34 THE LIFE OF THE SALMON 



is, I believe, March 6, 1905, when a 2j Ib. grilse 

 was caught at the mouth of the Dee. Willis Bund 

 mentions (" Salmon Problems," p. 87) that on rare 

 occasions grilse appear in the Severn in February. 

 Such occurrences are, however, altogether exceptional, 

 and fishermen do not look for a regular run of grilse 

 till May, while the greatest run is usually con- 

 siderably later. The special point of interest seems 

 to me to be that the grilse appear, as it were, all at 

 once on the coast, so that within, it may be, two 

 or three days such a market as Aberdeen may be 

 flooded with them, where only very few were before 

 to be found. 



The year 1902 was a remarkably good one for 

 grilse, and having been favoured with a return of 

 the numbers of salmon, grilse, and sea trout caught 

 during the season by the Aberdeen Harbour Com- 

 missioners, I constructed charts showing graphically 

 the relative captures.* From the fixed net fishery 

 on the coast north of the mouth of the river Dee the 

 first records of grilse were on April 15, but com- 

 paratively few were taken between this and the end 

 of May and beginning of June. Signs of a great 

 run of grilse appear in the chart in the second week 

 of June, and on the 23rd of the month there is an 

 enormous catch. Good takes last well through July, 

 and at the end of July and again from August 10 

 to 13 there are two other marked rises in the curve 

 representing grilse. These last rises are also notice- 

 able because simultaneously occur rises in the salmon 



* Twenty-first Annual Report, Fishery Board for Scotland; 

 Part II. Appendix II. 



