Salmon

[R. salmo.] A large fish much valued as food. Its color is bluish-gray, shading into a silvery-white underneath, and marked with black spots on the upper part of the body. Sal mon are found on the European and American coasts of the Atlantic, pa ing up the rivers to deposit their eggs. On these journeys they pa waterfalls and other obstacles; but several Brit¬ ish and Norwegian rivers contain salmon-leaps or fish-stairs, up which the salmon leap from step to step. After resting on the spawning ground for eight or ten days, the females return to the sea. The eggs left in the gravel hatch out. The young fish increase little while in fresh water, but on reaching the sea they grow quickly. Salmon are now reared in farms or breeding troughs, with fresh water flowing freely through them. A salmon usually weighs io or 12 pounds, but fish up to 30 or even 40 pounds have occa¬ sionally been caught. Salmon-trout and bull¬ trout are two kinds of salmon. Parr are salmon fry smelt is a young salmon grilse, a young salmon returned from the sea. The common salmon of Europe and the Atlantic is the Salmo salar. The salmon of the North Pacific belongs to a different genus, the Oncorhynchus; and the quinnat, the largest of these, does not feed in fresh water, and dies after spawning. They are caught in immense numbers in the rivers from California to Alaska, many millions of pounds being canned annually.