72 THE HABITS OF THE SALMON. 



must have remained in the sea for five months 

 after they had recovered their condition. 



Spawning salmon, &c. 



It is not an uncommon belief that all salmon spawn 

 every year, but that this is an impossibility will at 

 once be seen from the fact that in many of our 

 rivers clean fish run up during the spawning season, 

 their very condition forbidding any possibility of 

 their spawning until the season of the following 

 year. It is, however, quite possible that salmon 

 which leave the sea later on spawn every year ; 

 for example, fish which have run up in July, spawn- 

 ing the following autumn, and returning to the sea 

 as kelts, say the following April, may run up again 

 the following August, and spawn again the following 

 November or December, and so on, year after year. 

 There is not much to say on the habits of salmon 

 xiuring the spawning season that is not already 



