THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



25' 



Trout only a small proportion spawn in the 

 corresponding state. But whatever the time 

 is we know that his growth is most rapid, and 

 his sea food must be studied before much 

 further advance can be made in Salmon cul- 

 ture ; garvies and young herring probably 

 form a great portion of his food, but whatever 

 it be his paths in the sea are as well-marked, 

 and to some fishermen, alas, as well known, 

 as in the river. Trammels in the sea are 

 successfully dropped by east coast fishing 

 boats on their way out and lifted on their 

 return. The food of Salmon at sea may pos- 

 sibly be influenced by the modes of fishing. 

 Boats year by year go farther north and 

 farther to sea for their Herrings ; the fishing 

 grounds are slowly but surely receding from 

 the shore. It is too early yet to foreshadow 

 the results, it may be that food inshore grows 

 more plentiful now that the herrings are 

 further out, or it may be that the herrings are 

 further out because the inshore food has de- 

 creased, it may be, and to a certain extent it 

 must be, a matter of changing currents and 

 temperature; but what I wish to impress in 

 this paper is that the sea food of the migra- 

 tory Salmones forms a very necessary preli- 

 minary study to the great question of Salmon 

 culture. A diagram expressing the art of 

 Salmon culture would contain no broad, hard, 

 rectangular lines, no vivid colouring easy to 

 be understood, but flowing curves traced by 

 the ever varying intensity of the now few now 

 many circumstances whose combination con- 

 stitute the problem of the migratory Salmones. 

 Temperature and food are here, as with the 

 nonmigratory species, the principal factors. 

 The mode of captures anil obstructions in 

 rivers also weigh heavily against the iucrease 

 of Salmon. But when one of our watersheds 

 is sufficiently artificially stocked so that the 

 advantages of the process are brought clearly 

 and directly before the public an alteration in 

 the modes of legal capture will assuredly fol- 

 low. Of obstructions in the river it is difficult 

 to treat ; many upper proprietors prefer good 

 Trout fishing to the pleasure of dragging about 

 a few kelts in spring, and it cannot be too 

 strongly impressed that Trout are most des- 

 tructive to Salmon spawn, and that Salmon in 

 their turn are after spawning most destructive 

 to Trout. I am aware it is very commonly 

 held that Salmon do not feed in fresh water, 

 probably because in common with all large- 

 ovaed Salmonkhe the ovaries for from two to 

 eight weeks completely till the cavity of the 



abdomen, and should the ii-li yield to bi 



dining this time the freshly .-wallowed I 

 causes the immediate extrusion >*\ the ova. It 

 Salmon never (V'd in fresh water a well-mended 

 kelt would be a superfluous sion in the 



parlance of fishermen. The deduction a- to 

 kelts in certain parts of the river- is obi 

 Obstructions in the river will interfere little 

 with young fish artificially bred descending t-> 

 the sea, although they are often fatal to the 

 ascent of spawning fish. Returning to the 

 artificial propagation of salmon, the selection 

 ot breeders is very important, eggsfrom young 

 fish being far smaller in size and the try 

 hatched from them more delicate than is the 

 case with ova spawned from mature breeders. 

 I think it therefore necessary that the Salmon 

 should be caught and selected as soon as the 

 rod fishing closes, as by selecting the best hen 

 fish the future stock of the water will be much 

 improved. The non-migratory Salmones in 

 this country are classed by Doctor Ganther 

 under the following species — S.fario : /<<<>.<■ : 

 Gilleroo nigri-pinnis ; orcadensis and leven- 

 ensis, but probably with the exception of the 

 S- levenensis, which more nearly approaches 

 a marine form, these are all more or less 

 permanent varieties of fario . and their try, 

 at least those produced under artificial condi- 

 tions, are more -easily reared than the try of 

 the migratory species. Their cultivation may 

 be said to consist in the selection of the oldest 

 females lor breeding purposes, in the artificial 

 incubation of the ova and the rearing of the 

 fry; beyond this their culture resolves itself 

 into a question of habitat and food, of habitat 

 by choosing the species or variety best suited 

 to the ends in view, and of food, for it is only 

 by increasing the food supply in the water 

 that the heaviest weighl per acre and the most 

 delicate quality of the flesh can be produced. 

 The cultivation of the food supply in fresh 

 water is effected by the reduction of coarse 

 consumers of food who come in competition 

 ' with the Salmons, by the cultivation, intro- 

 duction, and acclimatization of fish whose 

 value as food lor Salmones is greater thai: the 

 value ol (he sustenance they themselves derive 

 from the water, as, for instance, the Char ot 

 Loch Rannoch, who subsist almost entirely on 

 ( the daphnes pulix. The smelt, and some o\ 

 the white fish also, may be the link in the 

 chain which will bind the land-locked salmon 

 to our northern lakes, and prove a very dis- 

 turbing weight in the scales on the side ot the 

 upper proprietors on waters now tenanted by 



