SALMON. 87 



recent experiments of Mr. Ramsbottom, of Drohulla, have also gone to support the doctrine 

 that the fish does not return until after thirteen to fifteen months in the sea; smolts turned 

 out of the nursery ponds and marked in May, 1862, having been caught as grilse in June, 

 July, and August, 1863, though there is in this case a possibility that the smolts may have 

 been turned out before they were ready to emigrate, and may after their expulsion have 

 spent in the river one of the two years which Mr. Ramsbottom assumes that they spent 

 in the sea. To what conclusion, then, on this point do these experiments conduct us? To 

 nothing absolutely certain ; but as a probability, supported by evidence small in amount, but 

 strong in quality, to this — that some at least of the smolts do not ascend as grilse, or as 

 anything else, till next year, or fifteen months after their descent ; and as another probability, 

 supported by evidence greater in amount, but not so strong in quality, that some of them 

 return the first year, or three months after descent. It may then be that both views are 

 correct." — [Natural Hist, of the Salmon, p. 54-56.) 



Growth in a grilse or young Salmon takes place very rapidly during its sojourn in the 

 sea ; this is no doubt owing largely to the abundance of food in the form of Sand-eels, 

 young Herrings, Shrimps, etc., etc. I have taken as many as five large Herrings out of 

 the stomach of a Salmon that had been caught in the sea ; indeed I have invariably found 

 sea fish to have their stomachs full of food, whereas I have never been able to detect a 

 particle of food in a river fish. A smolt descending to the sea weighing only a few ounces 

 may return to the river weighing six, eight, or even fourteen pounds after some time feeding 

 in salt water. A remarkable instance of rapidity of growth is given on the authority of the 

 Duke of Athol {Quarterly Revieiv, April, 1863). The fish caught was first caught as a grilse 

 forty miles from the sea on the 31st. of March; it then weighed ten pounds. It went down 

 to the sea, and returned again in the short space of thirty-seven days, when it was again 

 caught ; it weighed twenty-one pounds and a quarter. This fact of a grilse returning so 

 soon to the river a second time would seem to show that the same individual may change 

 the salt for fresh water several times in the year, as thought probable by Dr. Giinther. It 

 is well known, that although the majority of the mature individuals ascend a river during 

 floods at a fixed period, for the especial purpose of spawning, others, either singly or in 

 troups, enter the fresh water early in the year, and indeed continue to come up every month 

 in the year. The cause of these non-periodic ascents to the river is unknown. These 

 early or clean-run fish of the spring months are always found to be in excellent condition ; 

 they are very fat, not only in the substance of their flesh, but in the large quantity of 

 adipose matter which is found on the pyloric appendages ; this serves as an internal source 

 of sustenance which supports the fish in its sojourn in the fresh water where it scarcely ever 

 feeds. These clean-run spring fish avail themselves of the spring floods and enter some of 

 our rivers ; but whether they remain in the fresh water from March to November, — -the 

 spawning season, — or whether, in some cases, they go down again to the sea before spawning, 

 one cannot say. It seems a long while for the internal supply of fat to last a fish — from 

 March to November— without food. "These fish," as Mr. F. Buckland says, "if there had 

 been no floods in the spring, would probably have remained in the sea, and would have 

 appeared in the river either in the first floods in July or August, or if there were no floods 

 in these months, they would have come up in November and December as large fish, which, 

 as experience shows, are generally the latest to come into the river, and which for the 

 most part spawn in the lower portions of the river." — [Famil. Hist. Brit. Fish., p. 369.) 



The question of early and late rivers is a very important one ; according to the present 

 law it is illegal to take Salmon with a net after the end of August, the fishing beginning 

 again in February. This law "applies to all rivers, little or big," as Mr. Buckland says, 

 "those that run long courses and those that are of short length, those that have lakes at 

 or near their origin, those whose tributaries are simply rivulets rising high up in the 



