HAMLIN ON THE SALMON OF MAINE. 347 



in the sea. The migrating salmon actually loses weight while passing 

 the Slimmer in the rivers, and it does not regain it until it returns to 

 Ihe sea, where it increases in flesh with extraordinary rapidity. 



Taking the migratory salmon as the type, we do not observe any dif- 

 ferences from it in the structure of the lake-salmon that may not be 

 explained by food and locality. In reality, the differences are trivial, 

 since nature, undisturbed, is rigid in the laws of forms and proportion. 

 But we may judge of their flexibility from the singular effects produced 

 in pisciculture. The Chinese have shown in their fish-culture how man 

 may p'ay with nature and control organic form to a certain extent. 

 The illustrations of the French naturalist, M. de Savigny, show how 

 this singular people have cultivated the gold-fish even to eighty-nine 

 varieties, and how they have secured and seemingly perpetuated cer- 

 tain forms with double fins or destitute of fins, and possessing other 

 singularities; also, how they have succeeded in producing almost every 

 possible combination of metallic tinting — gold and silver, orange, pur- 

 ple, and black. Yet these monstrosities, when left to themselves, soon 

 revert to the original type, like the castaway horses of Sable Island. 



The circumstances connected with the birth and growth of the salmon 

 are very interesting, and have given rise to animated discussions among 

 the European ichthyologists. 



There are sedentary species of fish which live and die in the same 

 locality, often extremely narrow in its limits ; while there are others of 

 migratory disposition, and condemned, like the Wandering Jew of the 

 legend, bv irresistible instinct, to move without cessation and without 

 reaching an end to their lifelong journey. These wandering tribes, 

 however, are subject to periodic laws, which direct their migration and 

 emigration. 



Of all the fish of passage, the salmon is perhaps the most remarkable. 

 He is certainly the noblest, and ranks the highest among his class in 

 intellectual instinct. The angler justly looks upon him as the prince ot 

 the streams ; and what can compare with his beautiful proportions, his 

 rapid and graceful motions, his silvery hues, his keen and lively eye, 

 his rich and delicate flavor? The luxurious Eomans, who searched 

 distant climes for delicacies, knew nothing of this splendid fish — no more 

 than we know of the gourami of China. The ancient writers are silent 

 concerning it, with the exception of a remark of Pliny, and the inscrip- 

 tion in the Mosella of Ausonius : Purpureisque solar stellatus tergore 

 guttis. 



In the spring and early summer the salmon enters the rivers, and 

 swims up to the cool tributaries with great rapidity. Falls of ten feet 

 in height he surmounts by a single leap, and he stems the swiftest cur- 

 rents with the greatest ease. On arriving in the clear streams which 

 flow from the fountain-heads, his journey is at an end ; he selects his 

 mate and waits for the nuptial period of autumn. 



Trout pair together in June, and their seeming constancy and affec- 



