THE FISHERIES. 85 



getable seeds. You take the eggs of the salmon 

 (the roe fecundated with the milt), and merely pro- 

 vide for their security, pending their natural vivica- 

 tion in the gravel by the ordinary effect of the sea- 

 sons, and temperature of the atmosphere and water. 

 Without further disquisition on this head, we may 

 advance our position some steps, and come at once 

 to the conclusion that the ingenuity of man has al- 

 ready settled the question that salmon-fry can be 

 bred, by artificial means, in rivers or streams, in 

 any conceivable profusion. But then comes a se- 

 cond problem. — We have dismissed our progeny of 

 salmon-fry in countless myriads into the sea — there 

 we lose sight of them ; we have protected them in 

 their infancy in the river — How are we to protect 

 them in their adolescent state in the sea ? 



W"e confess, to our behef, that unless this second 

 problem can be successfully mastered, no very ex- 

 traordinary or important practical results will follow 

 from the successful mastery of the first. 



To explain our views on this subject as concisely 

 as possible. — W^e do not think, as already said, that 

 any extremely important practical results will fol- 

 low from breeding salmon-fry artificially in rivers, 

 unless we can go a step further, and protect them, 

 at least for some period, in the sea ; and the follow- 

 ing are our reasons : — In spite of all opposing cir- 

 cumstances, the number of salmon-fry annually pro- 

 duced by the salmon themselves, by the natural pro- 

 cess in the river, is at all times so prodigious, and 



