18 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



salmon as spawning ground. It will, therefore, be seen 

 that, taking the noble Trent as a type, salmon in English 

 waters, unless more urgently looked to by the district 

 conservators and other responsible bodies, will soon be a 

 thing of the past. 



The fungoid disease, named as the third cause of the 

 falling off of the product of salmon in our largest and 

 most important rivers, is most disastrous in its results, 

 and when it attacks the fish in the spring or early sum- 

 mer months its depredations are great. Owing to the 

 circumstance of its being unknown to salt water, the 

 gradual growth of fungus over the fish is speedily ar- 

 rested, and finally cleansed away when the fish leave the 

 rivers. This fungoid growth, so detrimental to the well- 

 being and life of fish, has been termed the salmon disease, 

 which is anything but a correct appellation, seeing that 

 its deadly effects are often even more marked in the case 

 of trout and other fish. This disease is a choleraic dis- 

 order, and we are told owes its immediate origin to ani- 

 mal or vegetable substances, one or both, in a state of 

 poisonous decomposition in the water. Effectual reme- 

 dies there would appear to be none. The only safe and 

 efficient remedial course would appear to be to avoid 

 river pollution, and thus purify instead of putrify water 

 containing fish. Occasionally, however, this deadly dis- 

 order is found to be rife in waters that cannot have been 

 polluted by any of the numerous impurities to which the 

 waters of populated districts are exposed, and in these 

 instances it may be assumed that the presence of decay- 

 ing vegetable substances is owing to protracted unhealthy 

 weather. 



Salmon frequent only the northern and temperate 

 parts of the earth. It is a noteworthy fact that the in- 

 habitants of the more southern latitudes, when mature, 

 are much inferior, both as regards size and gameness of 

 disposition this at least in the eastern hemisphere 



