194 SALMON-FRY ALWAYS IN RIVERS. 



rally speaking, the winter months. I have already 

 stated that the vast majority of salmon spawn 

 between the middle of November and the middle 

 of December. That interval in Scotland is called 

 the " throng " time of spawning. The ova are 

 hatched in from one hundred to one hundred and 

 forty days. The mean time, then, is one hundred 

 and twenty days or four months, so that as nearly 

 as possible the fish commence their existence about 

 the 1st of March, and will have completed their 

 eighth month by the following November, or the 

 first of the winter months. 



Now, a word or two about exceptions, and they 

 are most necessary, as they will explain why sal- 

 mon-fry and smolts are found in rivers all the year 

 round, and why they are found of different sizes. 

 They will also explain, how it is that after the 

 general migration seawards of smolts in the 

 spring, some are still found in the rivers during 

 the summer, autumn, and winter months. Some 

 salmon spawn in September, and the ova, sub- 

 jected to water of a higher temperature, at least, 

 for two months, than the ova spawned in Decem- 

 ber, are hatched in about one hundred days, and 

 produce young about Christmas, or may be, a 

 fortnight earlier. They will be smolts, therefore, 

 in the midst of the following winter, and will 

 migrate at that period. They are the young of 



