214 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



laws of nature that govern Salmon, in generating as well as 

 the process of incubation and growth of its young. 



Those who take an interest in the subject, will refer with 

 pleasure and profit to the " Book of the Salmon," by a Mr. 

 Graham, who wrote articles on angling for " Bell's Life in 

 London," for many years, and who also, with the soubriquet 

 of "Ephemera," was the author of " A Handbook of Angling." 

 He was assisted in his " Book of the Salmon," by Mr. Andrew 

 Young, of Invershin, Scotland, the manager of the Duke of 

 Sutherland's northern fisheries, who had been an experi- 

 menter on Salmon for more than thirty years. Part of the 

 information imparted by Mr. Young was in writing, and 

 much was communicated orally, whenever Mr. Graham visited 

 him for the purpose of angling, and observing the habits of 

 the Salmon. In the following pages, I will endeavor to give 

 the gist of Mr. Graham's remarks, or quote them verbatim as 

 may best suit the purpose. 



" Salmon preparing to spawn, — The male and female Salmon 

 appear together on that part of a shallow in which their bed 

 is to be dug, and they remain moving about upon it for a few 

 days before they begin the process of nidification. No pre- 

 cise period can be fixed for their appearance. Salmon spawn- 

 ing-beds are made by the fish in sandy or gravelly parts of 

 the river, generally high up towards its source, and not unfre- 

 quently in rivers and almost rivulets,* tributaries to some 

 large river, of course connected with the sea. Before two 

 Salmon, male and female, commence the formation of their 

 nests, they make efforts to drive away every fish that may 



* This was the case last fall in Pabineau and Gordon's Brooks, both 

 small tributaries of the Nipissiguit : the outlet of the latter is oyer a 

 gravelly shoal, and so small that Salmon cannot ascend through the outlet 

 to the deeper water above, unless with the assistance of a freshet. Yet 

 they were found there in large numbers depositing their spawn. 



