The Story Of The Salmon

In the autumn time, and onward to the beginning of the next year, the mother salmón ascends the rivers to deposit her eggs, and thus to secure the continuance of her race. In connetion with this periódica! visit or visits to the river must be mentioned, says Chamber's Journal, a very curious faet. The idea is entertained very sttfongly by some authorities that a salmón invaxiably returns" to its native river or that in vhich it is bred. It has even be-n asserted by fishermen that, when several rivers enter the sea in one stream (as at Bonar bridge, for example), the salmón bred in each. river wil] pass back into their own water nncl will avoid the strange streams. The late Krank Bucklnnd, a strong believer in tbis instinct of the fish. reprarded the sense of smell as that which led it to its native river. Perheps the truth is that for the most part salmón do return to their own river, but the practice and habitare not necessarily invariable. We know thte fishes certoinly swim great distanoesaiongcoost lines where they are captured in stake and nets, and it may well be the case that now and then a fish will turn into a river that is near, in preference to tseeking its own and distant snater. Arrived in hei river, the mother salmon begins to scoop out a kind of treneh in the gravel of the stream. This she effects by plowing into the gravel with her body. This treneh is to be the nursery of her young. The eggs are laid in the furrow, and are duly fertilized by the male salmón. Then the treneh is filled in by the effortsof both paTente, the eggs are covered with gravel, and the mound thus formed is called, in fisher's lnnguage, a "redd." How many eggs a mother salmón will dexisitis, of course, adifficnltquestion to determine, but a stock calculation maintains that Ehe produces about 900 eggs for every pound she weighs. Each egg in its diameter measures about a quarter of an inch, and it is estimated that 25,000 eggs o to a gtillon.