Fish Culturists' Association. 29 



be diy, and the water low, the fish will rest in the deep pools below, 

 waiting for the water to rise in the rapids, that they may be enabled to 

 get upon the shallows to form their beds. 



All this time the eggs are maturing, and at last, late in the season, 

 unable to retain the ova an}' longer, the}' will rush up at the first freshet, 

 and in some instances la}' the whole of their eggs in one or two nights. 



During the time in which the female is engaged in depositing her eggs, 

 she will generally be accompanied by a male fish, who performs very 

 little, if any, of the labor in forming a bed ; he is constantly hovering 

 about just below the female, and when she is in the act of laying her 

 eggs he will run alongside, and, by a muscular movement of his body, 

 eject some of his milt, which, if perchance it touches the egg, 

 impregnates it. 



It does not necessarily follow that the female shall be accompanied by 

 the male in the act of spawning, for often it is found that she will lay her 

 eggs without the presence of a male fish. It frequently happens that 

 whilst she may be deeply engaged in her work, several male fish will be 

 fighting together to gain the superiority of place. Whilst thus engaged, 

 the female, bent upon her work, is depositing her ova without the vivify- 

 ing fluid coming in contact with them. Whilst this operation of laying 

 the ova is going on, the bed is generally surrounded by various kinds of 

 small, predacious fish, watching every opportunity to prey upon the eggs 

 as they flow from the female, or as they settle in the bed or drift 

 beyond it. 



Trout cause great havoc in this way ; nor is this fondness for the eggs 

 to be laid to the trout alone, for young salmon (parrs), chubs, eels, and 

 almost every other kind of small fish, are lying in wait to perform the 

 same act of destruction of the ova. It is a mere matter of mastery which 

 shall get the lion's share. 



Those of the eggs that shall have escaped these perils, together with 

 those that have received the fecundating fluid, will be found embedded in 

 the gravel, where they remain (should they escape all other dangers) 

 during a period of from five to six months of the coldest season of the 

 year, namely, from October till the following April or May. Various 

 kinds of insects, water bugs, and innumerable aquatic animals, whose 

 nature it is to lie hidden underneath the gravel and stones at the bottoms 

 of streams, whilst groping about for food, come upon these salmon beds, 

 and, perforating the soft, filmy covering of the egg, with their needle-like 

 teeth and sharp claws, destroy vast numbers of them. 



Add to this a great number lost by decay, for all those which have not 

 received the vitalizing fluid die, and, becoming putrid, there grows upon 

 them a species of fungus, which, spreading its grasping web, catches in 



