592 



SALMON. 



the others are said to get so dainty in such places 

 that they merely eat the tidbit, and leave the great 

 bulk of the body. Man comes too with spears, and 

 grapnels, and various other engines ; and the treach- 

 erous practice of " burning the water," that is, holding 

 a torch over it, which at once shows the salmon and 

 bewilders them. This last operation is of course per- 

 formed during the night only, and they who engage 

 in it must lay their account with many a ducking ; 

 and besides this, the practice is illegal. By one or 

 other of these means, many a female salmon is 

 widowed over and over in the course of the season. 

 The females are the suitors, and they fetch the males, 

 one at a time, from the deep to the bank or run in 

 which the trench for the young is to be made. The 

 poacher (for none but a poacher would do it) spears 

 the male, and the female goes and fetches another. 



The spawning takes place in the autumn, but the 

 time varies, though the mode is in all cases nearly 

 the same. The pair make the furrow with their 

 snouts, working with their heads to the stream ; for 

 though they can descend a current with ease and 

 safety, they cannot " hang" in it with the head down- 

 wards, or the water would get under the gill-lids, 

 entangle the gills and choke them. The time of 

 spawning takes on the average about ten days, the 

 large ones taking the longest time ; and after it is 

 over they go into the deep water quite exhausted. 

 The time that the eggs remain in a state of repose 

 varies with the river. Three months may be about 

 the average time in Britain ; but it varies with the 

 place and season, the hatching of the eggs being pro- 

 duced by external causes. In consequence of this, 

 though the eggs are deposited at very different periods 

 of the autumn, some, in fact, in the end of summer, 

 and others not till the beginning of winter, yet they 

 are all hatched at the same time, that is, in the same 

 part of the river and the same season. That this 

 must be the case, must appear at once to any one 

 who thinks for a moment on the subject. That the 

 eggs should remain inactive in the bank or run in 

 which they are deposited by the parent fishes, whe- 

 ther that period be three or four months, or even 

 longer, which it is in the rivers far to the north, tends 

 in no way to ripen or bring forward the eggs. They 

 remain perfectly unchanged until the warmth of the 

 ensuing season has acquired the strength necessary 

 for stimulating them ; and if that were to be delayed 

 for a year, or for many years, an unlimited number 

 indeed, there is no reason to suppose that their fertility 

 would be in the least affected. There is, in fact, an 

 experimentum crucis, which has been actually made, 

 and which goes very far toward establishing the point. 

 It is a general law of nature, to which we believe 

 there is not one exception, that when any natural 

 operation can be hastened by one mode of treatment, 

 it can always be retarded by the opposite mode. Now 

 the eggs of salmon, in their unaltered state, have 

 been put in water, exposed to a moderate temperature, 

 and thereby hatched in a very short time. In the 

 natural state they do not require above three or four 

 weeks ; and perhaps the time required by artificial 

 treatment is snorter. That, however, is not a matter 

 required for establishing that there is no definite time 

 by the kalendar between the depositing of the eggs 

 by the parent salmon and the appearance of the 

 young fry. When deposited they are wholly left to 

 the care of general nature as a stepdame, and, of course, 

 the time of their coming to life depends upon her. It 



must not, however, be supposed that all which are in 

 the same run, or even in the same spawning-bed, 

 must come to maturity in the same hour, or even in 

 the same week. The eggs are many, and they are 

 piled upon each other, so that the heat of the season 

 cannot act equally upon them all, and therefore it is 

 impossible that they should all come in a moment 

 without involving the most unphilosophical doctrine, 

 that causes differing in power or circumstances, can 

 produce effects exactly equal, which would be a 

 virtual destruction of all reasoning from experi- 

 ence. The young salmon remain for a little time in 

 sand and gravel, supported by the remains of the 

 egg which still adheres to the abdomen, and not 

 requiring any other food. But this state continues 

 only for a few days, and then they bore their way 

 upward and through the sand, " spring up like young 

 onions," as we have heard a very intelligent salmon- 

 fisher say. At this early stage they are about half an 

 inch to an inch in length. Their earliest food, after 

 they " come off the egg," is not very well known, 

 but they cannot be in much want, because, by this 

 time, the small life with which the waters swarm in 

 such abundance, comes into its greatest activity. 

 They grow rapidly, attaining a length of three inches 

 during the first week or ten days. The head, and 

 especially the eyes, are the parts' first developed, 

 and they are so large in proportion to the rest, 

 that, according to our knowledge, an infant salmon is 

 not handsome. This early maturity of the eyes, 

 shows us that the young must depend chiefly on the 

 sense of sight in finding their food. Indeed, it is the 

 sense of the fishes through life, and it is probable that 

 they have no other seated or local and appropriate 

 organs which have any great degree of acuteness. 

 That they have taste or smell, both the structure and 

 the fact lead to show ; the hearing of fishes is an ob- 

 scure matter, and probably in a great degree merges 

 in the general muscular sense of the body, which is 

 very keen in the whole family. 



The very young salmon have dusky crossbars along 

 the sides, the same as are seen on parr ; and pro- 

 bably the whole family have the same when very 

 young ; but they go off in the majority before these 

 attain any considerable size. This is of some im- 

 portance among systematic naturalists, who wish to 

 be precise in species ; but it is of small utility in 

 those general views which are most interesting to 

 the public. Granted that they all have these bars 

 when young, and that the parr is the only species 

 that retains them : What follows ? That parr is the 

 " typical species?" It would be difficult so to per- 

 suade any one who has seen a salmon or eren a 

 trout. 



The whole matters of the migration to the spawn- 

 ing ground, the passiveness of the eggs during the 

 cold season, their ready obedience to the returning 

 heat, and all the other movements connected with the 

 operation, are most striking instances of natural adap- 

 tation. The salmon resort to those places where 

 their eggs are secure from destruction by the varia- 

 ble weather of a long spring, which would call them 

 into life during the blink, and leave them to perish in 

 the blast. Where they are deposited, the warm 

 season comes late, but for that very reason they ar- 

 rive at maturity sufficiently early for enabling them 

 to maintain their ground. This is one of the reasons 

 why the salmon is so much a fish of the cold nor- 

 therly places ; for though there are a few in the 



