174 FORMATION OF THE SPAWNING-BED. 



forefathers begiit them, and so they go on increas- 

 ing and multiplying in colonies heretofore tenant- 

 less of salmon, ever since volcanic action called 

 from the " vasty deep," the mountains and rivers 

 of northern Caledonia I 



Immediate Spawning Opeeations. — The 

 spawning-bed, which may be called a continuation 

 of nests, is never fashioned transversely, or across 

 the water current, but straightly against it. The 

 way the bed is formed has never been accurately de- 

 scribed. Some have aflSrmed that the male fish is the 

 sole architect ; others, that the female does all the 

 work ; others again, that the tail* is the only delv- 



* By comparing the text with the following extract from 

 Mr. Shaw's " Experimental Observations," &c. (p. 19.), the 

 reader will see how widely he and Mr. Young differ on one 

 of the most interesting habits of salmon. Mr. Shaw says, 

 — " It has been generally supposed that the male salmon, 

 during the spawning season, assists the female in forming 

 the spawning-bed. This idea is, I think, founded in error, 

 as, during the whole course of my experience, I have never 

 been able to detect the male taking any share whatever in 

 the more laborious portion of these parental duties. The 

 only part he performs, beyond the mere sexual function, 

 consists in the unwearied vigilance which he exhibits in 

 protecting the spawning-bed from the intrusion of rival 

 males, all of which he assiduously endeavours to expel. 

 The female, regardless of the occasional absence of the 

 male during these contests, and probably satisfied with the 

 presence of the male parrs, proceeds with her operations 



