94 DEPOSITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF OVA. 



She selects such a situation for the following reasons : 

 Comparatively still water in preference to a current, because 

 otherwise the exertion of retaining her position, and spawn- 

 ing combined, would be too much for her powers ; a shallow, 

 instead of a pool, that she may be secure from the sea-trout 

 and other fish, which, if in deep water, would congregate 

 about her to prey upon her eggs ; and lastly, that her ova, 

 on dispersion, may be carried by the gentle stream to a 

 secure resting-place amongst the stones below. 



It is commonly supposed that, in conjunction with the 

 male, the female salmon scrapes a hole, or furrow, in the bed 

 of the river, in which to deposit her eggs, and that after- 

 wards, and as a protection from their numerous enemies, they 

 cover them over with gravel ; but such is not the fact, at 

 least in the Save. The male has nothing to do with this 

 part of the work ; and the ova, instead of being dropped into 

 a cavity, are deposited on a comparatively smooth surface. 



Whilst in the act of spawning, the female retains her 

 natural position. Her belly is near to the ground ; at times, 

 indeed, probably to rest herself, actually touching it. The 

 process of dropping her eggs appears to be slow. When a 

 few are collected, she turns on her side, waves the flat of her 

 tail gently downwards to the roe, but lifts it up again with 

 great force, by which such a vacuum is caused, as not only 

 to raise the eggs from the ground, and thus to distribute 

 them in the stream, but to throw up a mass of dirt and 

 stones, the latter not unfrequently of very considerable 

 weight. 



As the mere distribution of the ova would require only a 

 slight wave of the tail, it appears that the violent lunge is 

 for the express purpose of disturbing and muddying the 



