208 SURMISES AND CALCULATIONS. 



salmon increased in this ratio for the space of two 

 seasons we should have them weighing upwards 

 of 80 lbs. each, leviathans assuredly never seen in 

 British waters. 



I surmise and calculate on this point thus : — 

 The growth of salmon after they arrive at a cer- 

 tain age is stationary or nearly so. They merely 

 recover at sea the loss in weight they have sus- 

 tained in fresh water, and from the wasting effects 

 of spawning. Not reasoning from the extraordin- 

 arily rapid growth of the Dunkeld salmon, I will 

 do so from what I consider to be the average rate 

 of increase on the part of fish of large breed. A 

 smolt going down for the first time to the sea 

 weighing 5 oz. will attain that season the weight 

 of 7 lbs., more or less, according to the length of 

 time it remains there, and the quantity and quality 

 of food it consumes. I shall be extenuating if I 

 fix the average increase during the first season at 

 6 lbs. That weight will be doubled next season ; 

 then we shall have a salmon of 12 lbs. in weisrht. 



fish as a kelt tills year, on the 31st of March, -with the rod, 

 about two miles above Dunkeld-bridge, at which time it 

 weighed exactly ten pounds ; so that, in the short space of 

 five weeks and two days, it had gained the almost incredibl 

 increase of eleven pounds and a quarter ; for, when weighed 

 here on its arrival, it was twenty-one pounds and a quarter." 



