CHAPTER XII 

 SALMON AND SEA-TROUT 



IN many ways nature is apparently very 

 wasteful, and in nothing is this more 

 marked than in the case of the salmon. Prob- 

 ably not more than one egg in a thousand pro- 

 duces a fish which reaches the smolt stage, and 

 a still smaller proportion grows to the spawning 

 stage. This great mortality which occurs among 

 the eggs and young fish when left to nature 

 may be very considerably reduced by artificial 

 means, so that a very fair proportion of the eggs 

 deposited by the female fish will not only be 

 hatched out successfully, but the little fish will 

 reach the smolt stage safely and have a good 

 chance of reaching the sea. How successful 

 artificial intervention may be has been proved 

 over and over again in the United States and in 

 Canada. In the case of more than one river in 

 Canada, the artificial propagation and protection 

 of salmon has resulted in what is apparently the 



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