NA TURAL HIS TOR Y OF BRITISH SALMONID&. 141 



money value of about 1 6o,ooo/. Unfortunately, however, the 

 fry actually added to the stock of the river are a mere fraction, 

 and those that survive to return as grilse a very trifling frac- 

 tion of these numbers. The calculations that have been made 

 vary from about one in every thousand, to one in every six 

 thousand^ out of the original deposit of ova, a wholesale 

 slaughter which might appear incredible if we did not realise 

 how numerous are the causes of destruction. From the lay- 

 ing of the egg until the plunge of the young smolt into the 

 tidal wave, and even afterwards in the broader waters of the 

 estuary or open sea, a hundred wholesale depredators lie in 

 wait for it. 



First there are the shoals of hungry fish of all kinds which 

 prowl about the fords, pressing close behind the spawner, and 

 ready to fight for her eggs almost before they are laid ; then 

 come the voracious larvae of the may-fly and stone-fly, the 

 water shrimps, and a host of kindred insects, which work their 

 way in amongst the gravel and destroy, perhaps less ostenta- 

 tiously, but not less certainly ; or a winter flood will sweep 

 down the river, and bury a whole brood under a foot of sand 

 drift. If the egg escapes these perils, and, in due course, 

 releases its charge, fresh dangers await the delicate and im- 

 mature fry. The trout, the heron, the wild duck nay, even 

 the parent salmon themselves hunt it out in its sheltering 

 creeks and crevices ; and hundreds of fry are daily sacrificed 

 on a single spawning bed by this means. Lastly, as if these 

 * natural enemies ' were insufficient, comes the human parr- 

 poacher, man and boy, and the wonder is really not at the 

 high rate of infant mortality amongst the Salmonidcz, but 

 rather at there being any survivors. The first sign of anima- 

 tion in the ova, which have now been deposited and covered 

 carefully up under little mounds of fine gravel, is the appear- 

 ance of the eye, which may be noticed, a scarcely perceptible 

 black speck, in from forty to sixty days after deposition. The 

 eye gradually increases in size until the time of hatching an 

 event which usually occurs in from 90 to 140 days, according 



