THE FARMER AT HOME. 357 



tricts, the abundance of this fish forms a great source of wealth to the 

 inhabitants, and it often forms a chief article of sustenance. The 

 salmon inhabits the European coasts, from Spitzbergen to Western 

 France, but is never seen in the Mediterranean. On the Western 

 shores of the Atlantic it is found from Greenland to the Hudson, but 

 is exceedingly rare in the latter river, arid never penetrates farther 

 south. It ascends the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and enters the 

 tributaries of that lake ; but the fall of Niagara presents a barrier to 

 its farther progress into the continent. In the North Pacific the 

 salmon again makes its appearance, and frequents, in vast numbers, 

 the rivers of Northwestern America, Kamtschatka, and Eastern Asia. 



A cold climate and clear water seem to be most congenial to its 

 constitution. The salmon grows to the length of four, five or six feet, 

 and usually weighs twelve or fifteen pounds. .The body is elongated 

 and compressed ; the color silver gray, with spots ; the head of mod- 

 erate size, and the upper jaw rather the longest. Almost all parts of 

 the mouth, and even the tongue, are furnished with pointed teeth, as 

 in the other trouts, and like them, it has an adipose fin upon the lower 

 part ^f the back. All the trouts are voracious and carnivorous, and 

 in general seek the purest water. As soon as the ice melts, the sal- 

 mon enters the mouths of rivers, and, as has been ascertained, almost 

 always of those which gave them birth. They are easily frightened, 

 either by a sudden noise or floating timber, and on such occasions 

 sometimes turn aside from their course and return to the sea. When 

 farther advanced, they make the most determined efforts to surmount 

 rapids and cascades, and will leap a fall of twelve or fifteen feet in per- 

 pendicular height. % If alarmed, they dart away with such rapidity that 

 the eye can scarcely follow them. 



When the young are about a foot in length, they descend the rivers 

 and take refuge in the ocean. Late in the following spring or in the 

 beginning of summer, and after the old ones have ascended, the young 

 again enter the rivers, and are then about eighteen inches in length. 

 They again seek the ocean on the return of frosts. At two years old, 

 the salmon weighs six or eight pounds, and requires five or six years to 

 attain the weight of ten or twelve. The salmon fishery is one of the 

 most important branches of business in the north of Europe. Im- 

 mense quantities of this fish are taken every year, and form a consid- 

 erable accession to the general mass of nutriment. The flesh is 

 bright orange, but, though delicious to the taste, and very much 

 sought after, is difficult of digestion. Formerly the New York market 

 was supplied with fresh salmon from the Connecticut river ; but, 

 since the erection of mill dams and other obstructions, the fish have 

 become scarce there, and now are brought almost exclusively from the 

 state of Maine, packed in ice. 



SAMP. A name given to a sort of bread made of the maize, or 

 Indian corn. They first water the corn for about half an hour, and 



