GRILSE 33 



It is in salt water that salmon obtain the chief part 

 of their food, and hence they fall off in condition in 

 proportion to the time of their abode in rivers." 



We need not enter for the present on the vexed 

 question of the non-feeding of salmon in fresh water ; 

 suffice it to say that grilse, like salmon, as a rule 

 enter our rivers in a highly nourished state. They 

 follow shoals of herring to a considerable distance 

 from the mouth of their native river, and they show 

 remarkable cleverness, whether they swim in com- 

 pany or individually, in finding their way back 

 again. The fact that grilse are taken in bag- nets 

 set at considerable distances from the mouths of 

 rivers is sufficient to show that the wandering must 

 be fairly wide. Of course in the early stages of 

 their growth the fixed nets set on our coasts would 

 not retain them, since the mesh is a wide one 

 adapted specially for their safety. On the east 

 coast of Scotland the annual close time terminates 

 in most districts on February 10, and fixed nets are 

 again put in the water. Although during the first 

 of the season it is possible that the small growing 

 grilse would still pass through the mesh, we are, I 

 think, quite justified in believing that, were the fish 

 on the coast, grilse would be got in fair numbers 

 before May. The fact that grilse do not occur, or 

 practically do not appear, in the coast nets till May 

 leads one to infer that until about that time they are 

 not within the netted zone. As a rule in Scotland 

 the earliest grilse seem to appear on the coasts of 

 Banff and Aberdeen, where a few begin to appear 

 about the middle of April. The record for earliness 



