OF THE SALMON. 17 



NATURAL SPAWNING. 



From the earliest ages it has been known that 

 salmon ascend rivers for the purpose of depositing 

 their spawn. That same knowledge induced our 

 forefathers to fix on a season of the year for that pur- 

 pose, and they did so at the exact time that nature 

 had fixed on. They did not sit down, in council 

 combined, and agree that we will make seed time in 

 harvest, and harvest in seed time ; no, the legislators 

 in those days followed the advice of Solomon, viz., 

 " In the multitude of counsel there is wisdom ;" and 

 they gathered together all those who had knowledge 

 of nature's laws, and those who from long observation 

 had noted the time the first fish was seen approaching 

 the spawning ground, and who could likewise state 

 the time that the spawning operations were generally 

 brought to a conclusion, and from these alone they 

 were able to fix the exact and suitable closs and open 

 season for salmon rivers. The same precision could 

 be arrived at still from the same materials ; but now 

 we want altogether that perseverance that is neces- 

 sary for the purpose, and we now have so many 

 absurd theories mixed in among the facts, and all 

 these from illegal quarters, that it really puzzles the 

 well-intended part of the legislators. To be a sort 

 of cloak to their depredations, those who deal in 

 stake-nets and illegal fixtures endeavour to assert 

 that salmon spawn in the sea, and that they only 

 catch the fish that are bred on their own coast, and 

 not the fish that are bred in rivers. Such false 

 assertions, from men that know quite the contrary, 

 are sometimes a stumbling-block in the way of many 

 who have good intentions, and wish to act honestly 

 towards salmon rivers. If allowed the free course 

 c 



