APPENDIX. 79 



SCRAPS FROM EPHEMERA'S " HOMILIES." 



" For several weeks past, an interesting and valuable 

 controversial correspondence has been carried on in the 

 open-armed old Bell, touching the scarcity of salmon last 

 year in particular, and touching its scarcity in general for 

 some years back. The question is assuming so much public 

 importance, that The Times has just taken it up, and I 

 am glad to perceive in a right spirit. Something on the 

 subject is expected to be said by me. The scarcity of sal- 

 mon last year, at any rate, of grilse, or salmon in their 

 second year, is easily accounted for. The cause, there 

 can be no doubt of it, was the bad breeding season of 

 1847-8, produced by floods that destroyed the ova, and 

 sometimes the fry. Let us see why floods should destroy 

 ova and fry. Salmon spawn from September to March, 

 but the exact time at which they principally do so is from 

 the middle of November to the latter end of the following 

 month. They invariably deposit their ova in shallows, 

 technically termed e fords/ and never, under any circum- 

 stances, in deep water ; never in quietly running pools, 

 or in lochs or lakes. Now, if when the fish are depositing 

 their ova, or about to deposit them, floods should occur, 

 several circumstances destructive to the ova will follow : 

 the ova will be washed away and destroyed, and the fords 

 will be rendered deep, and the fish driven to seek for 

 shallows on the banks inundated, where they will deposit 

 their ova ; and when the flood subsides, the ova will be 

 left high and dry on the banks, or on the sand and gravel 

 shore above the usual water mark. These are two of the 

 destructive results of floods during what is called the 

 ' throng spawning period.' We will now suppose the 

 spawn deposited and the seed covered in ; one would 

 suppose the ova safe from spates or inundations. They 

 would be so, and the mere torrents would sweep harm- 

 lessly over them ; but unhappily they frequently sweep 

 away with them weirs and embankments; and these, as 

 they are carried along, carry with them the bottoms of 

 fords and shallows, and so destroy wholesale spawning 

 beds in which the ova has been deposited. If floods of 



