118 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The salmon, indeed, frequents every sea, the 



arctic as well as the equatorial ; it is found even 



in great lakes and inland seas, as the Caspian, 



into which it is even affirmed to make its way 



by a subterranean channel from the Persian 



Gulf it goes as far south as New Holland and 



the Australian seas ; but, it is said never to 



have been found in the Mediterranean, and 



appears to have been unknown to Aristotle. 



Pliny mentions it as a river fish, preferred to all 



marine ones by the inhabitants of Gaul. It 



traverses the whole length of the largest rivers. 



It reaches Bohemia by the Elbe, Switzerland 



by the Rhine, and the Cordilleras of America 



by the mighty Maragnon, or River of Amazons, 



whose course is more than three thousand miles. 



In temperate climates the salmon quits the sea 



early in the spring, when the waves are driven 



by a strong wind against the river currents. It 



enters the rivers of France in the beginning of 



the autumn, in September ; and in Kamtchatka 



and North America still later. In some countries 



this is called the salmon -wind. They rush into 



rivers that are freest from ice, or where they are 



carried by the highest tide, favored by the wind; 



they prefer those streams that are most shaded. 



They leave the sea in numerous bands, formed 



with great regularity. The largest individual, 



which is usually a female, takes the lead, and is 



followed by others of the same sex, two and two, 



