424 THE NATURE BOOK 



beggared description. Many were, doubt- An armed expedition was equally 



less, drowned by the inundation, but being, ineffective, and, as usual, Nature's 



for the most part, expert swimmers, the plague was only stayed by Nature's 



impression made on the numbers of the remedy, 



great army was practically nil." Douglas English. 



BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISH AND 



THEIR HAUNTS 



By WALTER M. GALLICHAN 

 "WTith Illustrations from Photographs by Mrs. C. G, GALLICHAN. 



THE SALMON 



THE mystery of the Salmon has not of other fish in fresh water. But the 



been solved, though year by year, scientific investigator into the habits of 



through the patient observation the Salmon will rarely admit that he is 



of students of the natural history of fish positively assured concerning many im- 



and the testimony of anglers, a httle more portant points connected with the diet, 



knowledge is added to our rather scanty the customs, and the wariness of this 



Salmon lore. Townsfolk are well accus- remarkable fish ; while the question of 



tomed to the sight of glistening Salmon its extraordinary power of growth is one 



lying amid melting ice on the marble slabs of the wonders of life, 



of fishmongers' shops ; but this spectacle One of the illustrations to this article 



of our noblest fresh-water fish gives no (p. 425) shows the birthplace of Salmon 



hint of its interesting and adventurous in the upper reaches of a river in Wales, 



hfe to the passer-by. Nor is the romance This spawoiing-ground is about fifty miles 



of the Salmon suggested by the collops from the sea. It has a clean iDcd of 



of pink flesh served as one of the courses gravel, where the female Salmon deposits 



of a dinner. To know the strange ways her eggs, or spawn, and upon which the 



of this fascinating and bewildering fish, attendant male spreads the fertilising 



one must visit the spawning "redds" in milt. Here se\-eral pairs of the fish 



winter, hnger by tiie river pools at twilight, congregate during November, and for 



watch the waterfalls and Salmon passes many days their whole energy is con- 



during the season of migration from the centrated upon the great undertaking of 



sea, and go down in the fishing boats to laying and protecting the ova. The 



the bay. mother fish is so intent upon the careful 



Even those who live by catching hatching of the spawn that one may 



Salmon in nets, and the fishermen who approach quite near her, while the male 



angle for them \\ith a rod and hue, possess hovers close by, to guard her and the 



only an imperfect knowledge of the potential offspring from enemies. At 



habits of salmo salar. I have known this i^airing time the male fish are very 



rustic anglers who, to the end of their pugnacious, and they develop a hooked 



days, have beUeved that the Salmon- " fighting jaw." 



trout is the young of the Salmon. And It is during the spawning process that 



there are fishermen, not wanting in the Salmon ]5oacher takes his share of 



general intelhgence, who are quite certain ill-conditioned fish, for the Salmon are 



that the Salmon devours large numbers listless and somewhat dazed, their abstrac- 



