38 SALMON OF NOVA SCOTIA—GILPIN. 
This, however, would not prove a serious impediment were 
any demand to arise for iron ores: at present there is so little 
inducement held out, that there has been hardly any search 
made for them in this Province. 
Art. VII—On THE SALMon or Nova ScotiA.—By J. BERNARD 
Ginpin, -AS Bie) D2 NEC as: 
(Read February 10, 1879.) 
IT is more than ten years since I read a paper before the In- 
stitute on the Salmonide of Nova Scotia. Since that time I 
have had greater opportunities of studying their habits, and my 
opinions are somewhat modified as regards the new facts I have, 
obtained. Although this paper will be almost a repetition of 
what has been told, yet I have thought the importance of the 
subject may well allow it to be re-told—to be verified by personal 
observation, and to be put in proper order, and to be shown how 
his order is modified by the natural features of this Province. 
Thus this paper will be not upon the Salmon in general, but upon 
the Salmon of Nova Scotia. 
If we examine the map of this Province we will find it 
a narrow peninsula scarce seventy miles wide, whose inter- 
ior is filled by numerous lake basins of about four hundred 
feet elevation, from which flow the various salmon river 
streams to the ocean. Thus our Salmon in seeking their 
spawning grounds have only an elevation of four hundred feet 
to overcome, and at farthest scarce thirty miles to ascend. We 
know further, from personal observation, that they rarely ascend 
so high, or so far, but are often seen spawning four or five miles 
from the tide, and scarce fifty feet elevation. This fact is so 
important with me in modifying their habits that I shall verify 
. it presently by formal statements and dates. We also recollect 
our climate is cold, and that our lakes are frozen towards the end 
of November, attaining a thickness of nearly four feet of ice, 
which is broken up and descends the streams by; the middle of 
April. This is the general average, though varying in different 
seasons. Now compare these facts with the genial lakes of Eng- 
