THE FRESH WATERS 171 
in a shallow part of the river—the female sal- 
mon lashes out a trough with her tail, and in it 
deposits her eggs, moving gradually up stream 
as she does so. ‘The attendant male meantime 
keeps all intruders fiercely at bay. After 
spawning the salmon are much exhausted, and 
they linger for a time in the deep pools to re- 
cover, but they do not begin to feed actively 
even then, and many of them die of weakness 
or disease on their way back to the sea. 
The young fry emerge in early spring and, 
for the first few weeks, remain quietly hidden 
among the gravel, depending for nourishment 
on the stores laid up for them in the egg, and 
now attached to their bodies as a yolk-sac. 
When the yolk is exhausted, and they are 
about an inch long, they become more active, 
and seek for their own food. During all this 
time both eggs and fry are preyed upon by 
many enemies, of which the eels, pike, and 
fish-eating birds probably do most damage. 
But the young ones that are left, now known 
as “parr,” continue to feed and grow for a 
couple of years, and then, assuming more sil- 
very hues, descend as ‘“‘smolts” to the sea. At 
this stage they are about 6 or 7 inches long, 
but the abundance of food in the sea, where 
