THE TRUE SALMON. 61 



brackishness. lie is said to breed or cast his spawn^ in most 

 rivers, in the month of August ; some say that then they dig a 

 hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel, and there place their 

 eggs or spawn, after the milter has done his natural office, and 

 then hide it most cunningly, and cover it over with gravel and 

 stones ; and there leave it to their Creator's protection, who, by 

 a gentle heat which he infuses in that cold element, makes it 

 brood and beget life in the spawn, and to become Samlets early 

 in the next spring following." 



This passage I have quoted because in several respects it 

 approaches very nearly the truth, as it has been proved by the 

 result of a series of well-conducted experiments, to Avhich I shall 

 again allude. 



The true Salmon is caught in the estuaries of our large 

 northern and north-eastern rivers, on his Avay up to deposit his 

 spawn in the last months of spring and the early part of the 

 summer. It has been observed in Europe, that those rivers 

 which flow from large lakes afford the earliest Salmon, the 

 waters having been pui-ified by deposition in the lakes, while 

 those which are swollen by melting snows are later in season. 



It is also observed that the northern rivers are the earliest ; 

 and it is stated by Arteoli, that in Sweden, Salmon spawn in the 

 middle of the summer. The causes influencing these facts are 

 not yet decided, nor are they easy of solution, says Sir William 

 Jardine, especially where the time varies much in the neigh- 

 bouring rivers of the same district. 



I atn not aware that any difference of this kind has been 

 remarked in this country ; and the great lack of residents on 

 the remote Salmon rivers who will trouble themselves to observe 



