310 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



taken out with care and gentleness, they will swim away briskly, 

 quite uninjured ; but if the barb goes deep, or any roughness is 

 used, they are destroyed. An accidental fall on the ground from 

 the height of a foot or two, kills them immediately. Various 

 attempts have been made to transport them to fishponds from 

 their native streams, but, I believe, with uniform want of 

 success. I have several times made the experiment of removing 

 smelts, as the fry are called, in a bucket of water, to a fish-pond 

 adjoining the river, but fed from a different source. None of 

 'them lived two hours. 



Under these circumstances, it is probable that the most of the 

 stories we have been told of these delicate fry having been caught 

 and marked, and afterwards discovered in the course of the same 

 summer, grilses, or young salmon, four or five pounds weight, 

 are fictions; though there can be little doubt of their growth 

 in the sea being extremely rapid. In all probability the fry 

 which enter the salt water in the beginning of June, return in 

 September, or even earlier, small salmon. Shaw, in his Zoology 

 states that M. de la Lande fastened small rings of copper to the 

 tails of different individuals, and found that they returned during 

 three successive seasons. I have never been able to ascertain 

 this fact from my own experience, though I have caught some 

 dozens of fry, marked and liberated them, but in no instance had 

 the good fortune to meet with any of my little captives after- 

 wards. 



The condition of the parent fish, after spawning, is very de- 

 plorable. They become so weak and thin that they can scarcely 

 stem the current of the river, and then usually seek the repose 

 of some deep hole where they may remain quiet, and to a certain 

 extent recover their strength. But they continue languid and 

 torpid during the winter, in a condition little better than that of 

 the hybernating animals. From the great emaciation of the 

 body, the head appears disproportionately large, and looks as if 



