THE FRESH WATERS 171 



bed in a shallow part of the river the female 

 salmon lashes out a trough with her tail, and 

 in it deposits her eggs, moving gradually up 

 stream as she does so. The attendant male 

 meantime keeps all intruders fiercely at bay. 

 After spawning the salmon are much exhausted, 

 and they linger for a time in the deep pools to 

 recover, but they do not begin to feed actively 

 even then, and many of them die of weakness 

 or disease on their way back to the sea. 



The young fry emerge in early spring and, 

 for the first few weeks, remain quietly hidden 

 among the gravel, depending for nourishment 

 on the stores laid up for them in the egg, and 

 now attached to their bodies as a yolk-sac. 

 When the yolk is exhausted, and they are about 

 an inch long, they become more active, and 

 seek for their own food. During all this time 

 both eggs and fry are preyed upon by many 

 enemies, of which the eels, pike, and fish-eating 

 birds probably do most damage. But the 

 young ones that are left, now known as "parr," 

 continue to feed and grow for a couple of years, 

 and then, assuming more silvery hues, descend 

 as "smolts" to the sea. At this stage they 

 are about 6 or 7 inches long, but the 

 abundance of food in the sea, where they live 



