60 THE DESTRUCTION OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

 THE DESTRUCTION OF SALMON OVA, 



We should remember in the first place all fish de- 

 rive their food, and sustain life from the offspring of 

 other fish and insects ; that salmon eat the eggs of 

 salmon ; for the most tempting bait the angler can 

 use to catch a salmon consists of a salmon's roe or 

 eggs, and that possibly large salmon eat the smaller 

 fry; that a single trout will devour 600 salmon eggs 

 for breakfast, and repeat the same constantly, so long 

 as any are to be found on the spawning ground. In 

 December, 1852, we caught a trout on the spawning 

 bed, and squeezed this number, namely, 600, of ova 

 out of its stomach, and placed them in a separate box, 

 where many of them came to life. We may suppose 

 that of the eggs deposited many are not covered with 

 gravel to a depth sufficient to protect them from trout, 

 their natural enemies, and other fish ; some are not 

 fecundated, and become useless ; and salmon and trout 

 devour both the ova and the young salmon after it 

 emerges from the ego;, when in a very feeble state, and 

 that probably millions may be thus destroyed. 



Aquatic insects are mostdestructive in many places ; 

 as an instance of this I may state that we once de- 

 posited 70,000 salmon ova in a beautifully clear stream 

 for hatching, and when the time arrived for their 

 vivifying we found they had been eaten by the em- 

 bryo of the dragon-fly, and consequently we could not 

 discover a single fish living, out of the 70,000 ova 

 deposited ; yet after all the losses which occur we 

 often see a multitude of smolts (young salmon) go 



