MIGRATIONS OF SALMON. 249 



lead, and the others following two-and-two, each pair being at 

 the distance of from three to six feet from the preceding one. 

 The numerous bands of salmon will thus force themselves 

 against the most rapid streams, and even considerable cascades 

 are unable to stop their progress ; for placing their tail in their 

 mouth, and letting it go suddenly, they raise themselves in 

 the air to the height of from twelve to fifteen feet, or even 

 more, and so clear the cataract that impedes their course ; nor, 

 if they fail in their first attempt, do they allow themselves to be 

 discouraged, but continue their efforts till they have accom- 

 plished their task. 



It is a remarkable circumstance that the salmon on his wan- 

 derings never tarries in the deep lakes any longer than is neces- 

 sary to reach the rivers that flow through them. Who teaches 

 him the way? Who tells him when entering the Lake of 

 Zurich that at its farthest extremity he will find the narrow bed 

 of the Linth, or that, after traversing the long and sinuous Lake 

 of Lucerne, he will again reenter the rapid stream of the Eeuss ? 



And how surprising is the memory which annually leads him 

 back from the ocean to the spot in which he has been bred, 

 though while tarrying in the sea he may have roved for miles 

 along the coast ! Deslandes, a French naturalist, attached a 

 copper ring to the tails of twelve salmon, and shortly after 

 restored them to liberty in the River Auzun, in Brittany. 

 They soon disappeared, but in the following year five were 

 caught again at the same spot ; the year after, three ; and three 

 again in the third year. To explain these miracles of instinct 

 is impossible all we can do is to admire them! 



The frequent return of the salmon to his old haunts, and the 

 large size he often attains, prove that, in spite of the many 

 dangers to which he is exposed during his migrations, he not 

 seldom reaches a good old age. Salmon weighing forty, fifty, 

 or even eighty-three pounds have found their way to the 

 London market ; and when we read of sturgeons twenty-five feet 

 long, and of halibuts of three hundredweight, we cannot doubt 

 that these colossal individuals had long outgrown their youth, 

 and were in the enjoyment of a truly patriarchal longevity. 



Not all the members of the finny tribes are endowed with the 

 prodigious fecundity of the cod or the sturgeon, of the mackerel 

 or the salmon ; for where it is not so necessary, or where a too- 



