SALMON

(Lat. salmo.) The excellent and highly valuable fish so called in England is the Salmo salar of gates.Linnffius, not of Rondelet i us. Both species exist in our rivers, the latter having been recognizably and accurately defined under the name of Salmo eriox, or bull trout, which it is to be hoped will be retained for this species, notwithstanding that the name of Salmo salar may have been applied to it by the older ichthyologist. The normal locality of the salmon is at the mouth or estuary of the larger rivers, which, in the season of sexual excitement, they ascend, sooner or later, in the summer months, according as circumstances may influence their coming into breeding condition. At first they a.«cend only so far as the tide wave reaches, and retire with the ebb; but as the quantity of roe and milt increases, the Instinct which teaches the fit locality for oviposition becomes more imperative, and few are the natural obstacles Which the salmon does not overcome in its endeavour to reach it. The great value of the fish renders an accumte knowledge of it, under the disguise of its immature form and markings, of the highest importance; but the difficulties which attend the observation of the migratory Inhabitants of the water have only very lately been overcome in the present instance. The proof that the small Salmonoid fish, called the parr, is, as many naturalists had suspected, the young of the salmon, has been elicited by the careful and repeated observations and experiments of Mr. Shaw of Drumlanrig, of which the following condensed account is burgh.taken from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edtn. In the river Nith, Dumfries, the salmon oviposits in the month of January. On the 10th of January, Mr. Shaw observed a female salmon of about 16 lbs. weight, and two males of nt least 25 lbs., engaged in depositing flieir spawn. The spot which they had selected for that purpose was a little apart from some other salmon which were encaged in the same proce , and rather nearer the side of the stream, although still in pretty deep water. The two males kep. [s. 1098]