OF THE SEA-TEOUT OF THE SOL WAY. 



375 



conclusion that the small fry called Orange Fins, which are found journeying to 

 the sea, with the true salmon fry, are the young of the sea-trout of the age of two 

 years ; that the same individuals, after 9 or 10 weeks' residence in the sea, ascend 

 our rivers for the first time as herlings, weighing about 9 or 10 ounces, and on 

 the approach of autumn pass into our smaller tributaries, for the purpose of con- 

 tinuing their kind ; that having spawned, they soon again make their way to the 

 sea, during their residence in which, they almost wholly acquire their increase of 

 weight, viz. about 1^ pound per annum ; and that they return annually, with an 

 accession of size each season, to the same river in which their parents gave them 

 birth* 



* Among innumerable authentic and well-known instances of the migratory Salmonidse returning to 

 their own rivers, I may state, that, of the many hundreds of this species which I have marked, I am not 

 aware that even one of them has ever found its way into any of the tributaries of the Solway, saving that 

 of the river Nith. 



I may here note, in reference to the change of colour in fishes in relation to the bed on which they 

 rest, that if the head alone is placed upon a peculiar shade, whether light or dark, the whole body of the 

 fish will immediately assume a corresponding shade, entirely independent of the colour of the ground on 

 which the body itself may bappen to rest. 



