THE HABITS OF SALMON 149 



I agree with Dr. Noel Paton in his closing observation, 

 but it is to be noted that the fishermen are quite familiar 

 with the regular appearance in their nets of these dark fish, 

 which they have no doubt have been up the river and down 



again. 



In the present season I hope to obtain several of these 

 fish, for the netsmen tell me that they always get them about 

 the end of July. 



It may not be apparent what bearing this fact has upon 

 Mr. Harvie-Brown's theory that the big winter fish of the 

 Tay are the fag-end of the run of autumn' spawners, and 

 neither an independent run of (temporarily) barren fish nor 

 the beginning of the ordinary spring migration. The con- 

 nection which I suggest may be traced between the presence 

 of big barren fish in the Tay during the winter and the 

 descent of unspawned fish in the Cree during summer is that 

 neither of these " schools " entered the river for the purpose 

 of reproduction. Both of them, before leaving the sea, had 

 laid up in their tissues enough nutriment to carry them 

 through a long physiological fast, until appetite returned 

 with the necessity for replenishing waste, sending them 

 back to the sea, where their necessary provender was to be 

 found. 



The late Mr. Dunbar long ago claimed that he had proved 

 that the heavy winter fish, of which there is a well-marked 

 run in the Thurso, returned to the sea during summer floods 

 without spawning. 



Mr. Harvie-Brown observes that these fish rarely or 

 never rise to the fly in Loch Tay, but must be angled for 

 with spinning baits. Is not that because Loch Tay is too 

 deep for salmon-fishing with fly ? just as there are places 

 in most rivers where salmon lie, but, because they are so 

 deep, never give a salmon to the fly. But it is quite different 

 where such fish run in winter into a shallow loch. In 

 January 1896 I was fishing the Thurso with a friend. We 

 had fairly good sport : I killed nine salmon in the last week 

 of January, besides landing a prodigious number of kelts. 

 The clean fish consisted in about equal proportions of heavy 

 fellows from 15 to 20 Ibs., and newly run springers 7 to 

 9 Ibs. Some of the big ones were quite bright and clear ; 



