320 
they push up into rivers for breeding purposes, and that as far 
as they can ascend from salt-water influences ? They do not 
select a spot between high and low-water mark along our 
inlets and bays, for there their nests would be liable to be 
disturbed by the ebb and flow of the tides, whereas if they 
selected the deeper portions of the ocean it does not seem clear 
how the eggs would be sufficiently erated. 
It is true that if we refer to the Report of the Committee of 
the House of Commons on Salmon Fisheries (1824-25) we find 
them asking a witness, Mr Jonnstonse—‘Is the committee to 
understand that there are salmon which frequent the friths, 
and go out to sea again without going up the rivers?” To this 
he replied, “‘ Yes,” and he also remarked that although they 
generally spawn above the influence of the tides they may 
spawn where the tide reaches. And they subsequently interro- 
gated Mr Hatumay thus—“Are there a great many salmon 
which come into the friths that do not go to the rivers but 
return again to the sea ?”—“ There aré a great many.” While 
Mr Sreavenson, of Fortrose, deposed “ that there cannot be a 
doubt that salmon spawn in the sea.” 
During the winter of 1824 Mr Hoearra found that salmon 
ova taken from the river Don and put into salt water, never 
came to life, from which he inferred that if salmon spawn were 
deposited in the sea it would not be evolved.* Sir Humpurey 
Davy observed of the salmon: “ Sometimes, indeed, in very 
small streams it deposits its spawn almost close to the sea in 
gravel, where the stream meets the waves at high-water mark 
(Le., p. 144). 
Sir James Maruesont has recorded a similar instance at 
the mouth of the Greamster in the Island of Lewis, continuing 
that the spot is covered with “ brackish water” only for about 
two hours at each high tide, but not at all during the neaps, 
while this brackish water is so diluted as to differ but little 
from fresh water in specific gravity, the tide serving as a dam 
to the river water, and, by obstructing its free outflow, causing 
its accumulation and overflow. 
* Parliamentary Committee on Salmon Fisheries, 1824, page 62. 
+ Davy, Physiological Researches, page 261. 
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