40 FISHES AND FISHING. 



which they carefully cover with loose gravel ; they 

 then proceed to make another furrow, and the same 

 process is repeated, until the whole of the eggs of the 

 female are excluded, amounting to from seventeen 

 to twenty thousand ; these being dropped , singly, 

 occupies several days. 



The horny excrescence at the end of the lower jaw 

 of the male, is only a character of his sex, and not as 

 has been supposed, to enable him to make the above 

 furrows in the gravel, for both male and female work 

 to make them ; probably, if any difference, the male 

 most. 



Should the fish be disturbed, or frightened away 

 from the spot where they have begun to spawn, they 

 return to it as soon as the cause of their alarm has 

 ceased ; and in the case of the male fish being cap. 

 tured or destroyed, the female leaves the place, and 

 seeks a deep pool, from whence she soon returns with 

 another male partner, who aids her in completing 

 the work ; and this she will repeat several times if 

 her then male partner be taken away. Poachers are 

 so well aware of this fact, that they constantly take 

 the male fish, which is then easily done, always 

 allowing the female to escape, who thus becomes a 

 decoy for them. Mr. Young gives an instance of a 

 female salmon, from the side of which nine male sal 

 mon were killed in this manner ; she then repaired 



