The Salmon 73 



time a fish comes into fresh water, it is for the purpose of spawning ; 

 so that if a fish comes from the sea three times, it spawns three times. 

 The great majority, however, only spawn once. On examining all the 

 scales of the marked grilse and spring fish, I find that the contracting 

 of the rings generally takes place in January or February, and 

 occasionally in March. In April, again, they widen out, and the width 

 continues to become greater during the summer and autumn months. 



By referring to some of the photographs the reader will observe 

 when a fish has spawned as a grilse, gone down as a kelt, and come 

 up as a clean salmon. Count the number of rings that have been put 

 on from the time it was marked to the time it returned, and refer to 

 the number and weight of the fish (Fig. 65). Due allowance must, of 

 course, be made for kelts lingering in the river after being marked. 

 The time need not be extended beyond the ist of May, as most kelts 

 have disappeared by that time. In almost every instance you will tell, 

 within a few weeks, the time the fish has been in the sea. 



I will now deal with the scales of small spring fish which are of 

 the same age as the grilse of the previous year, and will confine my 

 remarks to fish marked by us, including the autumn run as well. 

 The first one caught was on iSth February 1907, and its weight 

 was 9^ Ibs. (Fig. 66). Now if this grilse, caught on ist June 1906, 

 had fifty-one rings on its scales, how many should this February fish 

 have ? The answer is sixty-two. Now at the same date the kelt of 

 the grilse of the same age has only fifty-one. This kelt grilse, being 

 on its way to the sea, will add another sixteen rings if it remain in 

 the sea for a year; so that when the spring fish of iSth February is 

 returning to the sea as a kelt, the kelt grilse will be going up the river 

 as a clean fish, and will now have sixty-seven rings on its scale, five 

 more than the iSth February spring fish kelt which is going down. 

 The last marked fish we got of the same age was caught on i9th 

 September 1907, and the number of rings on its scale was seventy-two 

 (Fig. 77). From the enlarged photographs of the scales taken each 

 month, it will be seen, in addition to the number of rings put on each 



month, where the lines are contracted in some cases, and also where 



10 



