28 SPAWNING-TIME. 



wonderful prevision of nature, that the eel, which is also 

 a migratory fish, descends to spawn in the sea at the very 

 time that the salmon ascends to spawn in the river. 

 Were it otherwise, the roe of the salmon would be ab- 

 solutely destroyed.* 



Spawning-time is from the end of autumn to the be- 

 ginning of spring, or even the beginning of summer. In 

 different rivers it differs considerably owing probably to 

 differences of temperature, caused by the higher or lower 

 latitude, the absence or neighbourhood of forests, low 

 warm valleys, or snow-covered mountains 



The spawning takes place on beds of fine gravel where 

 the water is tolerably shallow ; the same beds being used 

 for this purpose year after year. The spawning female 

 approaches the bed, escorted by at least one male, some- 

 times by more than one ; in which case they fight lustily 

 with their kips. In the gravel she makes a furrow with 

 her tail, and in the furrow deposits her spawn, on which 

 the male afterwards pours the vivifying milt. The eggs, 

 when deposited and vivified, are covered by a movement 

 of the female's tail. The time occupied in these pro- 

 cesses varies from three to twelve days. 



The ova have to run the gauntlet, as it were, of a host 

 of enemies trouts and other fishes, ducks and other 

 water-fowl, and insect larvae which greedily devour them. 

 Moreover, a spate in the stream may wholly sweep away 

 the nursery and its contents, or overlay the eggs with gravel 

 to such a depth that they are never hatched, or, if hatched, 

 the young cannot emerge to the " light of day." It is im- 

 probable, therefore, that the number of eggs hatched can 

 bear any reasonable proportion to the number deposited. 



* Bertram, " The Harvest of the Sea," p. 1S8. 



