268 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



produced, the question so far as the so-called spawning 

 marks are concerned must remain unsettled. Many 

 salmon are captured, whose appearance proves that their 

 ova has been matured and then discharged, and a few 

 of these marked fish have been subsequently recaptured 

 on their way up stream in a spawning condition, but 

 the fact that its ova has been discharged does not 

 prove by any means that the natural act of spawning 

 has taken place. 



Salmon meet with tremendous difficulties in their 

 endeavour to reach the spawning grounds to which their 

 instincts compel them, and should they fail, as they so often 

 do, I think it not improbable that the true spawning of the 

 fish may be prevented, that probably discharge or possibly 

 absorption of the ova or milt takes place, and that a further 

 attempt to spawn will naturally be made by the fish in the 

 next or some following season. 



It is stated that salmon have been seen to discharge their 

 ova immediately after entering fresh water, but the con- 

 ditions and circumstances of their life preceding this act are 

 unknown. They may of course be late run fish, which 

 have been unable to reach their river until fully ripe, and 

 unable any longer to carry their ova ; or they may have been 

 in fresh water for many months prior to such an action 

 and been compelled to descend to the sea, and have re- 

 entered the river when in a condition ripe for spawning, but 

 being too late to run up, and unable any longer to hold 

 their ova, they have vented it. It may be safely assumed 

 that in most of such cases, the discharge of the ova is 

 unavoidable, the fish being unable to carry its eggs any 

 longer. It may be probable that the attendant actions 

 are purely instinctive, and that in many cases the ova will 

 be simply discharged without any attempt being made to 

 construct a redd or to find a mate, and there can be little 



