150 ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE 



ova in March ; young salmon do not go far into 

 the sea from the rivers, for in August and Sep- 

 tember, fish, exactly resembling them in form, and 

 from ten to fourteen inches long (called whitings or 

 whitelings*), without visible ova or spermatic secre- 

 tion, are found in salmon rivers a mile or two from 



NOTES. 



fish to increase in number and size six months or upwards. 

 — The roe in the peal must be the same, and therefore not 

 fit to spawn for many months after it is seen in July and 

 August. 



* This is the salmon peal to be sure, or young salmon ; 

 but Sir H. D. is mistaken in saying that they have no visible 

 ova. 1 have seen a great many this summer taken in 

 the Dart, with a visible though embryo roe, and calcu- 

 lated only to be shed at a very distant time. The fish are 

 taken twelve or fourteen miles from the sea in the Dart, and 

 would go further up if the weirs and fish-locks would allow 

 them. 



Here Sir H. D. says, the salmon and the gilse are the 

 same fish. 



I can say nothing about Scotch law ; but I understand 

 and believe that in England those cruives, answering to 

 our fish-locks, are altogether illegal. Three different sorts 

 of this contrivance I have seen, and there are a great many 

 that I have heard described which I have not seen. The 

 public may depend upon it that there are few greater im- 

 provements to be made upon the fisheries, than a power 

 of keeping all salmon from artificial cuts of water into the 

 natural stream. 



Sir Humphry Davy says, that the close time should be 

 enlarged generally ; but if a man of his scientific celebrity 

 had specified thp time when the livers should open and 



