EASTERN COAST FISHES. 26 1 



vision against the abrasion of scales, which usually ends fatally. 

 As viewed upon the market tables the S. salar adult size is from 

 two to three feet long, and is the delight of all who have a pen- 

 chant for gastronomic luxuries in the shape of fish. Spawns in 

 November and December. 



The salmon is the finest game fish in the world, without doubt, 

 and few are the anglers who will not readily yield him precedence. 

 The interest taken in him for this reason, has caused much atten- 

 tion to be paid to his propagation, and stimulated a careful study 

 of his habits, which were comparatively unknown until within the. 

 present century. The opportunities which the culture of this fish 

 has afforded for investigation have now made the subject familiar 

 to everyone interested in ichthyology. The birth and stages of 

 growth of salmon, and his general habits, are perhaps as succinct- 

 ly, intelligibly, and correctly stated in Hallock's " Fishing Tour- 

 ist" as in any other publication, and we copy the annotation 

 here : 



"The salmon's existence, like man's, is divided into four peri- 

 ods — infancy, youth, manhood, and ripe old age, and these several 

 stages of fish-life are designated by the names of Parr, Smolt, 

 Grilse, and Salmon. One portion of this existence is passed in 

 salt water, and the remainder in fresh ; in salt water he feeds * 

 and g^ows fat, and in the fresh expends his strength and vital 

 forces. These conditions are the necessary precedent and natural 

 sequence of procreation. Many of the species die in the attempt 

 to reach their spawning-grounds, and many in the act of spawn- 

 ing ; these are the ordinary phenomena of reproduction throughout 

 the animal creation. It is also evident that salmon must vary in 

 size and general appearance according to their ages, and that 

 adults may be as distinctly and variously marked as the kine on 

 the lea, and still belong to the self-same species. Along the 

 coast of Nova Scotia old fishermen claim to distinguish the fish 

 that belong to different rivers — it being a well known fact in the 

 natural history of the salmon that they almost invariably return to 

 their native streams to spawn. 



* The food of the Salmon, previous to its quitting salt water, consists of the eggs 

 oi Schinodermata znA Crusiacea^ this rich aliment giving the color and flavor 

 for which its flesh is so highly prized. This is sustained by the observations of 

 Professor Agassiz.— iE<?>. [/. S. Com. Fish and Fisheries., 1872-3, P. 234. 



