36 Transactions. 
not run by day, but by night. Only during a spate would they 
run by day. Some nights they did not run at all. On other 
nights three or four went up, which was a large number for that 
stream. The early fish were mostly males. It was quite excep- 
tional to get a female very early in the season. Later on they 
found both sexes coming up. I also found that they almost 
invariably run on spring tides, and that they did so whether there 
was a spate or not. A westerly gale during the spring tides was 
followed, as expected, by a run of fish. I noticed one pair of fish 
particularly that came up lately. They had evidently been 
prevented ascending the stream before. They came to a suitable 
place, where they constructed a redd and deposited the ova. 
This took about a week. I then took away the female and placed 
her in a tank, and waited to see what the other fish would do. I 
thought it probable that he would go up stream and try to 
find another female. But he dropped back into the next pool 
further down stream, and remained there two days and two 
nights ; on the third night he dropped down three pools further ; 
then into another pool further down stream; and from there I 
concluded he had gone down to the sea. Fish having spawned, 
evidently have a desire to get away again to the sea; and I 
believe it is often owing to their not being able to get away 
with sufficient rapidity that they were attacked by the horrible 
fungus which abounds in our rivers in some seasons. A remark- 
able fact which I observed was the appearance in the stream of 
four spent female fish, which I was perfectly satisfied had not 
been in the stream before. I concluded that they were Nith 
salmon which had descended that river after spawning, and, for 
some reason, went up this little bit of a stream for about three 
miles. Unfortunately, owing to some misunderstanding, and a 
complaint by the tacksman that the fish were being interfered 
with, the observations were brought prematurely to a close. It 
is only, however, when observations of this nature were made on 
most of our streams, and reports sent in to some central com- 
mittee, to be investigated and classified, as has already been done 
in the case of birds—when all those who are personally interested 
in our fisheries bestir themselves and investigate the facts in 
connection therewith, or place facilities in the hands of others 
who can do it for them—that we can expect to unravel the 
mysteries of nature. 
We shall searcely notice the well-established fact that instinct 
