ing washed away by heavy floods, and as many more
are destroyed by being choked with mud and sand in the spawning
beds as well as by being left dry at low water owing to the Salmon
spawning in places which frequently become quite dry in early
spring. No doubt many of the Salmon fry when they have reached the
sea are destroyed by enemies there, of which we know nothing. But
still, if 500,000 are bred, in addition to all that are reared
naturally, it will represent a larger proportion of the whole than
Salmo Salar seems to suppose; otherwise, how is it that in rivers
where Salmon are protected, or still more in unsettled countries,
the Salmon are so numerous? The Salmon in the Columbia river, on
the north-west coast of America, are cast dead upon the shores by
myriads after the spawning season, and these are merely the fish
dying from exhaustion, as a small portion always do here. How
numerous, then, are those which ascend the river to spawn, and go
down again to the sea afterwards! No doubt the grand object to be
attained is to make Salmon abundant, and the most important step
towards the attainment of this object will be to give an efficient
protection to the spawning fish, and the only way to do this
effectually is to give the upper proprietors of rivers such an
interest in the Salmon fisheries as will make them worth
attention. At present this is far from being the case. Now the
upper proprietors are merely considered as so many clucking hens,
whose business and whose duty it is to hatch Salmon for the
proprietors of fisheries at the mouths of rivers, who do not in
many cases spend a farthing in their protection when spawning, and
who grievously begrudge the upper proprietors every fish that is
able to pass their nets and other engines of destruction. Let the
upper proprietors of Salmon rivers bestir themselves so to amend
the law as to give them a chance of having a supply of Salmon when
they are in season. They cannot and will not have a more efficient
ally than Salmo Salar. Salmo Salar is in my opinion quite right
when he says that the fish kept in ponds will not be quite so well
able to take care of themselves as fish which have been bred and
lived all their lives in the river. Nor do I think that this is
necessary for any longer period than until the young fry get rid
of the umbilical vessel; after which they are quite able to take
care of themselves. Before that time they are scarcely able to
move, and thousand