i6 



The Salmon 



May 1908 and lasted till December, and their weight was from 20 to 

 45 Ibs. The sixth run, which begins in December 1908, will continue 

 till December 1909. These will be few in number, and will weigh 

 from 30 to 70 Ibs. This is the first return of all these runs of fish 

 from the sea, and none of them have yet spawned. 



From the books on the natural history of the salmon and the 

 experiments at the Stormontfield Ponds, I, like most other people, 

 was led to believe that grilse returned from the sea the same season 



FIG. 12.- Smolt, showing how ring is fastened in dorsal fin. When 25 Ibs. this ring is 



completely filled up. 



as they went down as smolts. Mr. Brown, as mentioned in his book 

 of the History of Stormontfield Ponds, marked many smolts for several 

 years by cutting off the adipose fin. Many smolts were afterwards 

 captured without the adipose fin, and these Mr. Brown put down as 

 his marking. From a study of scales, however, I concluded that 

 Mr. Brown and others were wrong in believing that smolts returned 

 so soon, for I could find no scales of grilse that had not been more 

 than a year in the sea ; and not being satisfied with the various 

 methods of marking fish, I determined to mark them in such a way 

 that they would be known all through life. The cutting off of the 



