SALHONID^E. 39 



Now, if you are not too fatigued, we will pass on to the 

 falls. It is the most romantic point on the river. There is 

 nothing more exciting to the novice than a school of salmon 

 ascending practicable falls, where the waters are churned 

 into foam as they tumble through the narrow gorge. Leap- 

 ing upward, over, and through the seething current, turning 

 desperate flip-flaps, diving precipitately into the foam, they 

 vanish and reappear, gaining ledge after ledge until the as- 

 cent is surmounted. At newly-erected dams, which are so 

 high as to be impassable, they collect in such vast quantities 

 as to be scooped out with nets, each new arrival swelling the 

 numbers already on the ground, and in their turn vainly 

 and repeatedly attempting to leap the cruel obstacle. Where 

 passes or fish-ways are provided, as they now are over all the 

 principal dams of the New Dominion and a few in the 

 United States, the salmon instinctively use them, and go on 

 their way rejoicing. 



Should we pass on above the falls to head-waters a few 

 days hence, we can easily observe the process of spawning in 

 all its various stages. We can see the female fish in the 

 rapid current of the mid-stream, holding on with nervous 

 grip to the pebbly bottom with her pectoral fins, and writh- 

 ing for a few moments in the pangs of parturition ; then 

 lying motionless, with muscles all relaxed, and shedding her 

 spawn into the gravel which she has beaten loose with her 

 tail. Then the males pass alongside of her, so near that 

 their bodies touch, and precipitate their milt to impregnate 

 the spawn ; and when the great work of nature is com- 

 pleted, the force of the current gently floats the loosened 

 gravel over the mass and covers it. Novices will suppose 

 that the trough, which she has hollowed out with her tail to 

 loosen the gravel, contains the spawn, whereas it is the little 

 mound just below that hides the precious treasure. Hence^ 

 forward time alone must carry out the work of procreation. 

 The incipient germ gradually develops into a vigorous life, 

 and a new generation of nurslings succeeds to the parrs' 



