20 THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS 



fishes, for nothing is done at random, but every de- 

 partment of it is done in the most mechanical manner ; 

 the one knows from signs or motions, or some other 

 mysterious instinct, what the other intends to do, and 

 the work is all throughout carried on with the greatest 

 order ; and although many pairs are seen on the same 

 ford, unless some of them, in falling back or coming 

 forward, approach too near their neighbour's beds, 

 when a battle ensues between the two males, nothing 

 disturbs the beautiful operations of the work.* Some 



* Among those who believe that the artificial breeding of 

 salmon is all in all, we find a deal of fanciful imaginations one 

 of which is, that when there are too many breeding fish in a 

 river, the one pair is sure to dig over the seed previously de- 

 posited by others. But I should like well to know who ever 

 saw too many breeding fish in a river ? It is entirely owing to 

 the scanty supply of breeders, as well as the unnatural time they 

 are allowed for breeding, that we so much complain of. Give 

 us Nature's laws, and abundance of breeders, and we ask no 

 more. We shall then have no need of artificial productions, 

 nor any assistance to the works of nature. I do not mean here to 

 say, that I have seen all the world ; but one thing I will say, and 

 that is, that I have seen many a spawning ford, in the course of 

 the last forty years, but never yet have I seen one fish turn over 

 the bed of another. It is not enough to imagine, and then say 

 that fish are likely to do such a thing that is not the question; 

 for I would ask candidly, Did any one ever see it done ? It 

 is a well-known fact, that salmon have never been known to 

 spawn among loose or newly- turned gravel; they invariably 

 begin their beds on a hard and solid gravel bank. Nature 

 teaches them to select the spots that are not likely to be over- 

 turned, and where, in ordinary states of the river, they are 

 not liable to be disturbed ; whereas, were it the soft and easily- 

 turned spots they inclined to fix on, they would invariably fix 

 on the last-covered bed, and never undertake the difficult task of 

 boring their noses into a hard gravel bank, when there was 

 a soft spot beside them. We are told that such and such a 

 ford is completely ploughed over; if such were the case, the 

 first flood would certainly carry off the whole sand, gravel, 



