The Salmon 2 
wards are on their first return from the sea when they are captured 
in fresh water. I have examined closely for the last eight years 
all fish brought into our fish-house, and on many occasions I have 
counted the number of those that have spawned and the number that 
have not. In the middle of July I found nineteen out of every 
hundred had spawned, and that all the others were on their first return 
from the sea. The prime-conditioned fish are those on their first 
return, and those that have spawned are coarse, and when cut up the 
flesh is white, hence the reason for their being thought and called 

Fic. 30.—Showing mark of 15-lb. Spring Salmon. First caught, 7th February 1908. 
Marked as Smolt May 1905. 
bull-trout. I am afraid I am here giving information which will be 
valuable to the fishmonger but disadvantageous to the tacksman. It 
may also be useful to the reader in enabling him to select a prime- 
conditioned fish for the table. The poor tacksman usually receives a 
much lower price for what are erroneously called bull-trout. We have 
now proved beyond doubt that these fish are not a different species, but 
are true salmon that have spawned. How this should alter their 
shape and colour is difficult to understand. It may be that the greedy 
kelt, when its digestive organs come again into action, eats more 
ravenously, rendering it coarser and stronger than before. ‘he wildest 
fish that the angler has to do with are, of course, those that have 
spawned and have returned again as clean fish. This throws some 
