THE SALMON. 
449 
to return at once to the sea; the more tardy ones often remain all winter, 
and are carried out by the spring freshets. Salmon eggs are not injured 
by freezing, and the fish are unquestionably quite as hardy. English 
fish-culturists claim that their Salmon will not thrive where the water is 
warmer than 6o°, or at most 65° in the summer, but Mr. Atkins kept fish 
in his ponds at Bucksport, Maine, with the water at the bottom as warm 
as 74 0 at midday, the means of bottom and surface temperature for June, 
July, August, September, and October, 1872, being 6o°.6, 65°.9, 69°.8, 
59 0 , 5 o°. 3, and 72T9, 73°.i, 73 °- 6 > 62°.2, 54 °- 3 -> respectively. In the 
Gaspe Salmon streams, where the fish are in the perfection of activity, the 
temperature of the pools in July ranges from 30^° to 59 0 . 
Leaving the open ocean they enter the bays, where they remain for 
several weeks, becoming inured to brackish water, feeding liberally on the 
small estuary fishes, such as smelts, capelins, and the fry of the herring 
tribe. When they begin to ascend the rivers they seldom pause even to 
feed. Sometimes they rest in the quiet pools, and it is then that they 
condescend to notice the fly-hook of the anglers. It is the dryest season 
of the year, and they are often obliged to wait until the streams are 
raised by rain, and then they bravely struggle onward, springing with 
agility over falls of considerable height. Most of them proceed at once to 
the vicinity of the spawning ground, which is near the source of some cool 
stream. On the Penobscot, the earliest reach the limits of upward migra¬ 
tion before midsummer. Spawning begins here during the last week in 
October, and continues into November, while in the Gaspe region it is a 
week or two earlier, though everywhere the season is in late autumn. 
At the approach of the pairing season their trim shapes and bright 
colors disappear. They grow lank and misshapen, the fins are thick 
and fleshy, and the skin, which becomes thick and slimy, is blotched and 
mottled with brown, green or blue, and vermilion or scarlet. These 
changes are chiefly apparent in the males, whose jaws now become curved 
so that they touch only at the tips, the lower one developing a large, 
powerful hook, which is his weapon in the savage combats with his rivals 
in which he at this period engages. When in this condition, and after 
spawning, when they retrace their source to the sea, they are known as 
“ Kelts.” 
The earliest arrive on the headwaters two or three months before 
spawning time. As soon as the water is cool enough they proceed to 
2Q 
