8o THE HABITS OF THE SALMON. 



Qvinesdal salmon. Most conclusive proof that sal- 

 mon return to their native rivers is furnished in 

 the following letter written by the late Frank Buck- 

 land, in Land and Water, of February, 1866. 



"■ As all facts relative to the marvellous, but as 

 yet not well-authenticated instinct of the salmon 

 are most valuable, I have great pleasure in placing 

 on record the most curious case I ever heard, which 

 proves beyond doubt that these mysterious children 

 of the flood know their own homes and will return 

 to them through the wilderness of water with the 

 same unerring instinct as do foxes, dogs, and cats, 

 upon land. A friend of mine, who owns a well- 

 known island on the west coast of Scotland, netted 

 a certain pool in his fishing, and out of a number 

 of fish caught, he carefully marked some twenty or 

 thirty. He then put these fish on board his yacht, 

 and keeping them alive, sailed right round his island 

 then up a creek to the mouth of a river, the 

 salmon w^ere then transferred up the river, which, 

 although close to the river in which they were 



