95 
of drought. The production of an artificial spate would be too 
costly a matter. The netting of smolts and their transfer to salt 
water was proposed, but for the present was not recommended 
owing to the difficulties and cost involved. In this connexion, 
however, experiments were carried out at Cullercoats to discover 
the effect of transferring smolts direct from fresh water to salt 
water. 
Inspector Crawford, of the Tyne Salmon Conservancy, kindly 
brought some smolts to the Dove Marine Laboratory, where they 
were placed in fresh water overnight to recuperate from the 
journey. 
Next day tanks were arranged containing :— 
(1) One-quarter sea water, three-quarters fresh water. 
(2) One-half sea water, one-half fresh water. 
(3) Three-quarters sea water, one-quarter fresh water. 
(4) Sea water undiluted (Salinity 34.25). 
The smolts were transferred direct from the tresh water to 
the above tanks with practically no handling, and all stood the 
transfer to salt water with perfect equanimity. 
Some time later another batch of smolts was brought to 
Cullercoats. The weather was very warm at the time, and the fish 
had been handled while they were being caught, so arrived in an 
exhausted condition. In order to make the test as severe as 
possible they were immediately transferred to a tank containing 
sea water, but this proved too much for them, and it is hoped to 
repeat the experiment next spring with larger numbers of smolts 
and under more variable conditions. 
As the first two proposals were impracticable in the mean- 
time, it_was agreed that the most practicable measure was to abate 
the degree of pollution in the tideway at the time when the smolts 
were descending to the sea. The Sub-committee therefore recom- 
mended that Mr Tuck should draft a suitable letter to be sent 
out by the Tyne Salmon Conservancy to all firms discharging 
noxious effluents, inviting them to hold up all such discharges 
until 2-3 hours following high tide, during the descent of the smolts. 
The firms in question sent very satisfactory replies to this letter, 
and offered to do all in their power to assist the Sub-committee. 
The trout smolts this season began to migrate in the second 
week of April. There was a fair amount of water in the river at 
this time, and the weather was cold, so they were able to pass 
