MANUAL OF FISH-CULTURE. 29 



observation, but to a region wliere it finds a rich feeding- ground and 

 rapidly increases in size.* In northern rivers, tliose of ISTew Brunswick 

 and beyond, as in those of northern Europe, the salmon returns from 

 the sea when it has attained a weight of 2 to 6 Dounds, and is then 

 termed a "grilse." 



In the rivers of Cauada, in general, grilse occur in great numbers, 

 coming in from the sea at a later date than the adults, but ascending 

 like them to the upper waters, mingling freely with them, rising to the 

 same fly, and caught in the same weirs. The mesh of the nets is limited 

 by law to a size that takes the adult salmon, but allows the grilse to 

 slip through. To this circumstance it is in iiart owing that by the 

 time the fish have reached those portions of the rivers suitable for 

 angling there is commonly, if it be late enough in the season, a great 

 preponderance of grilse, so that more of the latter than of the former 

 are taken by the angler. In Nova Scotia many grilse are taken in the 

 Shubenacadie River from August until late in the fall. On the Mirami- 

 chi, iu New Brunswick, grilse make their appearance about July 1, and 

 from the middle of that month till the end of August they constitute 

 the main body of the salmon entering the river. Some sportsmen 

 report that the grilse caught exceed the adults in the ratio of 5 to 1. 



In the month of August, in the ]S"epissiguit, Restigouche, and St. 

 John of Gaspe, grilse have been found in some years to exceed the 

 adults in the ratio of 3 to 1. They run into the Nepissiguit mostly 

 between Julj^ 25 and September 1. Their scarcity during the early part 

 of the angling season, or say previous to July 20, is attested by numer- 

 ous fishing scores. A series of scores of salmon fishing in the Godbout 

 River, on the north side of the St. Lawrence, shows that previous to 

 July 15 or 20 the adult salmon taken with the fly in that river exceed 

 the grilse in the ratio of 10 to 1 or more. 



In our rivers grilse are seldom seen, and only 3 or 4 are taken per year 

 in a weir iu the St. Croix, which takes about 70 adults. ' In the Dennys 

 River the ratio of grilse to salmon caught is not more thanl toSOO, and 

 in the Penobscot they are quite as rare. Adult salmon running in this 

 river several weeks earlier than in those of eastern Xew Brunswick, we 



* There has been considerable discussion on this point, and the conclusions of some 

 observers arci at variance with the above statement. In Scotland many years ago it 

 sceiiu'd to be "well established by the observations of Buist that a portion of the young 

 salmon ])nt on the silvery coat and went to sea at the age of one year, butthat others 

 of the same brood did not get ready to go until two years okl. American observa- 

 tions, however, tend strongly to the conclusion that the young salmon passes two 

 whole sunnuers in the river, going out to sea in the autumn following its second 

 summer or the next si)ring. It is not probable that the seaward migration is 

 restricted in any river 1o any exact jieriod of a few weeks duration, but that it 

 extends over many mouths, some of the young salmon, by reason of 8U])erior native 

 vigor of growth or from other equally efficient canse, attaining the migratory stage 

 months earlier than others of the same brood. 



It is the opinion of one American observer that salmon fry remain in the streams 

 until October of the second year before going to sea. and that they do not go down 

 until the spring of the third year; i. e., when they are two years old; though some 

 may go down the fall of the second year; and that the salmon do not return until 

 they are four years old. 



