100 The Salmon 
Fig. 103 shows the head of the 63-lb. fish caught in October 1907 
(see p. 92). It weighed 23 lbs., and the length from snout to gill- 
cover measured 15 inches. The average weight of the heaviest salmon 
taken with the nets each year on the Tay for fourteen years is 60 lbs. 
20z. The largest fish taken in the nets this year (1908) was 63% lbs. 

FG. 103.—Head of a 63-lb. Male Salmon, caught by the rod on the Tay, October 1907. 
SALMON BRED IN PONDS AND CONFINED IN LOCHS. 
Parr hand-fed in ponds differ widely from those bred in their 
natural state. If they are specially well fed, many of them will become 
smolts at the age of one year. When this happens the smolt goes 
on feeding and growing far more quickly than his neighbours in the 
same pond that are still parr, and will not cease feeding during 
the winter if food is abundant. When the Stormontfield Ponds 
were emptied on 23rd March 1908, it was found that something had 
