310 SALMOX FISHIXG IN CANADA. 



taken out with care and gentleness, they -will sirim away briskl}', 

 quite tminjured ; but if the barb goes deep, or any rouglmess is 

 used, they are destroyed. An accidental fall on the ground from 

 the height of a foot or two, kills them immediately. Various 

 attempts have been made to I transport them to fishponds fi-om 

 their native streams, but, I believe, mth imiform want of 

 success. I have several times made the experiment of removing 

 smelts, as the fry are called, in a bucket of water, to a fish-pond 

 adjoining the river, but fed fi-om a different source. — None of 

 them lived two hours. 



Under these circumstances, it is probable that the most of the 

 stories we have been told of these delicate fry having been caught 

 and marked, and afterwards discovered in the cotirse of the same 

 summer, gi-ilses, or young salmon, four or five pounds weight, 

 are fictions; though there can be httle doubt of their gTowth 

 in the sea being extremely rapid. In all probability the fiy 

 which enter the .salt water in the beginning of June, return in 

 September, or even earlier, small salmon. Shaw, in his Zoology, 

 states that I\I. de la Lande fastened small rings of copper to the 

 tails of different individuals, and found that they retiuned during 

 three successi'i'e seasons. I ha"\"e never lieen able to ascertain 

 this fact from my own experience, though I have caught some 

 dozens of fiy, marked and liberated them, but in no instance had 

 the good fortune to meet with any of my Httle captives after- 

 wards. 



The condition of the parent fish, after spav\7iing, is verj' de- 

 plorable. They become so weak and thin that they can scarcely 

 stem the current of the river, and then usually seek the repose 

 of some deep hole where they may remain Cjuiet, and to a certain 

 extent recover their strength. But they continue languid and 

 torpid during the winter, in a condition httle better than that of 

 the hybernating animals. From the great emaciation of the 

 body, the head appears disproportionately large, and looks as if 



