[ i6i ] 



- THE SALMON TRIBE*. 



RAPID and stony rivers, where the water is free 

 from mud, are the favourite places of most of the 

 Salmon tribe. Some of them do indeed inhabit the 

 sea, but they come up the rivers for the purpose of 

 depositing their spawn in the beds of gravel ; and in 

 this instinctive pursuit they will surmount wonder- 

 ful obstacles that oppose their course. After spawn- 

 ing, they return to the sea lean and emaciated. The 

 whole tribe is supposed to afford wholesome food 

 for mankind. 



They are distinguished from other fishes by having 

 two dorsal fins, of which the hindermost is fleshy 

 and without rays. They have teeth both in the 

 jaws and on the tongue ; and the body is covered 

 with round and minutely striated scales. 



THE COMMON SALMON f. 



This fish seems confined in a great measure to 

 the northern seas, being unknown in the Mediterra- 

 nean, and in the waters of other warm climates. It 

 lives in fresh as well as in salt waters, forcing itself 

 in autumn up the rivers, sometimes for hundreds of 

 miles, for the purpose of depositing its spawn. In 



* This tribe commences the fourth of the Linnaean orders of fishes, 

 the Abdominal fish. 

 + Salmo Salar. Linn. 

 VOL. III. M 



