40 THE PROVENCHER SOCIETY 



Hatching of the salmon eggs takes from 90 to 135 days. The 

 "alevins" or young fish, over half an inch in length, are furnished 

 with a large bag of yolk, on which they live, lurking among the 

 gravel for from four to six weeks longer, when they begin to feed. 

 This stage is reached in spring, usually in April or in May. The 

 young salmon, over an inch in length, is light brown, with from 

 ten or twelve to fifteen transverse dusky bars, and a number of 

 black and orange spots, and its tail is forked. In this troutlike 

 stage it is called a "parr," "samlet", or "pink". It lives and 

 feeds in the river generally for about, two years, when it assumes 

 the silvery dress of a "smolt". The smolts descend in spring, 

 and early summer, when they are about seven inches in length 

 and so rapid is their growth in the sea that they may return in a 

 few months as "grilse", weighing pounds instead of ounces; but 

 many are believed not to return until a longer interval, or in the 

 following year. The upward runs of grilse take place in summer 

 and autumn, earlier than the fullgrown salmon, and they become 

 sexually mature, and spawn with the latter, after which they des- 

 cend again to the sea as grilse kelts. Growth continues rapid: 

 one of six pounds maj' weigh ten or even sixteen pounds after five 

 months in the sea. 



The great diminution of recent years in the stock of salmon in 

 Canadian waters is due to various causes, foremost among which 

 may be mentioned the killing of the fish upon their spawning 

 grounds and other illegal methods of capture, the pollution of rivers 

 by sawdust and other mill refuse, and the barring of them by 

 dams. 



The Ouananiche 



The ouananiche, or fresh water salmon of many of our inland 

 waters, which is found chiefly in Lake St. John and its tributary 

 streams, differs little in structure from the true salmon, but seldom 

 exceeds 6 to 7 pounds in weight and aveiages two to four pounds. 

 It is one of the gamest of fishes, and its habit of frequently leaping 

 from the water when impaled on the hock causes it to be highly 

 prized by sportsmen. Up to the commencement of the present 

 century it was most abundant in the discharge of Lake St. John 

 and of some of its tributaries. Since that time the large increase 

 of settlement in the Lake St. John country has led to a considerable 

 decrease in the number of these fish. It is found in some of the 

 rivers flowing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north shore, 

 where it has sometimes been mistaken for grilse. In late summer 

 and autumn and at the approach of the spawning season, the oua- 

 naniche, like the Salmon, loses much of its silvery sheen and has 

 a rusty brown appearance. In some of the lakes of this province 

 where salmon fry have been planted, the fish which have reached 

 the adult stage have been taken for ouananiche; for when hooked 

 upon the fly they often leap out of the water like this latter and 

 do not usually grow to a larger size than that of the ouananiche. 

 This is because they cannot run down to the sea and return to 

 the inland waters where they have been planted, by reason of 

 impediments in the way. For the same reason they fail to breed 

 there. 



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