94 SALMONID^. 



The Salmon is, to all intents, a fish of prey ; and to this end 

 every part of his frame is adapted, in the most perfect manner, 

 by the master-hand of nature. The elongated form of his body 

 tapering forward and aft with the most gradually curvated lines, 

 hke the entrance and the run of some swift-sailing barque, 

 enables him to glide through the swift water in which he loves 

 to dwell, displacing its particles with the least resistance; the 

 powerful muscles and strong branched rays of his broad and 

 vigorous caudal fin serve as a propeller, by which he can com- 

 mand an immense degree of momentum and velocity^ and ascend 

 the sharpest rapids. 



No one who has once felt the arrowy rush of a fifteen-pound 

 Salmon, when struck with the barbed steel, will be inclined to 

 undervalue his strength, his speed, or his agility; and the 

 numerous and astonishing leaps which he is capable of making, 

 to the height of many feet above the surface, either in attempt- 

 ing to rid himself of the hook, or in surmounting obstacles to 

 his upward passage, in the shape of dams, flood-gates or 

 cataracts, prove the exceeding elasticity, vigour and strength of 

 his muscular system. 



The prodigious power of sinew exhibited in the lithe and 

 springy limbs of the quadrupeds of prey of the feline order is 

 not superior in its degree to that possessed by this, the veritable 

 monarch of fresh-water fishes ; nor are the curved fangs and 

 retractile talons more eflScacious instruments to the lion and the 

 tiger for the seizure of their victims, than are the five rows of 

 sharp hooked teeth, with which the whole mouth of the Salmon 

 is bristled, for the prehension and detention of his slippery and 

 active prey. 



