300 DEPOSITING THE OVA. 



We also know that up to its second year the 

 growth of salmon is exceedingly slow ; that after- 

 wards it is wonderfully rapid, but in salt water 

 only. Once a grilse or a salmon, fresh water is 

 fatal to its growth. 



I shall, before I enter into detail, give in a 

 very few words the salient points of the salmon's 

 natural history. The female salmon, viz. the fish 

 with what is commonly called the " hard roe," 

 deposits its eggs, spawn, or ova, in gravel beds, in 

 the winter months, sometimes earlier,' sometimes 

 later. Simultaneously with being deposited, the 

 ova are impregnated by the spawn (the milt) 

 of the male fish, or " soft-roe," being exuded 

 over them. That is the active process of pro- 

 creation. The deposited eggs or ova are hatched 

 on an average in from ninety to one hundred and 

 twenty days ; duration of time depending on the 

 temperature of the water. The warmer the 

 water the more rapid is the work of incubation. 

 In a few days after expulsion from the ova the 

 incubated matter assumes the fish shape. This 

 embryo salmon grows slowly, and remains for the 

 first and second year the diminutive parr or fin- 

 gerling. On completing its second year it changes 

 its coat, and indeed its shape. The parr or samlet 

 marks and spots disappear, and it becomes the silver- 

 grey smolt, salmon fry, or lastspring. Its second 

 year or thereabouts being completed, it migrates for 



