32 The- Salmon 
The history of these fish, which will be five years old in March, is 
now quite clear. Out of over a thousand fish which I examined 
during the last two weeks of February, all, with the exception of 
about ten per cent. which had spawned, were of the same age, viz. 
five years, and their average weight was about 20 lbs. The one 
caught on 13th February 1908, weighing 385 lbs., belongs to the same 
run and is of the same age, so that up to 15th February 1908 we have 
these spring fish on their first return from the sea, weighing from 13 

Fic. 27.—Mark of 183-lb. Salmon shown, caught 18th July 1907. Marked as Smolt May 1905. 
to 38h. lbs. The last-mentioned weight is no doubt exceptional. The 
wired fish, 35 lbs. in weight, caught at Almond Mouth station on 
31st March 1908, is the largest marked fish we have got. It 
had been in the sea within a month of three years, and had not 
spawned. (See illustration of the fish and of its scale, Figs. 32, 80.) 
It was therefore of the same age as the others already mentioned, 
viz. five years. 
Although the marking of these smolts and the capture of so many 
of them has added much to our knowledge, and cleared up many 
matters of which little was known, something yet requires to be done 
in marking fish from the different runs in order to be able to tell 
