156 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Season of spawning Wonderful sensibility. 



end of March the young fry begin to appear; 

 and gradually increasing in size, become, in the 

 beginning of May, five or six inches in length, 

 when they are called salmon-smelts. They now 

 gwarm in the rivers in myriads ; but the first 

 flood sweeps them down into the sea, scarcely 

 leaving any behind. About the middle of June 

 the largest of these begin to return into the rivers; 

 they are now become of the length of twelve 

 or sixteen inches. Toward the end of July they 

 are called gilse, and weigh from six to nine 

 pounds each. 



The season of spawning, which lasts but six or 

 eight days, takes place in the month of May, in 

 the southern countries as well as in Great Bri- 

 tain. In the north, in Sweden for instance, it 

 does not happen till July. It is worthy of re- 

 mark, that the salmon can again find the spot 

 where it has once spawned, in the same manner 

 as the swallow knows the house where she has 

 built her nest. This circumstance is proved by 

 an experiment made by De Lalande, who pur- 

 chascd twelve salmon of the fishermen of Cha- 

 teaulin, (a small town of Lower Brittany, where 

 sometimes four thousand are caught in a season) 

 fastened a copper ring round the tail of each, and 

 set them at liberty again. The fishermen after- 

 wards informed him that the first year they took 

 five of the fish thus marked, three the second 

 year, and the same number the third. The 

 princes of the East, who are generally fond of 



