588 



SALMON. 



are not fit abodes for these most delightful of fishes, 

 so all the days of our lives, and few days of those of 

 the majority of us, cannot be spent in fishing for any 

 one member of the salmon family, and therefore we 

 must leave this delightful part of the subject, in order 

 that we may inform those who cannot enter into the 

 delightful romance of the subject, where the plain 

 business reality is to be found. 



The more characteristic members of this family of 

 fishes are found in the cold and the temperate lati- 

 tudes rather than in the warm ones. The shores of 

 the Atlantic without the tropic, and the rivers which 

 discharge their waters into that part of the ocean, are 

 their head-quarters. There are, we believe, some 

 species in the northern parts of the Pacific, and the 

 rivers which are affluent there ; they are, however, 

 nothing either in number or in value to those which 

 are found in the Atlantic and the Atlantic rivers, and 

 in these the salmon improve after we pass the middle 

 latitudes of the quadrant ; and it may be said that, 

 until we come to the absolute barrier of the ice, the 

 farther north that we get, the salmon become the 

 more abundant in numbers, and the better in quality. 

 They are thus fishes not merely of the places which 

 are most favourable to the development of the human 

 powers, but of those in which the land is less cal- 

 culated to repay in food the labour which man be- 

 stows on the cultivation of it. 



Numerous as the members of the salmon family 

 are, and different as they are from each other in size, 

 in colour, and in various other particulars, there are 

 still very close family resemblances among them. 

 This is perhaps most strikingly the case in the mode 

 of production, and in the appearance of the fry or 

 young in their very early stages. All of them ascend 

 the streams for the purpose of spawning, even though 

 they spend much of the intermediate time in the sea. 

 Those which are in so far marine in their haunts, and 

 in finest condition when caught in the salt or the 

 brackish water, are yet capable of living and con- 

 tinuing their race wholly in the fresh water. This is 

 proved by the fact, that there are salmon in some 

 inland waters, the falls upon which are so high as to 

 prevent all passage of the salmon at least all passage 

 upwards. A positive cascade of about fourteen feet 

 in height is a complete barrier against the upward 

 passage. But the downward is another matter, and 

 one respecting which we have but little positive know- 

 ledge. When the fish are ascending, they keep as 

 near the surface of the water as they can find passage 

 and safety. They are over the shallows near the 

 shores, at least, if the water is deep and stilly in any 

 part. 



That they should do this is part of the instinct, or 

 perhaps we should say, the adaptation, which brings 

 them from the sea, or makes them ascend the streams, 

 namely, the air, heat, and light necessary for bringing 

 forward their eggs. This is so deeply rooted in their 

 nature, that it impels them for many hundreds of miles, 

 at least in some of the species ; and their attempts to pass 

 obstacles are equally wonderful. Some of the species 

 are, however,][more permanent in the same localities, 

 and they are of course less under the influence of 

 seasons. When a salmon approaches the shore or 

 ascends a stream, that is not to be considered as an 

 independent act of the animal, in the same sense as 

 we speak of an independent action performed by a 

 human being ; but there is a great disposition to con- 

 found them, and this confounding puts an end to our 



rational progress in the study of nature, by leading us 

 away from the conclusions to which a more philoso- 

 phical mode of viewing the same subjects, would 

 speedily and easily bring us. No one who has not 

 devoted much attention, and it is a species of atten- 

 tion of a painful nature, would be apt to suppose this. 



The human action, when it is properly such, that 

 is, when the plan and purpose of it are forethought 

 inferences by the mind from experience, it is, so to 

 express it, taken out of the genera loperation of phy- 

 sical causes, the season and the climate for instance, 

 do not affect the formation of this plan ; and they have 

 but a partial influence on the execution of it. The 

 will does not work to the weather any more than the 

 weather works to the will ; and, therefore, though the 

 mere working instruments which put the purpose into 

 execution upon matter, must be in so far affected by 

 physical causes, the mental part is not affected in 

 that way at all. The sun rises to the evil and the 

 good, and the rain falls alike upon the just and the 

 unjust, without in the least affecting their moral dis- 

 tinctions ; and that a man is wise and good, or the 

 reverse, is not an element which we can in any way 

 apply to the study of the rest of nature in any one 

 of its departments. 



The animal, on the other hand, is wholly'under 

 the influence of physical causes, though these admit 

 of division into two distinct parts, the nature of the 

 animal, and the circumstances under which the animal 

 is placed. These are, in some respects, opposed to 

 each other, and it is this opposition which occasions 

 what we may properly call the working of the animal ; 

 for if the animal were either passive to the rest of 

 nature, or the rest of nature passive to it, there would 

 and could be no display whatever of animal life. The 

 adaptation of the animal and the circumstances to 

 each other, thus becomes by far the most important 

 part of the natural history of animals, because it is 

 that through the means of which they can be trained, 

 improved, or made in any way useful ; different ani- 

 mals are of course differently obedient to, or affected 

 by circumstances ; and the degree to which they 

 are so is the measure of the hold that we have upon 

 them, both for knowledge and for practical use. 



Perhaps there are no animals, certainly no fishes, 

 more obedient to circumstances than the salmon 

 family ; none are more useful ; none are more within 

 the limits of our observation and management ; and 

 therefore, none are more worthy of being generally 

 observed and studied. They have this farther to 

 recommend them that, in all the more valuable species 

 they are exceedingly numerous and widely distributed 

 as British fishes. Many other genera are common 

 and valuable fishes of our seas, but the salmon family 

 actually dwell among us ; with only this difference, 

 that they are in the stream, and we have our most 

 pleasant dwelling, and our most refreshing and grati- 

 fying walk, on the bank. 



The members of this most valuable family of fishes 

 are so sensitive, that we can hardly mention one va- 

 riation of locality, or of the succession of seasons and 

 weather, or the mere locality, by which they are not 

 affected to such an extent, that superficial observers 

 would be apt to regard them as distinct species. This 

 has led to a very needless, and indeed mischievous 

 multiplication of species and varieties, when the whole 

 was explainable by differences, and these often ap- 

 parently very slight, in the circumstances of their 

 localities. 



