472 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



usually near the verge of a rapid. European observers state that the furrows are shaped by the 

 noses of the two parent fish, every nest being tilled with eggs before the next one is made, and the 

 first covered up by the sand which is loosened in digging the second, chiefly by the action of the 

 current. Mr. Atkins observed a female Land-locked Salmon excavating a nest by turning on her 

 side and flopping violently against the bottom with her tail, while the male was engaged in driving 

 away rivals and predaceous foes. Spawning is not accomplished at once, but the eggs are deposited 

 by installments, as fast as they mature, during a period of from five to twelve days. "When the 

 furrow is made, the male and the female retire to a little distance, one to the one side, the other 

 to the other side of the furrow; they then throw themselves on their sides, again come together, 

 and rubbing together both shed their spawn into the furrow at the same time." This is the 

 observation of Mr. Ellis on the European Salmon, and a similar habit has been observed by Mr. 

 Whitcher in Canada. In the tributaries of the Saint Lawrence spawning begins by the middle of 

 October; in Maine, with both Land-locked and Sea Salmon, a week or two later, and it is presumable 

 that in the Connecticut it will be found to occur well along towards December. In Great Britain 

 and in the Rhine the season begins in October or November, continuing in some rivers till February. 



Salmon eggs are about one-quarter of an inch in diameter, and of a bright reddish or yellowish 

 hue. English fish-culturists estimate the number of eggs yielded by a large fish at 1,000 to each 

 pound of her weight ; experiments in the Penobscot indicate a yield of not more than 5,000 or C,000 

 for a fish of eight pounds, and about 15,000 for one of forty pounds. In the Scotch streams the 

 eggs come to maturity in one hundred to one hundred and forty days, but in our colder waters, at a 

 temperature of 33 through winter and spring, the period of incubation is supposed to extend over 

 six or seven months, the young fish not appearing until May. In the hatching-houses the period 

 varies greatly, eggs having been hatched in fifty-four days with a temperature of 55. and in one 

 hundred and fourteen at 36. 



YOUNG FISH. The newly hatched Salmon measures about three-quarters of an inch, and has 

 the yolk-sac adherent from four to six weeks. When this is absorbed it begins to feed, rising 

 greedily to seize any minute floating object. In two months the fry has grown to an inch and a 

 half, and begins to assume the vermilion spots and transverse bars or finger marks which entitle 

 it to be called a "Parr," and which it retains while remaining in fresh water, sometimes until it is 

 seven or eight inches long. It continues a " Parr " until the second or third spring, when, in prep- 

 aration for, or perhaps in consequence of, a descent toward the sea, a uniform bright silvery coat 

 is assumed, and the Parr becomes a "Suiolt." After remaining from four to twenty-eight months 

 in the salt water it again seeks its native river, having become either a "Grilse" or a "Salmon." 

 The "Grilse" is the adolescent Salmon; it weighs from two to six pounds, and is more slender and 

 graceful than the mature fish, with smaller head, thinner scales, more forked tail, and spots 

 rounder, more numerous, and bluish rather than jetty black. The two may easily be distinguished 

 even though both should be of the same size, as not unfrequently happens. The male Grilse is 

 sexually mature, but not the female, in America; in Europe the same is claimed for the male Parr 

 and the female Grilse. "There is nothing in the water," says Norris, " that surpasses a Grilse in 

 its symmetrical beauty, its brilliancy, its agility, and its pluck. I have had one of four pounds to 

 leap from the water ten times, and higher and farther than a Salmon. Woe to the angler who 

 attempts, without giving line, to hold one even of three pounds; he does it at the risk of his 

 casting line, or his agile opponent tears a piece from its jaw or snout in its desperate effort to 

 escape." 



Mr. Atkins calls attention to the fact that the great run of Grilse which is so prominent a 

 feature in Canada and Europe is almost entirely absent in the rivers of the United States, the fish 



