Essays in Natural History and AgricultureGarnett, Thomas
Science
Essays in Natural History and Agriculture
Garnett, Thomas
Agriculture; Salmon; Zoology
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 thousands of them fall a prey, not only to the other
fish, but to the larvae of aquatic insects which prey upon them
very greedily. As I happen to know from my own observations, the
larva of the stone fly (May fly of Lancashire) and those of all
the larger ephemera (drakes), to say nothing of the fresh-water
shrimps, swarm in all the spawning beds, and no doubt destroy
myriads of the ova. All these would be saved by proper precautions
and well formed spawning-boxes, with good supplies of spring water
to feed them.
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