8 The Salmon 
of each other. On carefully examining a bed after a fish has spawned, 
or when it is spawning, one may see a considerable quantity of spawn at 
the lower end of the bed, uncovered with gravel. This may be either 
washed away by the first flood, or eaten up by trout or sea-trout. 
Conditions of weather and water have a great effect on salmon as 
regards spawning. A night's frost is the best thing to hasten spawn- 
On 

Fic, 50.—Showing Salmon Spawning-Beds on River Almond. November 1905. 
ing; while if a freshet come on, even although a fish has begun to 
spawn, it will leave its bed and go higher up and begin a new one. 
Fish may be seen spawning at any time of the day or night, but they 
are most active from sundown till midnight, when they usually leave 
off and fall back into the pools. Sometimes, if the river is very low, 
they move up to the spawning-beds as soon as darkness sets in. At 
such a time their backs may be above water, and you may hear the 
flop, flop of the female every time she turns on her side (Fig. 49). 
