PERIOD OF SPAWNING. 93 



Salmon, he says, are pretty abundant in the Save. The 

 fishery produced, including grilse, about three thousand 

 pounds weight annually. Many fish were taken in weirs, 

 others in nets, or by the rod. The larger salmon always 

 appear first in the spring ; as the summer advances, the 

 fish are much smaller; but in the autumn heavy fish 

 again show themselves. These are not fresh run, however ; 

 at least they are somewhat discoloured, from which it is to 

 be inferred they have been lying either in brackish water, or 

 in the deep pools below. 



The common trout is exceedingly scarce in the Save, that 

 is, at Jonserud ; but at some distance higher up the stream 

 it is abundant. 



During the autumn there are numbers of the sea- trout, 

 and some of considerable size. These fish, as well as the 

 common trout, spawn in the Save about a month earlier than 

 the salmon, and carry on proceedings in a precisely similar 

 manner to that fish. Both, however, have deposited their 

 ova prior to the salmon commencing operations, thus show- 

 ing a wonderful economy of nature ; for otherwise the milt, 

 both of the sea and of the comm6n trout, would generally 

 impregnate the ova of the salmon, and numberless hybrids 

 would be the result. 



The fry both of sea-trout and salmon are, in the Save, at 

 Jonserud, indiscriminately designated For ell, answering, it 

 is to be presumed, to the so-called Parr. Both kinds, no 

 doubt, go to the sea about the same period. 



Salmon commence spawning in the Save the first days in 

 November, and continue throughout the month. The female 

 deposits her eggs in comparatively still, shoal water, from 

 six to eighteen inches in depth, immediately above a rapid. 



