SPA WNING SALMON, <^c. 73 



known ; but the following account sent to me by- 

 Mr. Malloch, of Perth, who has passed his life 

 among the salmonidae, will, I venture to say, be 

 read with interest ; — ■ 



" On the Tay and its tributaries salmon begin to 

 spawn the first week in November, and a few in 

 October. The first thing to make salmon spawn is 

 a frosty night ; they come out of the pools and 

 streams on to a suitable bed for the purpose, where 

 the stones are pretty large and mixed with gravel 

 which does not shift with the action of the water, and 

 always select a place where they can work up. The 

 female turns upon her side and commences to dig her 

 tail into the gravel, and gives seven or eight scoops, 

 turning up the gravel and making the water quite 

 dirty. While she is doing this the spawn is coming 

 from her, from eighteen to twenty roe at every turn. 

 You may wonder how I know this. For ten years I 

 observed it at my father's house, where there is a 

 cutting from the river for the purpose of driving the 

 mill-wheel. Just before it reaches the wheel there is a 



