Ge The Salmon 
The last number would make a salmon seven years old on its first 
return from the sea. 
THE SCALES OF SALMON 
For the last five years I have made a study of the scales of the 
salmon in all its stages, of the sea-trout and of the brown trout. The 
late Lord Blythswood was the first to direct my attention to the im- 
portance of the study of scales. This he did by describing the marks 
on the scales, the result of feeding in the sea during summer and 
winter. For a considerable time I made little headway, until I 
found out from the parr and the smolt the number of lines added 
to their scales in a year. This supplied me with a key to Lord 
Blythswood’s explanation, so that after collecting scales from all the 
different runs of fish, and at all seasons of the year for several years, 
I was able to tell to within a month how long a fish had been in 
the sea, and, of course, when it went down as a kelt, and whether 
it was a grilse, small spring fish, autumn fish, or large spring fish. 
I could also tell its age and its weight, and whether it had spawned 
once or twice. This being so, I consider a study of the scales the 
most important means of determining the life-history of the salmon 
and the sea-trout. 
The study of scales is a very wide subject, but I shall endeavour 
to condense my remarks as much as possible. Just as the age of a 
tree may be determined by counting the number of rings on a cross- 
section of the trunk, where each ring shows the growth of one year, 
so the age of the parr may be arrived at by counting the rings or 
lines on its scales. The parr in a natural state, however, adds to 
its scale each year not one ring only but sixteen, and this goes 
on throughout all the life-history of the salmon as long as it 
continues to feed and grow. In the parr fewer rings are put on 
during the winter months than during the summer months, but if we 
take a whole year the number works out as I have said, with very 
few exceptions. I choose a year to calculate from, because if a fish 
