SALMONS. 



251 



The Sheat-Pish (Silurus giants), is the largest fresh-water fish in Europe ; its 

 length ordinarily exceeds six feet, and its weight is near three hundred pounds. 



The Electric SilurilS (Silurus electricus) of the Nile, like the torpedo and 

 gymnotus, possesses the power of giving strong electric shocks. 



The seat of this extraordinary faculty is in a peculiar tissue, situated between the 

 muscles and the skin, and having the appearance of a fatty cellular structure. This 

 fish, which inhabits the Senegal as well as the Nile, is eighteen or twenty inches in 

 length. The Arabs call it raasch, which signifies thunder. 



The Salmons (Salmonidce} are distinguished by a scaly body, 

 and a first dorsal fin with soft rays, followed by a second which 

 is small and adipose, that is, formed by a fold of the skin filled 

 with fat, and without rays. 



FIG. 265. THE SALMON. 



The Common Salmon (Salmo Salar) is the largest species of the family. It is 

 found in great numbers in the Arctic Seas, whence it ascends rivers in large shoals 

 every spring. It swims with great rapidity, and can clear at a leap obstacleg to its 

 passage twelve or fifteen feet in height. When salmon arrive at a place ht for spawn- 

 ing, they deposit their eggs in the gravel at the bottom, and then permit themselves to 

 be carried by the current to the sea, where they go to acquire strength, and return 

 again the following spring. Young salmon are therefore born in the rivers ; their gro\rth 

 is rapid, and when they attain the size of about twelve inches, they descend to the sea 

 like the adults. 



The salmon-fishery, in many countries, forms a very important branch of industry. In 

 Norway as many as three hundred of these fishes have been caught at one haul, and in 

 the River Tweed as many as seven hundred. The time selected for catching them is 

 when they ascend the rivers to spawn, for after they have deposited their eggs, and are 

 on their way to the sea, they are very lean and their flesh of little value. In general, this 

 fishery is conducted by means of nets stretched across the river, and so arranged that 

 the salmon are caught in the meshes. But sometimes, in Scotland for example, they 



