178 ] Fish and Their Fabulous Neighbors 



streams trout rarely exceed half a pound; but in larger rivers 

 and lakes where food is abundant they often reach from five to 

 ten pounds. 



How Trout Build Nests: One female trout lays hundreds of eggs. 

 For her nest she seeks water with a gravelly bottom, perhaps 

 where the brook she inhabits flows into a larger stream. There 

 the mother fish shapes a depression with her tail and carries away 

 larger stones in her mouth. 



After she has laid her eggs in the nest and the male has fertilized 

 them, she moves a little upstream and repeats the whole process. 

 The gravel and sand she displaces are carried along by the current. 

 Most of the discarded material is conveniently deposited over the 

 first nest, protecting the eggs it contains. The mother trout makes 

 several nests and lays eggs in all of them before she is finished 

 with the job. 



Legal Protection for the Trout: In spite of the enormous quan- 

 tities of eggs laid by trout, these fish were in serious danger of 

 extermination once motor highways began opening wilderness 

 country to ever-increasing numbers of fishermen. Aside from 

 being destroyed by their natural enemies, such as other fish that 

 eat the eggs and young, the trout were caught by these fishermen 

 who gave no thought to size or season or how many fish might 

 be left in a stream. 



The passage of effective conservation laws prevented the dis- 

 appearance of trout from native waters by regulating the seasons 

 for trout fishing, the number a fisherman may catch and the size 

 a fish must be before it can be taken. 



SALMON THEY LEAP WATERFALLS 



Many children have heard about the travels of the salmon, 

 for this fish has become a symbol of determination to reach a 

 goal. Pacific salmon swim hundreds of miles to their spawning 

 grounds in North American rivers; the Atlantic salmon go 

 hundreds of miles to reach theirs in rivers of Europe or of 

 America. 



If you had the opportunity to be at a waterfall where salmon 

 were making their way upstream, you might see them putting 



