CHAPTER XIII.

_THE SALMON FAMILY._

BY SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART., F.R.S.

Although the Salmon Family occupies a low place in the classification of fishes, yet every member thereof is possessed of singular beauty of form and colour. The ATLANTIC SALMON, which is the species frequenting European rivers and those of the eastern coast of North America, may be considered the type of the family, and certainly it would be difficult to name any animal more perfectly adapted to its peculiar mode of life, which is one of constant activity. A native of fresh-water, hatched in early spring from eggs laid in rivers during the winter months, it spends from fifteen to twenty-seven months in the shallows of the river, almost indistinguishable in habits and appearance from a small common trout. Sometimes in the second spring after its birth, and failing that, always in the third spring, the fish, having attained the length of 5 or 6 inches, undergoes a wonderful change: its prevailing tints of olive and gold become overspread with a glittering coat of silver, known to anglers as the "sea-jacket," and shoals of "smolts," as they are called in this stage, begin descending to the sea. In about fifteen or eighteen months, perhaps in some instances longer, they return to the inland waters as "grilse"--small salmon from 2 to 5 lbs. in weight. Grilse and mature salmon spawn chiefly in November and December, undergoing, before they do so, another strange metamorphosis. Their brilliant silvery scales become darkly discoloured, the males turning copper-colour, the females blackish and dull purple; their elegant form becoming distorted to such a degree as to render them hardly recognisable as the same fish which left the tide in the perfection of beauty. In their efforts to reach the higher waters where they spawn, salmon display extraordinary perseverance and activity in surmounting weirs, waterfalls, and other obstacles which bar their way. After spawning, the fish are emaciated and lanky, but speedily regain the bright silver hue so characteristic of the species. In this state they are usually known as "kelts"; they are worthless either for food or for sport, and make their way back to the sea, where abundant provender soon restores their condition. Their chief food consists of herrings, haddocks, and other small fishes. Dr. Kingston Barton recently recorded finding five full-grown herrings in the stomach of one salmon. Although the excellence of their flesh exposes salmon to the attacks of innumerable foes, including man, predacious fishes, seals, and cetaceans, a few survive for many years and attain to great size. Fish weighing from 30 to 40 lbs. are far from uncommon; one of 60 lbs. has been taken in the Tay with rod and line, and the same river has yielded one of upwards of 70 lbs. to the nets. The fine sport afforded to anglers by the salmon causes a good beat on a prolific river to be a very valuable property. Two thousand pounds was the season's rent paid a few years ago for less than three miles of the Tweed, and the season happened to be such a bad one that the lessee only killed thirteen fish!

Closely resembling the true salmon in habits and appearance, and sometimes rivalling it even in size, are two kinds of sea-trout--the SALMON-TROUT, greatly prized both for its sporting qualities and for the excellence of its flesh, and the BULL-TROUT, a very inferior fish in both respects. Bull-trout are not infrequently taken in the Tay weighing upwards of 40 lbs.

The Pacific Ocean has its counterpart to the Atlantic salmon and sea-trout in several closely allied species, whereof the QUINNAT and the STEELHEAD are the most notable. These ascend the great rivers of Western North America in prodigious shoals, penetrating more than 2,000 miles inland to deposit their spawn. Few of these fish survive to return to the sea. In their emaciated condition they succumb to exhaustion and starvation; their corpses, piled to the height of several feet, line the banks of the river for miles, and contribute nothing to the traveller's comfort. Although Pacific salmon are of no value to the sportsman, as they are said to refuse any bait in fresh-water, yet they are the staple of an important trade, tens of thousands of tons being taken and canned for export.

If we could peer far enough back into the course of time, we should no doubt be able to identify a common stock from which all the Salmon Family are descended. That they are all natives of fresh-water is proved by the fact that they cannot reproduce their kind in the sea. Those that resort to the ocean for food must be the descendants of vigorous, roving members of the family, which, having to choose between starvation and migration, braved the perils of travel, and became so much altered in constitution by the liberal diet they found as to establish themselves as separate species.

Among the stay-at-homes there are many interesting and beautiful fishes. None of them exhibit the variable nature of the family more than the common BROOK-TROUT of British waters, and not long since men of science dignified each of these varieties by a separate title, treating them as distinct species. However, experiment and observation have now led to the almost unanimous conclusion that the pygmy denizens of some hungry Highland burn, whereof the weight must be reckoned in fractions of ounces, are of precisely the same species as the lordly trout of deep lakes, which sometimes scales as much as 25 lbs., and as all the other innumerable varieties, such as the trout of the Thames, of the English chalk-streams, and of the Irish loughs. The quality of the soil affects the food-supply, which in turn regulates the size and appearance of the fish. Moreover, Nature seems indifferent to the number of individuals composing the population which the water is to sustain. If there are no pike, and spawning-ground is abundant, there will be many and small fish; if the contrary is the case, there will be few and large ones; the aggregate weight per acre of water will remain the same, proportioned to the food-supply. The American equivalent of the British brook-trout is the RAINBOW-TROUT, a beautiful creature which has lately been widely distributed in European waters. What is known as the brook-trout in America really belongs to the Char group, fish of the Salmon Family, closely resembling trout, but distinguished from them by extraordinary brilliancy of colour. Common trout, like salmon, lose all their beauty as the spawning-season approaches. Char, on the other hand, take gaudy colouring at that time, the whole of the under-parts becoming clear red or flame-colour. Unlike trout, British char never enter rivers, but spawn in lakes. In Norway, however, char descend to the sea. The distribution of char is indeed mysterious, nor has any explanation been offered why they inhabit certain waters, while other lakes in the neighbourhood, apparently equally suitable, contain none.

The GRAYLING is an elegant member of the Salmon Family, and a deserved favourite with fly-fishers. Instead of the golden tints and scarlet spots of the brook-trout, this fish displays the silvery colouring of the salmon-trout. It is not at all uncommon to meet with grayling in the chalk-streams of Southern England weighing 3 lbs. and upwards.

The POWAN is the type of another large group of salmon-like fishes, inhabiting lakes in the temperate and subarctic regions of both hemispheres. There are four species in Great Britain, among which may be mentioned the mysterious VENDACE of Lochmaben, unknown to exist elsewhere.

Lastly, the Salmon Family is closed by the delicate SMELT, called in Scotland the SPARLING, which is netted in vast numbers in the estuaries of suitable rivers. It never ascends beyond the highest point of the tide, where it deposits its spawn in the spring months. It is a gratifying tribute to the good work done of late years by the local authorities in purifying the Thames that, after a long absence, this valuable fish has reappeared in that river, which it now ascends in considerable numbers as high as Teddington Weir.

Much discussion has taken place recently with regard to the question whether salmon feed while in fresh-water. Not long ago it was announced that they suffered from a diseased condition of the stomach during this period, and were consequently quite unable to feed. Subsequently it was found that the supposed diseased condition of the stomach was due to the fishes not being perfectly fresh when they were examined. It is now known that although salmon do not feed freely in fresh-water, yet they take a certain amount of nutriment, such as an occasional shrimp, fly, or even small fish, while there.

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