58 AMERICAN FISHES. 



season of breeding, have preserved them from extirpation ; enactments 

 which,. as cannot be too much regretted or too strongly reprobated, 

 the recalcitrative and over-independent spirit of our people will not 

 tolerate, much less obey. 



The time will come, when the population at large will deplore this 

 foolish and discreditable spirit ; when, like him who slew the goose 

 which laid the golden eggs, they find that by their own ultra-demo- 

 cratic spirit, they are deprived entirely and forever of a great source 

 of national pleasure, as well as national profit and wealth for such 

 are the fisheries of a country. 



During the winter the fish go through the process of spawning, 

 which is thus described by Mr. Ellis, in his " Natural History of 

 the Salmon," as quoted by Yarrel in his " British Fishes : " 



" A pair of fish are seen to make a furrow, by working up the gravel 

 with their noses, rather against the stream, as a Salmon cannot work 

 with his head down stream, for the water then going into his gills the 

 wrong way, drowns him. When the furrow is made, the male and 

 female retire to a little distance, one to the one side, and the other to 

 the other side of the furrow ; they then throw themselves on their 

 sides, again come together, and rubbing against each other, both shed 

 their spawn into the furrow at the same time. This process is not 

 completed at once ; it requires from eight to twelve days for them to 

 lay all their spawn, and when they have done they betake them to the 

 pools, and descend to the sea, to refresh themselves." 



At this time they are lean, out of condition, and unfit for food. 

 Meanwhile, the female has acquired a grayish color on the back, with 

 bright yellow sides. She is covered above the lateral line, including 

 the dorsal and caudal fins, with alternate dusky and ruddy spots. Her 

 pectoral, ventral, and anal fins are of a bluish gray color. She is now 

 a long, lank, big-headed, flat-sided fish, as unlike as possible to the 

 beautifully-formed glistening creature which ran up the stream in the 

 preceding autumn. 



She is now termed properly a baggit, and the male a kipper ; and 

 the two, generally, kelts. 



Before entering the salt-water, they linger awhile in the brackish 

 water of the tide-ways, as they did on ascending the rivers, obtaining, 



