NOTIONS, NOTES, AND ODDS AND ENDS 159 



February on till December, if not, indeed, to 

 February again. The equable temperature 

 of fresh water, and the salt water which it 

 meets, more readily induces salmon to ascend. 

 On the other hand, on the west coast, rivers, 

 with rare exceptions, run rapidly to the sea 

 from high mountain ridges, becoming exces- 

 sively aerated in their passage, and, bearing 

 the same snow brae in their bosom, meet 

 with a much warmer ocean, fed by the limpid 

 waters of the Gulf Stream. Here the salmon 

 are later of ascending, the summer run of 

 fish, say, commencing in May, being the 

 representative of the spring run on the east 

 coast rivers. We know of few exceptions 

 amongst east-coast rivers in the earliness of 

 their runs of migratory fish, though we do 

 know of certain variations between some of 

 these, owing to local position and character, 

 and slight differences of their circumstances 

 inter se. On the west coast the few excep- 

 tions to what has been stated as regards the 

 lateness of the run of migratory fish are 

 exceptions which, by their unusually great 

 compensating phenomena, are enough to 

 account for these exceptions. The earliest 



