493 TUBE-BLADDERED GROUP. 



own kindred devour them without scruple. Unluckily, too, for them, a certain 

 number of great, hungry kelts (as the fish are called after spawning), having 

 recovered to a great extent their condition, accompany them on their seaward 

 journey, and prey upon their young companions as they travel; and I believe 

 that a hungry kelt will devour upwards of forty or fifty smolts in a day. Arrived 

 at the sea, the little fish are met by a fresh array of enemies. The army of gulls 

 is always with them, and these are reinforced by cormorants, divers, and other 

 sea-birds, besides which shoals of ravenous fish await their arrival, and assist in 

 thinning their ranks. It is wonderful that any should escape, and, but for the 

 extraordinary fecundity of the salmon, they would speedily be annihilated; but 

 such is their prolific nature that a remnant always survives to return to the 

 spawning-beds and keep up the supply. Buckland calculated that the number of 

 eggs laid by a salmon was about one thousand to the pound weight, a fish of 

 15 lbs. therefore producing fifteen thousand eggs. The food of the smolt during 

 his sojourn in the sea is abundant, consisting chiefly of sand-eels, molluscs, and 

 marine insects. The smolts increase accordingly very rapidly in size, and in three 

 or four months the fish that came down 5 or 6 ounces in weight returns to the 

 river from whence he came, a grilse of from 4 to 6 lbs. ; the grilse being the fifth 

 stage of the salmon's existence. Unless accidentally prevented the grilse always 

 returns to the river from whence it came, and after spending the autumn and 

 winter at home, and providing for the continuance of the family by spawning, as 

 already described, returns as a kelt to the sea in the following year, reappearing 

 the next as a salmon of at least 10 or 12 lbs. weight. It should be added, that, 

 after spawning, the fish speedily recover their colour, and to a great extent their 

 condition ; the baggit at once losing her dark complexion, and the kipper discarding 

 his hideous livery, his great beak being rapidly absorbed, his sides becoming 

 silvery, and his back assuming a dark bluish tinge." 



With reference to the statement in this account that salmon always return to 

 the river of their birth, it may be observed that although this is generally the 

 case, the circumstance that salmon occasionally make their appearance at the mouth 

 of the Thames and other rivers which they have ceased to inhabit, shows that 

 there are exceptions to the rule. The obstacles that salmon will surmount in 

 their ascent of rivers during the return from the sea are too well-known to require 

 notice ; but it is probable that the height to which they can leap has been 

 exaggerated. The period of spawning varies with the country, taking place in 

 the south of Sweden and North Germany at the latter part of October or early 

 in November; while in Denmark it may be deferred till February or the 

 beginning of March ; November and December being the usual spawning-months 

 in Scotland. 



In spite of their diversity of habitat, and likewise of coloration 

 and structure, Day is of opinion that the migratory sea-trout, or 

 salmon-trout (8. trutta), and the stationary river-trout (S. fario), as well as the 

 various forms from the British lakes, are nothing more than varieties of a single 

 variable race ; and it must be confessed that no one has hitherto been able to define 

 all the nominal British species with anything like definiteness. Still, however, in 

 the modern sense of the words there is no possibility of drawing a hard-and-fast 



