268 Mr D. Ellis ofi the Natural History of the Salmon. 



when the seasons of some of them have been terminated. From 

 observations and facts which have come within his own know- 

 ledge, the witness is convinced, that, if an account of the quan- 

 tities of fish taken at the various fisheries in Scotland, and the 

 exact periods at which they are taken, were obtained, it would 

 be found that all the rivers discharged from lakes, produce 

 fish at an early period of the year; whilst those discharged 

 from a mossy country, do not produce fish until they commence 

 to send down the sweet spring rains. When, therefore, it is 

 supposed that salmon is in season at different periods of the 

 year, in different rivers, the supposition is so far correct : it does 

 not, however, depend upon the state in which the fish is at that 

 period, but on the state the river is in. Salmon are extremely 

 nice, and only go into fresh water when it is exactly to their 

 taste ; and when the river is in a state to induce fish to enter 

 it, they are gotten of much finer quality than at a period 

 when they do not enter so readily *. In accordance with these 

 views, another respectable evidence, Mr Moir, states, that sal- 

 mon will not enter foul water if they can avoid it ; in proof of 

 which, a case exactly in point, says he, occurs in this neighbour- 

 hood. The bay of N.igg is perhaps the most productive sea- 

 fishery on this coast (Aberdeen), yet, when the river Dee is dis- 

 coloured by peat-bog water, that water is carried into the bay 

 of Nigg by the flowing of the tide : at such times not a single 

 salmon will enter it, and the fishing is frequently interrupted 

 for several days together from this cause -I*. 



In the migrations of salmon from the sea to the river in the 

 winter and spring months, their course through the estuary 

 seems altogether different from that which they pursue in au- 

 tumn. In the latter period, impelled by the instinct of propa- 

 gation, they pursue their route in the most direct way through 

 the mid-channel, rushing up with the greatest eagerness, where 

 there is water sufficient to convey them, and braving all obstacles 

 to their ascent : in the former, they roam over the banks of the 

 estuary and of the mouths of rivers, borne up with the flowing 

 tide as far as it will carry them, and often returning again to 

 the sea with the ebb tide. It is indeed only when thus roaming- 

 over the banks that salmon are taken in the estuaries, where 



* Report II. p. 12X-2. + Report II. Appendix, p. 173. 



