154 ANGLING. 



which they will return to daily so long as the river 

 remains unfit for more continuous progress. Upon 

 the least accession, however, to the water, either 

 directly or from some swollen tributary, they are 

 again on the alert, and this increase is often felt 

 by them several hours before the keenest or most 

 experienced human eye can perceive a rise upon 

 the river. Having ascended to a considerable 

 height, they remain more stationary, or proceed 

 more slowly with subsequent floods, till the spawn 

 has attained a great increase of size. This increase 

 (hyacinth-like) if not influenced by, is at least so 

 connected with the commencement of the colder 

 weather, as then to proceed at a more rapid rate. 

 As the ova acquire their full development, the 

 symmetry of the maternal form becomes disfigured, 

 the size of the female seeming disproportionately 

 large, and her paler portions losing the brightness 

 of their silvery lustre, become dull and grey. The 

 male too, as if oppressed by paternal anxiety, and 

 conscious of the difficulty of providing suddenly for 

 several hundred thousand children (hear this, ye 

 parents who complain occasionally of having twins) 

 grows lank and lean along the back, his muzzle 

 lengthens, and the under jaw turning upwards in 

 the form of a snout, is received into a kind of hollow 

 in the nose, before the intermaxillary bone. The 

 colours and markings become brown and red, rather 

 than blue and silver, those of the head and gill- 

 covers being particularly brilliant, and disposed in 

 lines, almost like those that mark the species of the 

 genus labrus. In this state the common salmon 



