GILPIN ON THE TROUT AND SALMON. 79 



description. The intermaxillary articulation was very loose and 

 much enlarged. The intermaxillary bone itself had grown at least 

 two inches in length, formed into a beak like an eagle's, and filled 

 with very large teeth. The lower jaw had also gi'own to correspond 

 in length, and was also armed Avith large teeth. A cartilaginous 

 knob projected upwards from the lip, which fitted into a groove above 

 in the intermaxillaries. The new jaws were so arched that it was 

 impossible for them to close in the centre, and the teeth were much 

 larger and with wider bases than the usual teeth. I am now of the 

 opinion that the toothless fish 1 saw in July were preparing, by 

 losing their original teeth, for this spawning growth, soon to sprout 

 from their denuded jaws, of not only increased osseous matter, but 

 of an entirely new set of teeth, and that the whole of the huge structure 

 in a few months, broken down or worn away by conflicts and by 

 furrowing up the sand and gravel, becomes totally absorbed on reach- 

 ing the ocean, and is again replaced by the ordinary teeth, thus each 

 male salmon having two sets of teeth during the year. 



Towards the latter part of November he is seen frequenting the 

 shallow, sandy bottomed running streams. He is busv furrowing 

 up the gravelly bottom with his lower jaw, in water so shallow that 

 his tail flaps upon the surface. The loitering sportsman often over- 

 look him working up stream so as not to foul his water, and 

 sedulously conducting his mate into the furrow where he impregnates 

 the ova streaming from her teeming sides, or rushing out upon the 

 shoals of young males in clouds about him, each a miniature salmon 

 with hook and bill, though barely six or seven inches long.* The 

 lumberman too is sometimes tempted from his toil by suddenly 

 coming upon a shallow lake literally covered by hundreds if not 

 thousands. t Serious encounters are sometimes instanced between 

 two rival males, the wounds taken and given are often frightful. 

 At the end of the season, an old male thoroughly emaciated, lean, 

 dingy yellow, his jaws literally worn to the bone or hanging in 

 fragments, his body torn into gaping wounds, with his pale blue 

 gleaming eyes, is truly a ghastly form, flitting dark and dull and 



*Charles Anderson, Esq., Magistrate, Musquodoboit. 



fMr. John Duncan, Ingraham River, told me tliat he once with a partv of lum- 

 bermen, came upon at least a thousand salmon, spawning upon Snalce Lake, 

 Halifax County. For every man and teamster to desert his work, and rush into the 

 shallow waters, with axe, or pole, or ox goad, or voung sapling, was the work of 

 an mstant. Some eight or ten were the only spoils that rewarded their cupidity. 



