164 THE NEW AKT OF BKEEDING FISH. 



current is considered absolutely necessary for their 

 development. Now comes a statement totally op- 

 posed to our salmon beds — "hills" and "ridds," as 

 we call them : — " It is commonly supposed that, in 

 conjunction with the male, the female salmon 

 scrapes a hole or furrow in the bed of the river [they 

 certainly do so in the rivers of the United King- 

 doms, England, Scotland, and Ireland ; I do not 

 know how they manage connubial matters in the 

 Principality], in which to deposit her eggs, and that 

 afterwards, and as a protection from their numerous 

 enemies, they cover them over with gravel ; but 

 such is not the fact in the Save. The male has 

 nothing to do with this part of the work ; and the 

 ova, instead of being dropped into a cavity, are de- 

 posited on a comparatively smooth surface. Whilst 

 in the act of spawning, the female retains her natu- 

 ral position. Her belly is near the ground ; at 

 times, indeed, probably to rest herself, actually 

 touching it. The process of dropping her eggs ap- 

 pears to be slow. When a few are collected, she 

 turns on her side, waves the flat of her tail gently 

 towards the roe, but lifts it up again with great 

 force, by which such a vacuum is caused as not only 

 to raise the eggs from the ground, and thus to dis- 

 tribute them in the stream, but to throw up a mass 

 of dirt and stones, the latter not unfrequently of 

 very considerable weight. As the mere distribution 

 of th^ ova would require only a slight wave of the 

 tail, it appears that the violent lunge is for the ex- 



