SALMON— NAMES, HABITS, MIGRATIONS. 69 



Salmon — Bradan, Glas-bhreac: grilse — Oealag-Banag : he-salmon — Bradcm-firionn: 

 Bhe-salmon — Bradan-chemonn : clean salmon — Bradan-glan, Urbhreao : foul sal- 

 mon — Bradan-salaoh : male unspawned salmon — Bradan-inahragach : female 

 unspawned salmon — Brddan-inhealagach: male spawned salmon — Bradan-ruithte : 

 female spawned salmon — Bradan-olaidhte : a lean or spent salmon of either sex — 

 BUonach, Mathacic, Blianag, Bubh-ihrddan : par, Bricein.* 



Habits. — The salmon, as already observed, is an anadromous fish, which enters 

 rivers mostly for the purpose of depositing its spawn in a locality where its eggs 

 will be hatched and its fry reared. During the summer months it roams along 

 our coasts in search of food, and may be found close in shore many miles from 

 where any fresh water enters the sea, loitering in estuaries and also at the mouths 

 of rivers up which it purposes ascending.f 



The migrations of the salmon at its various ages and during different seasons of 

 the year have long been themes for discussion at every stage of their occurrence. 

 These fish are " anadromous " or forms which enter our rivers chiefly for the 

 purpose of perpetuating their race, for this cause they select suitable spots 

 wherein to deposit their eggs, here the young are hatched, and remain in the 

 stream for the first years of their existence. Consequently during their youth 

 they live and feed in fresh water, as they grow older they descend as smelts to the 

 sea, from whence after a time they return as grilse and salmon to the rivers, 

 thus the waters they select for their residence differ from each other in their 

 specific gravity, taste, temperature and products. 



Where these fish pass their sojourn in the sea has not yet been satisfactorily 

 cleared up, J neither does the practical fisherman much concern himself with this 

 question as he is unable to capture them there, while the fish-oulturisfc is aware 

 that their eggs will not hatch if deposited in salt water. 



It will be necessary prior to following out these migrations to observe upon 

 the terms "early" and "late" rivers, for among the many problems respecting 

 salmon and their fisheries there is none which exceeds in importance how to legis- 

 late for these difEerent classes of streams. These terms "early" and "late"§ are 

 employed in two different senses, one person alluding to the ascent of clean fish in 

 relationship to the time of the year, while another does so as regards their ascent 

 for breeding or the period of their spawning, a sense in which it is not understood 

 in the following pages. 



Early rivers are those in which clean-run salmon, fit for the market, || ascend 

 during the first months of the year, as in February, or even in January ; while 

 these ascents are deferred much later in other, and occasionally even in contiguous 

 streamSj and this gives rise to the inquiry of at what time sufficient numbers of 



* J. Josselyn writing in 1675 refers to the salmon of New England as in the first year a 

 salnum-smoU, the second as a mart, the third as a spraid, the fourth as a soar, the fifth as a sorrel, 

 the sixth as a forket-tail, and the seventh as a salmon, showing that even in those days differences 

 had been observed in the various stages of growth of this fish. 



t Pennant asserted that the salmon quitted the sea to free itself from parasites, and 

 Dr. Anderson considered that they again quitted the fresh water owing to being infested with 

 another form of vermin. 



{ In the Baltic, Judge Fiedler observed that a salmon about 18 lb. weight was caught in a seine 

 in the Great Belt, south of Korsor, in which was a somewhat compressed brass hook, similar to 

 those formerly described by Malmgren, so no doubt the salmon must have swallowed it and 

 carried it from the North German coast of the Baltic (Bulletin, United States Fish Commission, 

 1885, p. 185). 



§ EuBsel (The Salmon) observed that "there are great differences between rivers regarding 

 the periods in late winter or early spring at which they contain clean fish in quantities sufficient to 

 render fishing profitable, and have got rid in any considerable degree of the foul fish, spawned and 

 unspawned." He suggested terming the rivers " short-seasoned " and " long-seasoned," as he was 

 not of opinion that there is much difference between rivers at the end of the season — the season 

 at which a greater or less proportion of the fish begin to get gravid and out of condition. Likewise, 

 it has been considered that breeding commences somewhat earlier, or that the fish complete their 

 spawning operations in a shorter time in some rivers than in others ; in either of which oases they 

 would return earlier into condition than in localities where reproduction was deferred until late, or 

 extended over a longer period. 



II Clean salmon are much earlier in some rivers than they are in others. G. Little, giving 

 evidence before the Parliamentary Commission in 1821, observed " that the Eden is earlier than 



