OP THE SALMON. 21 



not very careful observers supposed that the spawn- 

 ing bed was dug out by the tail of the fish. This 

 supposition rose entirely from seeing the tail-fin a 

 good deal worn after the spawning process was 

 finished ; but that fin is not worn by digging the hole ; 

 it is worn merely by rubbing against the sides of the 

 bed when forcing the head of the fish up against the 

 gravel. A fish cannot exist long if the head is kept 

 down stream : how, therefore, could we imagine that 

 a fish could remain in that position, and force its tail 

 up against the gravel bank ? It is impossible, and 

 entirely against nature. Whenever the spawning 

 operations are finished, the parent fish leave the 

 beds and incline downward ; they fall back to the 

 first deep pool below the bed, where they rest for a 

 considerable time, and then fall back to the next 

 pool further down the river, and so continue resting 

 and falling back until they reach the tideway. In 

 general, the males are the first to leave the river, for 

 many of the females continue there till the April fol- 

 lowing, and from that arises the fearful havoc of kelt 

 killing we see in the Tweed and various other rivers. 

 How long the salmon remain in the salt waters before 

 they return to their native streams has been a keenly 

 contested mystery for many ages. Some said that 

 they fed in the Northern Ocean, and others said they 

 went to the Polar Seas, but all parties spake from 



and seed. But such never was the case. I have seen the fish 

 pretty throng on a ford, but when the whole operations of the 

 season were over, and the spawning finished, there was double 

 the space untouched, that was turned over. I mention these 

 facts merely to prevent well-wishers of the salmon, particularly 

 those who may not have had full opportunities to judge for 

 themselves, from being led into any wild, fanciful, and impossible 

 imaginations; for when salmon fishings were in their full glory, 

 there were never too many breeders, and even then, the one 

 never turned over the other's bed. 

 C 3 



