THE SPAWNING PERIOD 167 



in Scotland, for, althouo^h at one time the Tweed Acts permitted the 

 capture of such fish, a clause of the general Salmon Act of 1868 

 specially abrogated that permission. ' 



In some streams where the stock of sea-trout is large relays of fish 

 will occupy the redds in succession, and where good spawning ground 

 is limited the gravel may be trenched again and again. It would not 

 be easy to estimate with accuracy how far the eggs first deposited might 

 suffer from subsequent disturbance, but displacement of the gravel 

 must expose many eggs and cause them to fall a prey to the natural 

 enemies which are always on the outlook for them. It is easy to 

 conceive of a case where the stock of fish may be too great for the 

 accommodation offered by the spawning streams, and, indeed (as an 

 example of this) I can point to the river Fruin, a tributary of Loch 

 Lomond, in the autumn of season 191 2, which was the most productive 

 of sport of recent years. The same redds there, in that year, were 

 trenched three or four times over. 



When the spawning operations are completed the sea-trout begin 

 slowly to drop down-stream but they are never in any great hurry to 

 change their quarters. In the short and steep streams of the West 

 Coast it is probable that a succession of floods will carry the fish 

 comparatively quickly to salt water, but in greater streams the sea-trout, 

 though gradually falling back, linger in each deep pool they come to. 

 A curious example of the sea-trout's excessive timidity occurs to me in 

 this connection. In very dry summers, when the river Leven is too low 

 to permit of the working of the ferry boats, temporary wooden bridges 

 are thrown across the stream for the convenience of the artisans going 

 to and from the various works on the banks. During one verv drv 

 spring these bridges had to be used at a time when multitudes of kelts 

 were descending. Now, if the sun happened to be shining, not a single 



1. This .Act shall not extend to EnelnnH nr Ireland ; and nop.irt of this .\rt. excent the thirteenth, 

 eichteenth, twentieth, and twenty third .sections thereof, shall anplv to the River Tweed as defined 

 by the Tweed Fisheries Act, 18.59, &c, Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act ISfi.S, §XX. 



