98 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



tural haunts, we are prepared and have the means 

 in our power, to save it from them until it reaches 

 the smoult state, ready for migrating to the sea. 



That much destruction of smoults takes place in 

 the salt water, there can be little doubt its 

 enemies there are as numerous and more voracious 

 than even those of the river; but when the animal 

 is so destroyed in both its habitats, it is marvellous 

 that so many are left, and were it not for the 

 enormous produce of this fish, it would soon 

 become extinct. Man is another great enemy 

 not so much, perhaps, from the numbers that are 

 caught by him and sent to the market, but from 

 his barring up the rivers to the ascent of the fish 

 to its secure spawning grounds, by fixed engines 

 of all kinds, weirs, dam dykes, etc., etc. ; for unless 

 the salmon can have a free run in spring and 

 summer when the fish is at the strongest it is 

 unable, when full of spawn, to surmount the 

 natural obstacles which it meets with in the river, 

 and hence, instead of the small mountain streams 

 becoming the nurseries of the young fry until the 

 migration period of its existence arrives, the gravid 

 fish is compelled to deposit its ova on some ford of 

 the main stream, where they are frequently sanded 

 up to the depth of many feet by the winter 



