366 MANUAL FOB YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



average length is from two and a half to three feet. 

 Salmon feed freely on fish and mollusca, but digest their 

 food so rapidly, that when opened their stomachs are gen- 

 erally found empty. Their growth is proportionate to the 

 quantity of food which they can procure ; and hence when 

 they reach the sea they increase in size in a marvellous 

 manner, during a very short period. The successive 

 stages of development of this fish are now supposed to be 

 as follows : the fry are hatched chiefly in the spring and 

 early summer, and grow very slowly till they are about a 

 year old, up to which time they are called salmon fry, 

 and have several transverse bars on their sides. When 

 these disappear, and the fish becomes uniformly silvery in 

 color, it is about to commence its first migration to the 

 sea, and is called a smolt. After the smolt has re- 

 mained in the sea a few months, it returns to its native 

 river, if possible, and is then greatly increased in size, 

 generally weighing two or three pounds, or even consider- 

 ably more. They are now called grilse; and after a 

 second time descending to the sea, where they again 

 rapidly add to their size and weight, they attain the full 

 dignity and name of salmon. The female salmon deposits 

 her ova in the gravelly beds of mountain streams, where 

 she ploughs a groove with her tail, and is assisted by 

 the male in the whole operation. The size of the salmon 

 does not entirely depend upon the age, but on the nature 

 of the river in which it is bred ; some rivers never pro- 

 duce large salmon, whilst others are remarkable for fish 

 of great size. The salmon was originally found in all 

 North American rivers eastward of the Delaware. It 



