INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 4! 



The salmon is both a river and sea fish, returning 

 to the stream in which it was bred, like the swallow 

 to her own nest, the bee to its hive, or the pigeon to 

 its dovecot; it belongs to its own particular river by 

 the laws of Nature; it is a migratory, gregarious, and 

 pairing creature;* it is bred in small streams suitable 

 to its growth up to a certain period of its existence, 

 but which would be insufficient to afford it food in n 

 more advanced state, but which it must revisit to 

 breed. From these small streams the young proceed 

 in shoals down to their feeding-ground, and by in- 

 stinct return in due time to the spawning-place. And 

 hence the collective assembly scatters itself and forms 

 into pairs, the gregarious instinct beind overcome by 

 the pairing impulse. At the mouths of rivers enter- 

 ing the sea, we see them move about in separate shoals. 

 After being hatched in separate rivulets, the fry pass 

 down to the ocean, and return in DISTINCT BANDS 

 each to its respective stream; for there is abundance 

 of evidence that every river has a salmon peculiar in 

 the shape and appearance to itself. 



The sea fisheries of the United Kingdom have 

 always supplied a much larger quantity of food to the 

 population than the salmon fisheries ; and it is grati- 

 fying to find from the report (1866) of the English 

 Commissioners of the sea fisheries, that this supply 

 has of late years greatly increased. The construc- 

 tion of railways and steamboats has afforded the 

 means of speedy transit to this perishable article, yet 

 the supply has kept pace with the demand. The 

 ocean, out of her vast resources, can afford, we trust, 

 a continuous increase without becoming exhausted, 

 and this to an extent we possess no means of esti- 

 mating. This increasing supply is owing to the de- 

 velopment of enterprise the invention of more skil- 

 ful appliances for the capture of fish; and the dis- 



* I have abundance of facts to prove all these three words. 



