STRAY NOTES ON THE GAME-FISH G5 



pounds in weight. These fish ascend two, and even 

 three, miles from the main river; yet within a fortnight 

 they have deposited their eggs, covered these over in 

 heaps of new-turned yellow gravel, and themselves re- 

 turned to the river, presumably proceeding seaward. 



But when a droughty summer is prolonged into 

 autumn, and the hill-burns remain dry in October, 

 the bull-trout must perforce remain to spawn (against 

 their instinct) in the main river. Such was the case 

 in 1904, when I watched their procedure with interest. 

 Great part of the river here (at Houxty) is one long 

 spawning-bed of salmon ; and it was remarkable to 

 watch how carefully the bull-trout (compelled by circum- 

 stance to use their bigger cousins' territory) avoided 

 all spots which were likely to be selected later on by 

 the latter. Whether this arose from prescient instinct, 

 or merely from difference in habit, the "bullies" all 

 selected nests in the gravelly shallows towards the shore, 

 or in the "breaks," or pool-tails. Had they done so in 

 mid-stream, or the deeper waters, their labour would have 

 been lost, for their eggs would inevitably have been 

 rooted up, and scattered abroad in the current, two 

 months later, when these sites were all occupied by a 

 wallowing crowd of salmon. 



The true sea-trout (Salmo truttd) is comparatively 

 scarce in this river. I have only caught three ; one a 

 new-run fish of rather under 2 lbs., the other two, kelts 

 of corresponding dimensions. The bull-trout, as a rule, 

 run bigger than this, averaging here nearly 3 lbs., while 

 some few reach 5 or 6 lbs. in weight. 



One of the most charming of Nature's episodes in 

 wild-life may be enjoyed every April, what time the 

 big March-browns hatch out. The phenomenon, hovv- 



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