178 
SALMON. 
not only to raise tlie eggs from the ground, and thus to 
distribute them in the stream, but to throw up a mass of 
dirt and stones, the latter not unfrequently of yery considerable 
weight. When the spawning has once commenced it seems 
that” the male can no longer retain his milt, nor the female 
her roe, the emission continuing under all circumstances. This 
has been often noticed even long after death. The specific 
gravity of the roe is but little greater than water. After the 
female commences spawning he has never but on one occasion 
seen the male in actual company with her. His station at 
that time is at the distance of six or seven feet, directly in 
her wake; and the only apparent part he takes in the gene- 
rative proceeding is by the deposition of his milt, which of 
course becomes mixed with the eggs of the female as the 
stream drifts them past him. Several fishes of other kinds, of 
which the Trout is the chief, are waiting at a greater distance 
to seize on the spawn which may drift so far. Other male.s 
wait for the same female, hut it is the business of the first to 
drive them away, in doing which furious battles are often the 
T0SXllt 
• Hut such as we have already described is the more frequent, 
as it appears the more natural course of this proceeding, 
which, however, is often broken in upon by human interference; 
for while the unsuspecting partners in the toil are earnestly 
occupied with their work, and their attention is thus diverted 
from their own safety, some prying bipeds have sought them 
out -with the intention of obtaining all they can lay their hands 
on of the victims; and that too not only in defiance of the 
law, but also of what is represented as a kind caution from 
other fishermen, whose employment has been successfully carried 
on lower down the river, but has now been compelled to cease 
for the season. In consideration of the health of those who 
live near the higher banks of the river, and who might be 
induced to capture and make a meal of these fish at the time 
when they are engaged in shedding their spawn, the important 
fact is widely proclaimed that the Salmon has now become 
unwholesome; and therefore that these depredators had better 
abstain from food which may endanger their lives. We must 
assign the reproachful name of poachers to those destroyers of 
the fishes at this important season; but these men have feasted 
