TUR CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



271 



many of our fish culturists, fishermen and 

 naturalists, and in view of the efforts which 

 are being made to increase the supply of food 

 derivable from our numerous and extensive 

 lakes, rivers and creeks, is one the determina- 

 tion of which as early as possible is very de- 

 sirable, us it may have the effect either of 

 encouraging the artificial stocking of many of 

 our waters with this very prolific and delicate 

 fish, or of preventing a useless expenditure of 

 time and money in attempting that which the 

 laws of nature and of instinct prohibit. In 

 this connection a glance at the natural history 

 of the salmon and its congeners may assist 

 those of our readers who arc but slightly ac- 

 quainted with the subject to form a rational 

 primafacie opinion upon the same. 



The natural habitat of the salmon is un- 

 questionably the sea. In the salt water it 

 thrives and increases in bulk and weight with 

 astonishing rapidity ; but it is not a deep 

 water fish, never venturing far from the coast, 

 along whijh it ranges in search of its food, 

 which consists of shrimps, prawns, and other 

 small crustaceans, sandlaunces, and the fry 

 of herrings and other sea fish which come in 

 shore to breed. When spawning time arrives, 

 the instinct of propagation prompts them to 

 leave the salt water, and lesort to the fresh 

 water of the rivers and creeks to deposit their 

 ova. But they io not quit the salt water for 

 the fresh all at once ; they have to undergo a 

 process of seasoning or " acclimatizing" be- 

 fore making the tradition, for which purpose 

 they will, tor several days, or sometimes 

 weeks, frequent the mouths or estuaries of 

 their favourite streams, ranging up and down 

 with the tide and keeping in the brackish 

 water until fully prepared for the change of 

 medium. As soon as their preparation is 

 complete they take advantage of the first rise 

 of the fall floods, which assures them of a 

 sufficiency of water for their journey, and vi- 

 gorously pursue their way to their accustomed 

 spawning-beds in the upper parts of the 

 streams ; for it is a well-established fact that 

 oalmon habitually returns to the stream in 

 which it began its own existence. In these 

 arduous journeys it is no triffling obstacle 

 which will interrupt, or even delay their pro- 

 gress, in which they display a degree of per- 

 severance truly remarkable, stemming the 

 swiftest currents and the most violent rapids, 

 and even overleaping falls of six to eight feet 

 in height. On one occasion the writer saw a 

 fish, apparently about ten pounds in weight, 

 make ten successive atfMnnts to surmount the 



cauld, i. e. the mill-dam, at Mew Mills, en the 



WhitaddiT, a small river which joins the 

 Tweed about two miles above the town of Ber- 

 wick, and succeed on the eleventh trial. On 

 arriving above the influence of the tides the 

 great '' school" disperses, some of the fish re- 

 maining on the lower gravels, while others 

 persistent!} pursue their way to the very head 

 waters of tneir favorite stream.-. 



Having deposited their ova, they begin to 

 fall back towards the sea ; but nol with th< 

 same energy and rapidity with which they 

 made their ascent, taking several weeks to 

 complete their passage. Indeed, many of 

 them remain over the winter in the deeper 

 parts of the rivers, waiting for the spring 

 freshets to carry them down with little exer- 

 tion of their own. In the fresh water thev 

 rapidly deteriorate in health and condition, 

 and become lean, lank and ill-shaped. The 

 silvery brightness of their scales becomes tar- 

 nished and dull, and patches of dull red color 

 appear on their shoulders and sides, while the 

 rich, red, firm flesh assumes a dingy yellow 

 color and a flaccid texture, and is unwhole- 

 some and in many cases dangerous. Once 

 restored to the salt water, they soon regain 

 their health and condition, and in the course 

 of six or seven months are ready again to re- 

 visit the spawning grounds, having in the 

 mean time gained an additional weight of from 

 30 to 50 per cent., or even more. 



The ova, which are mostly deposited in the 

 months of October and November, remain in 

 the gravel till the following spring, when they 

 hatch out into the small fish known in the 

 English and Scottish rivers as the Tar or fin- 

 gerling. This fish is easily distinguished by 

 its elegant shape, its deeply forked tail-fin, 

 and by the dark bars or " finger-marks" ami 

 the bright red spots which ornament its sides. 

 It remains in the fresh water ot its native 

 streams for about a year, in which time it 

 attains a length of three to five inches, and a 

 weight of from two to four ounces. In the 

 months of March and April a change comes 

 over its appearance, it assumes a coat ol shin- 

 ing silvery scales which completely conceal 

 the bars and spots, though if the outer cover- 

 ing is removed the original markings will be 

 revealed. Contemporaneously with this 

 change in their appearance they seem to be 

 seized with an irresistible desire to visit the 

 salt water, and the " smolts" which were 

 scattered as par through the whole extent ot 

 the river and its tributaries, assemble in large 

 shoajs and, as if actuated by a common im- 



