SALMON SPAWNING. 303 



winter months ; the chief ones being December, 

 January, and February. A few remain on the 

 spawning grounds, and Mr. Scrope says he has 

 caught full roeners, as they are called, in the 

 month of May in the Tweed. The spawn of 

 salmon remains in the gravel beds from ninety 

 to one hundred days before it vivifies, and even 

 remains there some weeks after its exclusion from 

 the eggs. According to Mr. Shaw, the latter 

 period is fifteen days, at the end of which the 

 portion of the egg remaining attached for the 

 purpose of nutrition to the abdomen of the fish- 

 foetus contracts and disappears. The fin or tad- 

 pole-like fringe divides itself into the dorsal, 

 adipose, and anal fins, the little transverse bars, 

 which for a period of two years characterise it as a 

 parr, also make their appearance, so that a period 

 of at least one hundred and forty days is required 

 to perfect this little fish, which even then mea- 

 sures little more than one inch in length. 



Mr. Shaw, to prove his facts, made the following 

 experiments. He made three ponds, so con- 

 structed that the young fish could not escape, or 

 any other sort of fish have access to them. He 

 then (the 4th January, 1837,) proceeded to the 

 river Nith, and discovered a pair of adult salmon 

 engaged in depositing their spawn. He captured 

 the pair, and pressed with the hand the ova from 



