t54 THE SEA-TROUT 



November are more particularly favoured by trout; October, November 

 and December by sea-trout; and November, December and January 

 by salmon. Viewing Scotland as a whole I think it will be found that 

 the middle month of each of these triple groups is the one during which 

 the great majority of each kind of fish respectively spawns, namely, 

 trout in October, sea-trout in November, and salmon in December. 



The annual reports of the clerks of the District Fishery Boards 

 made to the Fishery Board for Scotland throw less light than is 

 desirable upon this subject, mainly because the Board did not until 

 very recently ask the clerks of the local boards to discriminate between 

 salmon and sea-trout, with the result that the dates of " fish " spawning 

 returned for many years are valueless. Although the term " fish " is 

 cjuite ambiguous few of the district clerks apparently ever thought of 

 differentiating between salmon and sea-trout in their returns. In the 

 blue book for season igii, for instance, out of thirty-six reports 

 received b^• the Fishery Board only four districts differentiated between 

 the two species as regards the question when fish were first noticed 

 spawning, and only one (and that not even a statutory board) as regards 

 the remaining queries as to when the greatest number spawned, and 

 when spawning ceased. The Alness District Board puts the earliest 

 sea-trout spawning date as at 25th October; the Tweed District Board 

 puts it as at 22nd October; the Balgay District Board as at i8th 

 October; and the Voluntary Association, which supervises the Clyde 

 and Leven district (the district where there is no statutory board), as 

 at gth October. Only from the latter district, too, was the information 

 sent to the Fishery Board that the great majority of sea-trout spawned 

 in November. It seems almost incredible, in view of the Fishery 

 Board's apparent desire for more precise data regarding sea-trout — and 

 having regard to the fact that nearly all the District Fishery Boards 

 note a falling off in the stock of that fish — that in the latest report (for 

 the year 19 14) only one out of the 34 statutory district reports sent in to 



