Common Atlantic Salmon 



cooled down to nbout 50° Fahr. In America the more southern 

 rivers are the first to be entered, and the most northern ones 

 last, the range being from April and May in the Connecticut, to 

 even as late as October in the Miramichi. 



Ordinarily the salmon will go well toward the headwaters of 

 the streams to establish spawning beds. As the spawning season 

 approaches they lose their trim appearance and their bright 

 colours. They grow lank and misshapen, the fins become thick 

 and fleshy, and the skin, which becomes thick and slimy, is 

 blotched and mottled with brown, green or blue, and vermillion 

 or scarlet. These changes are most apparent in the males, 

 whose jaws become curved so that they touch only at the tips, 

 the lower one developing a large powerful hook. When in this 

 condition, and after spawning, while returning to the sea they 

 are called " kelts." 



While the eggs are laid late in the fall, they do not hatch 

 until early the next spring. When the fry are 2 or 3 months old 

 they begin to show the vermillion spots and transverse bars 

 called parr-marks, which entitle the fish to be called a "parr," 

 and which it retains while remaining in fresh water, and 

 sometimes until 7 or 8 inches long. It remains a parr until the 

 second or third spring, when it descends to the sea, assuming 

 at the time a uniform bright silvery colour, and the "parr" 

 becomes a "smolt." After remaining a time in salt water, the 

 time varying from a few months to 2 years, it returns to fresh 

 water either as a "grilse" or "salmon." The "grilse" is the 

 adolescent salmon, weighing 2 to 6 pounds, and is even more 

 graceful than the adult fish. "There is nothing in the water 

 that surpasses a grilse in its symmetrical beauty, its brilliancy, 

 its agility, and its pluck," wrote Thaddeus Norris. "I have had 

 one of 4 pounds to leap from the water 10 times, and higher 

 and farther than a salmon. Woe to the angler who attempts, 

 without .giving line, to hold one even of 3 pounds; he does it at 

 the risk of his casting line, or his agile opponent tears a piece 

 from its jaw or snout in its desperate efforts to escape." 



Quoting again from Dr. Goode, who can wonder at the 

 angler's enthusiasm over "a salmon fresh run in love and glory 

 from the sea.?" Hear Christopher North's praise of a perfect fish: 

 "She has literally no head; but her snout is in her shoulders. 

 That is the beauty of a fish; high and round shoulders, short 



167 



