180 THE SALMON. 



is not really wholesome food; and wicked, because it 

 causes, for no adequate compensation, the loss of thou- 

 sands of salmon. When the male is thus captured, the 

 female does not continue her operations, but goes in 

 quest of another male ; and we have heard of instances 

 in which one female has thus occasioned the death of 

 five or six males in the course of a day. 



When no such wasteful outrage is committed, the 

 salmon labour at their trench, till it and the heap of 

 sand or gravel with which it has again to be covered, 

 be of sufficient size. Then the female deposits her 

 eggs, and the male deposits upon them a milky fluid, 

 in appearance very like that which is found in lettuce 

 and many other plants ; and when the eggs are all 

 deposited and covered in this manner, the parents 

 spread the gravel and sand over them, which closes 

 their paternal labour for the season. The opera- 

 tion lasts for some time, often for several days ; 

 and the male is so assiduous in digging the beds and 

 replacing the gravel, that he has been known to die 

 of fatigue. 



Both are indeed very much exhausted; their very 

 appearance is altered. Their heads seem out of pro- 

 portion, and the horny curvature of the lower jaw of 

 the male penetrates, and even perforates the upper jaw ; 

 their colour is dull and brownish; their bodies lank 

 and flabby ; their scales almost entirely rubbed off; 

 and their fins are ragged. Nor is exhaustion the only 

 inconvenience to which they are subjected ; for a fresh 

 water worm, (lernea salmonea,} infests that most sensitive 

 part of them, their gills and is, in all probability, in- 

 strumental in driving them to the sea. 



