100 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



privilege. The angler who contented himself with 

 returning home in the evening from a salmon 

 river with a basket full of trout and pike, is no 

 longer to be seen; in short, the salmon is now 

 the only fish that is angled for in a river of the 

 kind, and, as a natural consequence, his destroyers 

 have multiplied amazingly. But how are the 

 insects to be overcome? We know no way but 

 by artificial propagation of the fish. The mayfly 

 (ephemera), and a host of other flies, drop their 

 eggs during summer on the surface of the water 

 from which they have just arisen, which eggs, 

 from their specific gravity being heavier than 

 water, sink to the bottom, where they lie until 

 they are hatched, after which they become, when 

 encased in their shell, the most deadly foe to the 

 increase of the salmon, by devouring the ova in 

 millions. They are assisted in this process by 

 water-beetles, water-fowl, and all the other tenants 

 or occasional frequenters of the stream; besides, 

 great loss is sustained by the sanding up of the 

 ova after deposition on the fords by winter floods, 

 as has already been alluded to. 



Previous to the introduction of fixed nets on 

 our coasts, and when the net and coble was not 

 fished so closely and unceasingly as it is at 



