THE SALMON. 5 



the ejected matter ; where, with his nose, as I then 

 apprehended (though I will not warrant fish to have 

 a scent), rooted as a swine, or something like it, yet 

 were the waters at that time undisturbed ; when on 

 a sudden, and with a violent motion of body, he throws 

 himself about, invading the calms with a strong 

 ebullition, as if some ponderous stone had struck the 

 surface : but it was not long ere I saw him again, 

 though, for the present, he seemed to me invisible. 

 And then my observation led me curiously to ob- 

 serve him direct his head to the former place, and 

 contract himself after the same manner which the 

 other fish had formerly done. This I visibly and 

 plainly saw ; which together with his active and 

 exerting motion, a spermatic whiteness of a milky 

 substance issued from him, not unlike to jellied 

 cream ; all which remarks I signally notified, and by 

 all the circumstances my judgment could direct 

 to, I concluded him the milter, because there to 

 shed and scatter his milt upon the ejected fore- 

 mentioned belly. Having thus discharged himself 

 with some little labour, and as little trouble, he sud- 

 denly recovers again the depth of the water with 

 most accurate swiftness ; nor have I often seen a 

 more violent motion, whose absence in a trice invites 

 the female fish, and she no sooner returns to the 

 place, dictated beyond doubt by the mediums of 

 nature, works a trough like a cistern in sand or 

 gravel, and as near as I could guess of her own pro- 

 portion ; into which trough with nothing save the 

 spring of her tail, she jumbles and tumbles in the 

 B 3 



