156 THE ALEVIN 



immediate surroundings. In appearance it is a tiny 

 opaque elastic ball less than J inch in diameter, of 

 which any gallon measure would hold some 25,000, 

 about the number deposited by a 27 -pound salmon 

 during any one spawning season ; and yet, think you, 

 what possibilities may lie in any one such minute atom ! 

 As I write this I have lifted my eyes from my paper, 

 and they have rested on the skeleton head of my 

 50-pound salmon (see Plate XL.), and as I recall 

 the splendid fight made by that grand old veteran, 

 and speculate on the past glories of his life, it seems 

 difficult to picture him as being once but one of the 

 wee, small atoms now pulsating beneath the gravel 

 bottom we are considering. 



The temperature of the water in each salmon 

 stream is the principal factor which dominates the 

 period for which the young salmon remains in the egg. 



THE ALEVIN 



This period will, of course, vary with the particular 

 warmth or coldness of each stream : with a tempera- 

 ture of some 43 F. the eggs may hatch out in about 

 100 days, while with a temperature of 36 F. the 

 eggs will take about 115 days. It is supposed that 

 after about 160 days the egg may be considered dead, 

 or incapable of producing live alevin. This I am in- 

 clined to doubt, Nature under adverse circumstances 

 extending life and preserving the vitality of the eggs, 

 even in the moist atmosphere of a redd exposed by 



