake; and the only apparent part he takes in the gene- 

 rative proceeding is by the deposition of his milt, which of 

 course becomes mixed with the eggs of the female as the 

 stream drifts them past him. Several fishes of other kinds, of 

 which the Trout is the chief, are waiting at a greater distance 

 to seize on the spa^vn which may drift so far. Other males 

 wait for the same female, but it is the business of the first to 

 drive them away, in doing which furious battles are often the 

 result. 



But such as we have already described is the more frequent, 

 as it appears the more natural course of this proceeding, 

 which, however, is often broken in upon by human interference; 

 for while the unsuspecting partners in the toil are earnestly 

 occupied with their work, and their attention is thus diverted 

 from their own safety, some prying bipeds have sought them 

 out with the intention of obtaining all they can lay their hands 

 on of the victims; and that too not only in defiance of the 

 law, but also of what is represented as a kind caution from 

 other fishermen, whose employment has been successfully carried 

 on lower doAvn the river, but has now been compelled to cease 

 for the season. In consideration of the health of those who 

 live near the higher banks of the river, and Avho might be 

 induced to capture and make a meal of these fish at the time 

 when they are engaged in shedding their spaAvn, the important 

 fact is widely proclaimed that the Salmon has now become 

 unwholesome; and therefore that these depredators had better 

 abstain from food which may endanger their lives. We must 

 assign the reproachful name of poachers to those destroyers ol 

 the fishes at this important season; but these men have feasted 



