THE SALMON. 175 



Tlie salmon, properly speaking, is neither a salt-water 

 nor a fresh-water fish ; a change from one to the other, 

 at different seasons of the year, being in his natural 

 state necessary to his existence, and in any state to his 

 greatest perfection. The salt water and the food which 

 they therein obtain, the spawn, namely, and eggs of 

 crabs, and other crustaceous fishes, are necessary to him 

 for the recruiting and reinvigorating his system after the 

 exhaustion consequent on spawning ; and to these he is 

 supposed to owe his great and rapid growth, the deep 

 ruddy color, and the exquisite flavor of his flesh. 



The fresh water of clear, cold spring-fed rivers is 

 necessary to him for the reproduction of his species, as 

 it is now a proved and recognized fact, that the spawn, 

 or^ggs, of the salmon cannot be hatched or brought to 

 life except in the highly aerated waters of clear, quick- 

 running, shallow, fresh streams. 



If the upper parts of all the rivers in the world could 

 be closed against the salmon, as in most of our own 

 rivers they are by dams and weirs, the salmon would 

 cease to exist at all, as they have ceased to exist in those 

 rivers whence they are now excluded, but wherein they 

 once abounded, as the Delaware, the Hudson, and the 

 Connecticut, and thousands of others, even to the outlets 

 of the small lakes of central New York, where they 

 were once common. 



In July the salmon begin freely to enter the estuaries 

 of the breeding rivers, and after remaining for some 



