116 THE STORY OF FISH LIFE. 



The life-history of the salmon has been vividly 

 sketched by Mr Rooper, from whom we append 

 the following details : — 



" Arrived on the spawning-ground the female, 

 then called a baggit, alone proceeds to form the 

 nest, or 'redd/ as it is termed. This she effects 

 by a sort of wriggling motion of the lower part of 

 her body working in the loose gravel. . . . The 

 redd, a deep trench, being formed, the female 

 proceeds, attended by the male fish — frequently 

 by two kippers, as they are then called — to 

 deposit her eggs. This she does, not all at once, 

 but in small quantities, at intervals, frequently 

 returning to the redd for the purpose. The eggs 

 are at once fecundated by the melt of the kipper, 

 this process going on for two or three days, the 

 fish sinking down occasionally into the pool below 

 to rest and recover their strength. The effect of 

 fertilisation of the ova is to add greatly to their 

 specific gravity; the eggs sink, and are at once 

 covered with gravel by a similar motion on the 

 part of the baggil to that used in the formation 

 of the redd. Here the process being completed, 

 the eggs remain during a period of from one 

 hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty 

 days, according to the temperature of the water. 

 At the expiration of that time the little fish come 

 into existence, and, after a few days, wriggle out 

 of their gravelly bed, and seek refuge under an 

 adjacent rock or stone, where they remain in 

 safety for some twelve or fourteen days longer. 

 . . . Buckland calculated that the number of 

 eggs laid by a salmon was about one thousand to 

 the pound weight, a fish of fifteen pounds, there-. 



