102 AMERICAN FISH CULTUKE. 



CHAPTEK V. 



CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 



The Salmon.— Its instincts. — Difference in appearance and size 

 of those belonging to different rivers.— Their former abundance 

 and cause of decline in numbers. — Their growth and adolescence — 

 Migrations. — Time of ova hatching in European and American 

 i-ivers. — Growth of the fry, with illustrations. — Early fecundity of 

 the males. — Attempts at artificial propagation in the United States. 

 — Their naturalization. — Fishways, with illustrations. Salmon 

 breeding. — At Stormontfield. — On the Dee. — On the Galway. — On 

 the DoohuUa. — At Ballisodare. — In Australia. — Salmon statistics. 



An intimate knowledge of the instinctive habits of this 

 fish is required in repopulating rivers from which it has 

 been expelled, or naturalizing it in others. The most im- 

 portant instinct in this connection is, that it is anadromous,* 

 acquiring its wonderful growth and excellent flavor at sea 

 and visiting its native rivers for the purpose of reproducing 

 its species. This it will unerringly do if no insurmountable 

 barrier opposes it, nor stop short of the pebbly shallow 

 where it emerged from the egg. Many of them will go 

 beyond, as was shown by their ascending the fishway at 

 Lowell on the Merrimack last summer, and as I have wit- 

 nessed by observing their attempts to ascend impassable 



* This term is applicable to the shad, salmon, alcwife, and otlier 

 fishes that enter fresh waters to spawn. I use it to distinguish 

 these from the migratory genera that live entirely in salt water. 



