SALMON FISHING. 227 



that, as is compelled by law in the Scottish and Irish Salmon rivers, 

 a small aperture is not left in the rivers and dams, if they be above 

 twelve feet in height, by which the fish may ascend to the cool and 

 gravelly head-waters, in which they deposit their spawn. 



Such an aperture or run-way, which need not be of more than two 

 or three feet square, would not occasion any material waste of water 

 in rivers of the vast volume and rapidity which are characteristic of all 

 the American Salmon rivers, and, therefore, would detract nothing 

 from the utility of the works, while, by suffering this most valuable 

 fish to ascend the course, and so to propagate its species, it would ensure 

 to the inhabitants of the inland shores a delicious variety of food, and 

 create anew an important article of commerce. 



It is singular that the Salmon of the lakes are never known to enter 

 the Niagara river, although they are constantly taken at its mouth. 

 They might ascend it some sixteen or seventeen miles, to the foot of 

 the Falls, but I believe it to be a fact that none have ever been taken 

 within the stream. 



The cause of this is probably to be found in the great depth of 

 the Niagara river, in its abrupt and wall-like shores, and in the total 

 absence of gravel beds, or pebbly shoals of any kind, on which they 

 can deposit their ova. 



Again, I am not aware that Salmon are ever taken in the Black 

 river, the Rackett river, or any other of the fine streams, all abound- 

 ing with the finest Brook Trout, which make their way from the 

 romantic region of the Adirondack lakes and highlands, to the north- 

 ward, into the basin of the St. Lawrence. 



Everywhere to the northward of the great Canadian river, to the 

 extreme arctic regions, the Salmon is found in vast numbers, and, 

 together with the ^V'hite-Fish, or Attihawmeg, the delicious Arctic 

 Grayling, Back's Charr, and the Common Trout, afford their principal 

 subsistence to the Esquimaux, and to the adventurous fur-traders, 

 whose posts are dotted down, hundreds of leagues apart, throughout 

 those inhospitable countries. 



Again, throughout the whole of that huge territory lately won at 

 the sword's point, by the Saxon energy of young America, from the 

 degenerate children of old Spain, throughout the British possessions, 

 and even in those far northern shores which the Russian holds upon 



