172 THE SALMON. 



by certain instincts and properties, which elevate it 

 still higher above the rest of the finny tribes. 



One of these, the foremost in rank, is the freedom it 

 possesses of transporting itself from the saline abysses of 

 ocean into rivers and lakes the capability, in fact, of 

 existing and enjoying its existence within two distinct 

 media, differing from each other in taste, in gravity, in 

 motion, and in produce. Certain fish, it is true, such 

 as sturgeon and mullet, eels and flounders, forsake, like 

 the salmon, their sea-haunts and betake themselves 

 into fresh water; yet never do we hear of these or 

 any others penetrating far inland and overcoming the 

 strong currents and rapids with which many rivers 

 abound in the upper districts. To the salmon alone 

 this capacity belongs, and is exercised by its several 

 species, in degrees apportioned to their strength and 

 inclinations. For instance, the eriox or bull-trout, one 

 of these species which, although seldom attaining the 

 size of the full-grown solar, is on the whole a more 

 powerful and venturesome fish, becomes led by its in- 

 stincts to the very heads and sources of the rivers it 

 frequents, and is sometimes found shedding its spawn 

 in feeders where it is scarcely able to turn itself. 



Among those peculiarities which distinguish the 

 salmon tribe (salmonidce) from other fishes, I shall 

 also take notice of the pink or reddish colour of its 

 flesh a distinction which, to the best of my know- 

 ledge, it holds in common with none of the finny crea- 

 tion. Several naturalists ascribe this colour or com- 

 plexion to the description of food upon which it subsists 

 in the salt water. Dr. Knox holds, that it is derived 

 from the ova of various kinds of echinodermata and 

 some of the Crustacea, endowed, for so his theory leads 

 one to presume, with the virtues of cochineal. Others 



