SALMON 27 



the river, in the river he spends his early youth, 

 he procreates his young, and sometimes he 

 dies. The food obtainable in the river is 

 quite insufficient to support him, and there- 

 fore he goes to the sea for his living, as some 

 of our East Coast people go to the Dogger 

 Bank. When from the abundant spoil of the 

 sea he has stored up sufficient nutriment to 

 support him for a while in the foodless river, 

 he returns thither ; and during this visit to 

 his birthplace frequently performs the functions 

 ordained for the reproduction of his kind. That 

 this process is not his main, or sole, object in 

 revisiting his home seems clear from his migra- 

 tion frequently taking place many months before 

 the season of spawning. 



The return of the salmon from the sea to 

 the river is admirably described in some lines 

 by Mr. Stephen Gwynn : 



" As the shining salmon, homeless in the sea-depths, 



Hears the river call him, scents out the land, 

 Leaps and rejoices in the meeting of the waters, 



Breasts weir and torrent, nests him in the sand ; 

 Lives there and loves ; yet with the year's returning 



Rusting in his river, pines for the sea, 

 Sweeps back again to the ripple of the tideway, 



Hoamer of the waters, vagabond and free." 



