CH. IV. SPAWNING-BEDS OF SALMON. 55 



The process of preparing the spawning-beds 

 is curious. The two fish come up together to a 

 convenient place, shallow and gravelly. Here 

 they commence digging a trench across the stream, 

 sometimes making it several inches deep. In this 

 the female deposits her eggs or ova ; and she hav- 

 ing left the bed, the male takes her place, and 

 deposits his spawn on the ova of the female. The 

 difference may be perhaps easily exemplified by 

 the soft and hard roe of a herring; the former 

 being that of the male, and without this the hard 

 roe or ova of the female fish would be barren. 

 When the male has performed his share of the 

 work, they both make a fresh trench immediately 

 above the former one, thus covering up the spawn 

 in the first trench with the gravel taken out of the 

 second : the same process is repeated till the whole 

 of their spawn is deposited, when the fish gradu- 

 ally work their way down to the salt water to 

 recruit their lost strength and energy. 



The spawn is thus left to be hatched in due time, 

 but is sometimes destroyed by floods, which bury it 

 too deep, or sweep it entirely away ; at other times 

 it is destroyed by want of water, a dry season reduc- 

 ing the river to so small a size as to leave the beds 

 exposed to the air. The time required to hatch 

 the eggs depends much on the state of the weather; 



