200 HANDSOME AND UGLY GRILSE. 



depends on three things : duration of time they 

 remain on their sea feeding-grounds, quality and 

 quantity of food they obtain thereon, and heredi- 

 tary capacity for growth with apportioned capa- 

 city for digestion. The grilse of small salmon, 

 that is, of salmon wdiich never grow beyond a 

 small size, are handsomer, in every way better 

 shaped, and generally of a brighter silvery hue, 

 than the grilse, the produce of larger growing 

 salmon. The grilse of the rivers Carron and Lax- 

 ford, in Rossshire and Sutherlandshire, are hand- 

 some, small-headed, thick and deep and short in 

 the body ; the scales of which are small, smooth, 

 and bright, because they are the offspring of small 

 parent salmon: whereas the grilse of the river 

 Shin, in which salmon grow to a very large size, 

 are ill-shaped fish, having large heads, long, thin 

 bodies, large, long fins, and large, rough, and by 

 no means brilliant scales. It requires experience 

 to distinguish a large and well- shaped grilse from 

 a small salmon ; indeed grilse are sometimes larger 

 than salmon, the cause whereof I shall state by 

 and by. Very frequently the only distinguishing 

 marks between grilse and salmon are the smaller 

 scales of the former, and longer and larger fins. 

 The fins of a grilse of eight pounds in weight, are 



