THE SALMON FISHER. 33 



poises or seals, etc., etc., which might drive off a run 

 temporarily, or split it up into fragments. Books 

 are correct in the main upon the cardinal points of 

 a salmon's birth, growth and vicissitudes, and they 

 need hardly be restated here. The practical natu- 

 ralist has learned by investigation that its existence, 

 like man's, is divided into four periods, namely, 

 infancy, adolesence, maturity, and ripe old age, and 

 he designates these several stages of development 

 by the name of Parr, Smolt, Grilse, and Salmon. 

 Observation has taught him that one portion of this 

 existence is passed in salt water and the remainder 

 in fresh ; and that these conditions are the necessary 

 precedent and natural sequence of procreation ; that 

 many of the species die in the attempt to reach their 

 spawning grounds ; and that waste and mortality 

 are in accordance with the ordinary phenomena of 

 reproduction throughout the animal creation. The 

 spawn of the salmon having been deposited in the 

 gravel of the rapid upper stream, is hatched out in 

 due course, and in due course the young fry reach 

 their period of adolescence and make their first 

 venture to the sea in the motley garb of smolts 



