272 THE ANGLER-NATUEALIST. 



ditioned Kelts to recruit themselves in their salt-water 

 bath, we return to the spawning-bed where the eggs are 

 approaching the time of hatching. 



Into this bed, during the preceding three months, a 

 dozen females have each poured the germs of, say, from 

 seventeen to twenty thousand Salmon *, which, if they 

 all arrived at maturity, would represent in approximate 

 figm'es some three million five hundred thousand pounds' 

 weight of wholesome food, or a money-value of about 

 £160,000. Unfortunately, however, the fry in fact added 

 to the stock of the river are a mere fraction, and those 

 that survive to return as Grilse a very trifling fraction 

 of these numbers. The latter have been calculated by 

 Mr. Brown at about one in every 1000, and by Messrs. 

 Ffennell and Ashworth at one in every six thousand, of 

 the original deposit of ova. 



The causes of this destruction are numerous. From the 

 first laying of the egg untU the plunge of the young Smolt 

 into the tidal wave, and even afterwards in the broader 

 waters of the estuary or open sea, a hundred wholesale 

 depredators lie in wait for it. First there are the shoals 

 of hungry fish of all kinds which prowl about the fords, 

 pressing close behind the spawner, and ready to fight for 

 the possession of her eggs almost before they are laid; 

 then come the voracious larvae of the May -fly and Stone- 



* Appendix to Report of Cominittee of House of Commons, 1824-5. 

 A thousand eggs, however, to every pound weight of Salmon is about 

 the usual allowance. 



