146 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Ontario, its progress farther up being effectually barred by the falls of Niagara. 

 It has been noticed as a remarkable fact in the history of the fish, that it has never 

 been known to enter the Niagara, or even to have been taken within thirty miles 

 of its mouth, though there is nothing to hinder it from ascending to the foot of the 

 falls, about fifteen miles from the lake. De Witt Clinton has, however, accounted 

 for this fact in remarking the want of gravel beds in the Niagara, fitted to be 

 depositaries of the salmon-spawn. Salmon are found in Lake Ontario at all sea- 

 sons, and they have been caught in the Seneca, or Onondaga river, which falls into 

 the south side of the lake in every month of the year, sometimes weighing thirty- 

 seven pounds. " They pass," says De Witt Clinton, " Oswego at the entrance of this 

 river in April, are then in fine order, and spread over all the western waters in that 

 direction, returning to Lake Ontario in October, much reduced in size and fat- 

 ness." " Numerous conical erections of gravel, found in several of the western 

 rivers, must have been raised by them." Another account states, that these fish 

 make their appearance in Lake Oneida, which communicates with the Onondaga, 

 in May, and that they eat nothing during their residence there, which continues 

 till winter *. Mr. Todd informed me, that they enter the shallow, gravelly rivers 

 in the vicinity of Toronto, on the north side of Lake Ontario, in August, are taken 

 in great abundance in September, and continue to ascend until November. Their 

 average weight is about eight pounds, and their length two feet and a half. They 

 are taken in nets or speared by torch-light. Some years ago, a considerable fishery 

 was established at the head of the lake, and great quantities of fish were cured for 

 exportation, but the establishment was broken up by the war. No salmon have 

 been seen in the Mississippi or its tributaries. 



Salmon enter the rivers that fall into Hudson's Bay north of the 58th degree of 

 latitude. According to Hearne, they are very numerous, in some seasons, in 

 Knapp's Bay and Whale Cove, so that a vessel might speedily be loaded with 

 them, but they are very scarce in other years. They are, he says, sometimes so 

 plentiful in Churchill river, that upwards of two hundred fine fish have been taken 

 in one tide, from four small gill-nets set within a mile of the fort ; but at other 

 times they are so rare that twenty nets have scarcely yielded the same number 

 during the season, which begins in the latter end of June, and closes about the 

 middle or end of August. The commencement of the season coincides with the 

 breaking up of the ice |. The weight of the fish varies from eight to twenty pounds. 



* Lit. and Phil. Trans, of New York, i., p. 147 and p. 500. 



f The following dates were extracted from a Journal kept by Mr. Topping at Churchill factory, five or six miles above 

 the mouth of the river : — 



