232 GROWTH OF SALMON. 



so during every month it has tarried in sea water. 

 About the end of its second year, and not unfre- 

 quently four or five months sooner, it breeds, and 

 soon after, say two or three months, migrates for 

 the second time to the sea. A sojourn there of a 

 few weeks changes its name, size, and shape, and 

 immigrating again into its native stream it be- 

 comes a salmon. To deserve that name it must 

 have made two voyages to sea, and entered the 

 third year or thereabouts of its existence. After- 

 wards, as long as it lives, it visits the sea annually, 

 and annually revisits the streams of its birth, in 

 which it gives birth to thousands of its tribe. 

 Become an adult, the longer it remains at sea the 

 more rapid is its growth. In fresh water it no 

 longer thrives, and seems to seek the pure element 

 for the purpose, although not invariably, of pro- 

 pagating its species. I have now in a very few 

 lines traced the grand outlines of salmon life. I 

 shall now confine myself to some minute details, 

 omitting those that I do not think it necessary 

 for the mere angler to know. 



Mr. John Shaw of Drumlanrig, and Mr. A. 

 Young of Sutherlandshire, the former the manager 

 of the Duke of Buccleuch's salmon fisheries, the 

 latter of those of the Duke of Sutherland, were 

 the first to prove publicly some of the facts above 

 glanced at. 



Salmon begin spawning in some rivers as early 



