RECENT RESEARCH UPON SALMON 241 
intframing fishery legislation, and a number of data upon that 
subject have been collected and published in the Report of the 
Fishery Board for Scotland, 1901, Part I]. In 1896, Mr. 
Walter Archer, at that time Inspector of Scottish Salmon- 
Fisheries, instituted the system of marking salmon which he 
had put in practice upon the Sand River in Norway, and this 
has been continued by his successor in office, Mr. Calderwood. 
We have now, therefore, before us the results of six years’ 
systematic marking, a period which covers the life of a salmon 
from the ovum to an adult state, besides the less trustworthy 
records of previous observers, extending from the year 1823 
to 1896. 
The first point to be noted is that, as a rule, salmon 
return to the river that they are bred in. The late Frank 
Buckland declared that they invariably did so, and said he 
would like to hatch them by thousands in his kitchen, because 
he was certain that they always returned to the place of their 
birth. Nevertheless sufficient exceptions to the rule have been 
noted to show that salmon probably are indifferent to what 
river they ascend, that they choose the river which happens 
to be nearest when the homing impulse is felt, and that it is 
only in a small percentage of cases that they wander so far to 
sea from the place of their birth as to come within the 
radius of attraction of another river. 
The method of marking adopted by the Scottish Fishery 
Board is by a silver plate stamped with a number corresponding 
to an entry in the register, giving details of the weight and 
condition of fish when captured. This plate is attached by 
silver wire to the fleshy part of the salmon’s dorsal fin. Six 
thousand of these have been issued to anglers and net-fishers 
in Scotland during the last six years, as well as 2,500 to 
persons in Ireland. Of 3,036 fish marked in Scotland, 190 
had been recaptured up to the end of 1901. Twenty-four of 
these fish captured \in rivers were retaken in rivers after the 
lapse of at least one season: of these twenty-four, nineteen 
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