SALMOX— BREED ON ALTERNATE YEARS: EGGS IN SALT WATER. 79 



while, unless there is a very great difference in the distance of ascent from the 

 sea to the redds, it would be most probable that what this species does in one 

 locality it also does in another.* 



Althoujrh observations have already been made that salmon do not spawn in 

 the sea, or .should they do so, their eggs will not hatch or the young succumb (see 

 piges 36, 37), some of the opinions or statements recorded have been collected 

 and will be found below. Mackenzie, Salmon Fisheries of Scotland, page 13, 

 observed that " one of the luminaries of the Scottish bar, distinguished by his 

 grave eloqiience, declared that if all the rivers in the kingdom were blocked up, 

 salmon would become more plentiful than ever, as they would then be forced to 

 spawn in the sea."f 



* Mr. Atkins observed before tlie American Fisheries Society, respecting experiments made 

 since 1872, at Bucksport, on the Penobscot River, that in November, 1873, 391 sahnon were 

 marked in a secure manner, each fish being first measured and weighed and supplied with a 

 numbered tag. Several of these fish came to hand in the spring, and were found to have lost 

 weight very much, and were otherwise in poor condition, showing that tliey had not been to their 

 feeding-grounds. Those captured in the second year, however, were enormously increased in 

 weight and were in prime condition. A female, placed in a breeding-pond, yielded some 11,000 

 eggs. In 187.5, 357 salmon were marked and released, and of these a number were taken in the 

 spring of 1870, without exception all in poor condition. In the spring of 1877 three of the 1875 

 tish came to hand, and, like the second year's fish of the 1873 lot, were very fine. When placed 

 in the water in 1875 the three weighed together 44i lb., and when recaptured in 1877, 90 lb. exactly. 

 Thus the second experiment coincided exactly with the first. In 1880, 252 salmon were marked 

 and released. Those recavight the next year showed poor condition, three-fourths having actually 

 fallen away. In 1882 five were recaptured. These when released weighed together 45 i| lb. ; when 

 recaptured 90^ lb. These three experiments conclusively proved that the salmon of the Penobscot, 

 at least, spawn every other year only. 



t If we refer to the Report of tite Committee of the House of Commons on Salmon Fisheries, in 

 1824, we find them asking a witness, Mr. Johnstone — "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." He also remarked that although they generally spa\vu above the influence 

 of the tides, they may spawn where the tide reaches. And they subsequently interrogated 

 Mr. Halliday 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 are a great many." While Mr. Steavenson, of 

 Fortrose, deposed " that there cannot be a doubt that salmon spawn in the sea." 



During the winter of 1824 Mr. Hogarth 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. {Parliameyitnry Committee on Salmon Fislieries, 1824, page 62.) 

 Sir Humphrey 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 " (1. c, p. 144). Sir James Mathieson, in Davy's Physioloi/ical liesearclies (p. 261), has 

 recorded at the mouth of the Greamster, m the island of Lewis, a similar instance, 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, caused its accumulation and overflow. The foregoing instances occurred near the 

 mouths of small rivers, and should their state be such — due to pollutions or insufficiency of 

 water — that Salmoniche are unable to ascend, they may drop or deposit their ova in the sea or at 

 the mouths of rivers ; but suppose it is thus deposited, experiments have, as I shall show, proved 

 that the presence of salt water is fatal to the fertilizing property of tiia milt, as also the impreg- 

 nated egg, should it come in contact with it. Doubtless, salmon and sea trout will drop their 

 spawn in salt water at times, but should an investigation be instituted such is usually found to be 

 consequent ujion a want of sufficiency of water in the rivers to enable them to ascend to their 

 spawning beds, while they cannot retain their ova for an indefinite period. Mr. Jackson {Land 

 and M'ater, June 10th, 1876) recorded that "the salmon-trout cast their ova in the salt water at 

 Southport Aquarium, without assuming the appearance of kelts, or even leaving off feeding 

 greedily on shrimps. They did not attempt to make a bed, and the spawn was immediately eaten 

 by their fellows." It would seem in this case that the fish, aware of the uselessness of forming 

 a redd, did not take the trouble to do so. About 1862 Mr. .Sinclair made some experiments in 

 Ireland on the efl'eets of salt water on sahnon ova, remarking, in The Field, 1882, upon having 

 taken about one hundred eyed salmon ova, of which two portions were enclosed in wicker baskets, 

 and buried in separate streams, one of which was reached every tide by salt water, whereas the 

 other was entirely fresh. They were examined in about three weeks after one set of spring tides, 

 when all which had been reached by salt water were found to be dead ; not so those in wdiich the 

 stream was entirely fresh water. The remaining third were hatched in a wash-hand basin, in 

 which was fresh water changed once a day. He subsequently observed {Field, March 7th, 1885) 

 that since then he had two or three times seen salmon redds in the same tidal water, and had been 

 assured by his head water bailiff that he had seen one a quarter of a mile lower down, where the 

 gravel was covered over by neap tides ; also he had been told that in another river, on a particular 



