44 FISHES AND PISHING. 



their spawn when it arrived at complete maturity, 

 and that any male fish indiscriminately endued it with 

 the germs of life, without contact with the female ; 

 the evidence adduced before the Committee of the 

 House of Commons, proves that this opinion and be- 

 lief was unfounded in fact ; and some future scientific 

 naturalist may discover whether the female fish re- 

 turns to the spawning bed, and assists to emancipate 

 the young fry from the gravel ; for it appears she 

 does not go down to the sea for some time after the 

 eggs are vivified, and if, as the evidence shows, the 

 female salmon have sufficient knowledge, or instinct 

 to seek for a fresh mate, when the first, or other 

 succeeding ones are taken away, and to conduct him 

 consecutively to the same spawning bed, it is not un- 

 reasonable to suppose that she may have instinct 

 enough to perform that service for her progeny ; and 

 the tales told offish eating their own spawn, may arise 

 from the misunderstood efforts made by the female 

 fish to attain the above object. The work of E. and 

 T. Ash worth, Esqs., with which they have favoured 

 me, p. 46, however, appears to show that the females 

 are the greatest enemies of the young fry, and the 

 males the most zealous defenders of them.* This, if 



* See Treatise on the Propagation of Salmon and other 

 Fish ; published at Stockport, and by Simpkin and Marshall, 



