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APPENDIX. 



SALMON SPAWNING. 



Letters in Belts Life, 1850. 



" Mr. EDITOR, The first appearance of spawning this 

 season was on the 17th September. Two pairs were seen 

 that day busy at work ; and as the river was low, they 

 were distinctly seen digging out the gravel from the bed, 

 or rather making a hole, wherein to deposit their seed. 

 They were not scraping it out, after the alleged fashion of 

 some observers, with their tail, but quite the contrary ; 

 they were boring their snouts in among the gravel, till 

 sand and mud were rising to the surface of the water. 

 I here mention pairs, because salmon all pair distinctly 

 at the spawning time. They are never seen in a mixed 

 mass, as many imagine them to be, at breeding-time; 

 neither are two female fish seen with one male on a spawn- 

 ing ford, although a small male is often seen with a large 

 female, and vice versa, when necessity requires it. Sal- 

 mon never spawn in deep pools or still water, although 

 they invariably fall back to such places to rest from the 

 labours of the spawning field ; and when they are seen in 

 these pools by a careless observer, he at once pronounces 

 them to be spawning there ; and without any more con- 

 sideration or study, counts and tells the number he sees 

 (whether odds or evens, it signifies nothing). From such 

 careless observers proceed the imaginary, unnatural, and 

 impossible assertion, that salmon dig with the tail and 

 spawn promiscuously." 



