130 NATUKAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



MR FFENNELL ON STOCKING A KIVER. 



2604 CHAIRMAN : A comparatively small number of 

 fish, if allowed to ascend the river and spawn in security, 

 would be sufficient amply to stock the river, would it not? 

 I think not. I think it requires a good stock of fish amply 

 to stock a river, though people have spoken of the many 

 thousands of ova (something like from 11,000 to 17,000) 

 in a large salmon ; but from the very commencement there 

 is a great waste, and I believe one reason why they are 

 provided with such a quantity is to meet this waste. In 

 the first place, there is a great quantity of ova not 

 impregnated that I have proved myself, by taking it up 

 out of the gravel. The greater portion of it was quite 

 opaque, and the milt of the male had not come in contact 

 with it at the right time. There is another large propor- 

 tion of it that the fish fails to cover in the gravel. It is 

 carried away by the stream either into deep water or into 

 muddy places and is lost. Unquestionably, when the 

 little animals come to life, that red bag that is attached 

 to them for three, or four, or five weeks is a great attrac- 

 tion, and the smallest trout eat a quantity of them. All 

 fish live upon each other. Ducks, particularly wild 

 ducks which abound in Ireland destroy a vast quantity 

 of ova. Every spawning bed in the winter is a favourite 

 place to go and watch for wild ducks. You see them 

 with their head under water, with their heels up, rooting 

 the ova out of the spawning beds. Wild ducks feed 

 immensely upon it. Then, when the fry are going down, 

 a great many are devoured, and also when they get to 

 sea. I once saw twenty-six salmon fry taken out of 

 what we call a "black pollock" in Ireland, which is called 

 the coal fish a big fellow weighing 15 or 20 Ibs., that 

 was killed in the Bay of KiUala, outside of Ballina, 

 when the fry were going down : to meet all these things 

 the fish are given a greater multitude of ova. I do not 



