ARTICLE XXVIII-On the Natural History of the Salmon, (Salmo salar,) with remarks upon its economical importance and preservation; By FRANK FORELLE. Written for the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist.

SAINT CATHERINES, C.W., June, 1856.

The Salmon is a fresh-water fish. It passes the whole of the first year of its life and two-thirds of every other in the fresh water, making annual and sometimes bi-annual migrations to the sea. It may be that we do not yet fully know why they make these visits to the sea, but their chief object seems to be food of different quality and perhaps greater quantity than can be found in fresh water. This opinion is based upon the fact that after its first year the Salmon never increases in size while in fresh water; but, on the contrary, diminishes gradually every day, both in muscle and fat, after coming from the ocean.

There is no fish that in beauty or flavor can compare with a Salmon when fresh from the sea, for then he is in the highest condition, and may be well esteemed by both sportsman and epicure as the king of fishes. At this time, the color along the back is a blueish black, with green reflections, which diminishes in intensity as it approaches the lateral line; below this, it is a clear silvery white. The head is somewhat darker than the back. The dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins are a dusky black, the ventrals are lightcolored, and the anals are silvery white, like the belly. There are usually a

few dark spots on the gill covers, which extend along the lateral line through the entire length of the body. These are most conspicuous in the females. The fins are then soft and the sides and belly covered with sea-lice.

ance.

As spawning time approaches and the fish seek the swift, shallow waters at the head of the streams, considerable changes take place in their appear--The male assumes the appearance known in England as "Red" fish.The sides take on an orange hue, paling into yellow on the belly, the spotsbecome of a bloody-red, and are seen on the dorsal and caudal fins; the back becomes greenish, and the cheek is striped with orange. The lower jaw also elongates into a hooked cartilaginous excrescence, which fits into the upper. The females grow darker, particularly upon the back, fins, and gill-covers, and are now called "Black" fish.

After spawning they are lank and lean, with heads much larger in proportion to their bodies. The females change to a greyish color on the back and yellow on the sides, with red and dusky spots alternating above. the lateral line, and extended upon the dorsal and caudal fins, while the pectoral, ventral, and anal fins become of a blueish grey. They are now

called Kelts.

In the classification given on the thirtieth page of this magazine, the Salmon belongs to the order called Cycloids; in the system heretofore in use, it falls under the order of soft-rayed abdominal fishes; family Salmonidæ, > genus Salmo specific name, Salmo salar.

The body is covered with thin oval scales, but the head is smooth or free from scales. There are two dorsal fins, the first with thirteen rays, the second fatty, long and rounded, and without any rays. The pectoral fins have twelve rays, and the ventral nine, the anal fin nine, and the caudal nineteen. The head is one-fifth of the whole length of the fish, the eyes are small, and the nostrils are placed much nearer to the eyes than to the point, of the nose. The lateral line is straight, and runs very nearly through the centre. In adults, the caudal fin is lunated, but in the young fish it is considerably forked. The branchiostegous rays, or bony rays of the gillcovers, are usually from ten to twelve, but are not always the same on both sides. It has strong sharp teeth on all the maxillary and both palatine bones; there are one or two teeth, rarely more than two, and frequently but one, on the vomer, and three to five on the tongue.

Such are some of the leading features by which this beautiful fish may be distinguished, beautiful indeed, whether it swims in its native element, its sides sparkling like molten silver, or smoking on the table it graces the beginning of the feast.

As soon as the rivers are free from ice, say from the middle of May to the first of June, the Salmon, grown fat and silvery on their sea-found food,. appear in the Estuaries, where they usually remain for a time, going up with the flood and returning with the Ebb. In those rivers of Great Britain which run clear as early as February, they have been observed to make a second migration to the sea before running up to spawn. I am not informed whether this has been observed in any of the Salmon rivers of the Provinces,

but am disposed to believe that in as much as the season is so far advanced before our rivers are free from ice, they seldom, if ever, make a second migration to the sea in the same year.

It seems that they remain for a time in the brackish waters as a preparatory step to their approaching inland journey. When they first come from the sea, as has been observed, they are fat and heavy, their sides are covered with sea-lice, and their fins are soft from the action of the salt water. By remaining a short time in the fresher water of the Estuaries, they rid themselves of the sea-lice, gradually lose something in weight and fatness, and their fins becoming hardened, are more capable of sustaining them in their often long and laborious ascent, while the fish themselves become propertionably more active and muscular.

