SALMON PREPARING TO SPAWN. 165 



spark to enlighten the paths of subsequent in- 

 quirers. He has been the Columbus of the salmon- 

 Avorlcl to Mr. Young and others, and to my very- 

 humble self among-st the number. I wish Mr. 

 Shaw would repeat his experiments, feeding his 

 salmon ponds with water from the Nith, and not 

 with spring or rivulet water as he formerly did. 

 He would then discover the cause of his erroneous 

 calculations — that they were produced by the dif- 

 ference of temperature between the waters of the 

 Kith from which he took the ova, and the waters 

 of the ponds in which they were hatched, and in 

 which his experimental salmon- fry were reared. 



Salmon preparing to Spawn. — The male 

 and female salmon appear together on that part 

 of a shallow in which their bed is to be dug, and 

 they remain moving about upon it for a few days 

 before they begin the process of nidification. No 

 precise period can be fixed for their appearance. 

 Salmon spawning-beds are made by the fish in 

 some sandy or gravelly part of the river, generally 

 high up towards its source, and not unfrequently 

 in rivers, and almost rivulets, tributaries to some 

 large river, of course, connected with the sea. 

 Before two salmon, male and female, commence 

 the formation of their nests, they make elForts to 



M 3 



