THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
77 
delicate creature as a newly -hatched salmon, if buried in 
gravel, even to the depth of an inch or two, unless it be 
very coarse gravel, being able to find its way out. 
The parent fishes, if of the migratory species, ascend 
from the sea into the same rivers in which they were 
reared, with almost unerring instinct. It being a very 
rare thing to find a salmon bred in one river, which 
has been found to ascend another river to spawn. Having 
found a suitable spawning place, which is generally sought 
for, at or near their place of birth, the female fish excavates 
a hollow by the motion of her tail, acting as a fan 
upon the gravel. It must be remembered that the 
weight of gravel in water, is very much less than on land, 
which renders this work comparatively easy. The stone, 
in fact, being by so much lighter and easier to move 
in water, as if the weight of its bulk of water were 
deducted from its weight in air. While the female 
salmon is excavating a hollow in the gravel, which is termed 
the redd, the male hovers about, and makes furious attacks 
upon any other male that may come near, and severe 
wounds are given and received, often leading to fatal 
results. When the redd or nest is partly formed, the 
female deposits her eggs in the hollow or trough which 
she has formed, and the male fish remains close alongside, 
quivering with excitement, and sheds his milt or spermatic 
fluid over the ova, which become fertilised by the process. 
The female covers up the ova by fanning the gravel over 
them in the direction of the current with her tail. This 
process is repeated day after day, until all the ova are 
deposited, the fishes retiring into some sheltered pool to rest 
after each effort. When the spawning is over, they become 
thin, poor, and unfit for food, and many of the males and 
some females, die of exhaustion. In fact it is asserted, that 
where salmon have to make very long and fatiguing journeys 