About the end of July they begin to ascend the rivers, seeking the spot where they were born and where they passed the first year of their life.With a strength and velocity almost incredible, they stem the most powerful current and shoot up the swiftest rapids; nor do cascades always present insuperable obstacles; up these they frequently leap with astonishing vigor, and though they fail in their first attempts by no means are they discouraged, but resting awhile at the foot to recruit their strength, they try again and again, until the feat is accomplished, and they reach the top of their mountain stream.

The height to which Salmon can leap is stated variously. Scrope (Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing,) says that six feet in height is more than the average leap of the Salmon, while very large fish, he thinks, could in deep water leap much higher. Ephemera, in Bell's Life in London, Jan. 4, 1854, seems to doubt whether the Salmon can leap much higher than six feet. Moses H. Perley, whose accurate observations have thrown much light upon the Natural History of our Fishes, say they frequently leap falls ten and twelve feet in height, and that "it is believed the utmost limit of perpendicular height which a Salmon can attain in leaping is fourteen feet." Wm. H. Herbert, in his very interesting work on the Fish and Fishing of America, says, "I once watched a Salmon for above an hour endeavouring to pass a mill dam on the river Wharfe, a Salmon river in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The dam was of great height, 13 or 14 feet at least, and was formed with a sort of step midway, on which the water fell, making a double cascade. While I was watching him, this fish, which was, I suppose, of some seven or eight pounds, made above twenty leaps, constantly alighting from his spring about midway the upper shoot of the water, and being constantly swept back into the eddy at its foot. After a pause of about a couple of minutes, he would try it again, and such were his vigor and endurance, that he at last succeeded in surmounting the formidable obstacle."

The old fable, that in making these leaps the Salmon take their tails in their mouths and rise by the force of the spring, like an Elastic bow, has been long exploded, and I was much surprised to find a writer in Putnam's Monthly for March, 1855, gravely repeat the silly tale. Scrope says "they rise very rapidly from the very bottom to the surface of the water by means

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of rowing and sculling, as it were, with their fins and tail; and this powerful impetus bears them upwards in the air, on the same principle that a few tugs of the oar make a boat shoot outwards after one has ceased to row."Ephemera says, "the ascending motion is caused by the Salmon striking the water downwards with its pectoral, ventral, and dorsal fins, aided by bodily muscular action." There is no doubt this muscular exertion often gives to the fish, its curvilinear form.

The Salmon do not breed in lakes, nor ponds, nor any deep or still water. It is only in the shallows, where the waters run clean and swift over gravelly and sandy bottoms, that they deposit their eggs. It is for this that they seek the heads of the streams, shooting up the rapids and leaping the water falls, counting no exertion nor fatigue too great, if they may but safely deposit the hopes of future years where the highly ærated waters rippling over their procreant cradle, may quicken the embryo Salmon into life.

In the ascent, the females lead the way. After reaching the river sources, when the water has cooled to about 42° Farenheit, they prepare to deposit their spawn. By this time the male and female have put on respectively the appearance known as "Red" fish and "Black" fish. The female seek out their mates, and pairing off, they choose a spawning place, from which, if possible, they drive away all other fish. Ephemera, describing the manner in which they deposit their eggs, says, a Salmon spawningbed is constructed thus ;-The fish having paired, chosen their spot for bedmaking, and being ready to lie-in, they drop down a stream a little, and then rushing back with velocity towards the spot selected, they dart their heads into the gravel, burrowing with their snouts into it. This burrowing action, assisted with the powers of the fins, is performed with great force, and the water's current aiding, the upper part or roof of the excavation is removed. The burrowing process is continued, until a first nest is dug sufficiently capacious for a first deposition of ova. Then the female enters this first hollowed link of the bed and deposits therein a portion of her ova. That done, she retires down stream and the male instantly takes her place, and pouring, by emission, a certain quantity of milt over the deposited ova, impregnates them. After this, the fish commences a second excavation immediately above the first, and in a straight line with it. In making the excavations they relieve one another. When one fish grows tired of its work it drops down stream until it is refreshed, and then with renovated powers resumes its labors, relieving at the same time its partner. The partner acts in the same spirit, and so their labor progresses by alternate exertion. The second bed completed, the female enters it as she did the first, again depositing a portion of ova, and drops a little down stream. The male forthwith enters the excavation, and impregnates the ova in it. The different nests are not made on the same day, but on different days, progressively. The ova in the first nest are covered with gravel and sand dug from the second, being carried into it chiefly by the action of the current. The excavating process just described is day by day continued until the female has no more ova to deposit. The last deposition of ova is covered in by the action of the fish and water,