244 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
others, it is well known, linger long in the descent, and 
cannot increase at all while in fresh water. Moreover, much 
must depend upon the good or bad fortune of salmon in 
finding shoals of food-fishes in the sea. 
While these pages are going through the press, arrive 
reports of two marked fish recaptured in the Deveron. The 
first is a salmon, marked as a kelt, weighing 19 Ib. on 
March 4th, 1902, recaptured in October of the same year, 
within half a mile of the same spot, weighing 34 Ib. The 
other is a sea-trout (?S. eriox) caught as a kelt February 8th, 
1902, weighing 3 lb., recaptured on July 19th following, 
weighing 6 lb. 
The prolonged enquiry of Lord Elgin’s Commission has 
been brought to a conclusion by an exhaustive Report lately 
Water issued. It is to be regretted that no place has been 
storage. found therein for what must be regarded as the most 
important and hopeful of all means of regenerating the salmon- 
fisheries of Scotland and Ireland—namely, water-storage. It 
may be asked why, holding that view, I did not bring the 
subject before the Royal Commission in my evidence. The 
reply is that I could have offered no more than a view. There 
were then no trustworthy data in my possession. Since then, 
we have experienced the extraordinary summer drought of 
1g01, and that season happened to be the first in which the 
storage-works constructed by the lessees of the Duke of Suther- 
land’s Helmsdale fishings came into operation. A dam was 
erected at the foot of Badanloch, a large sheet of water on the 
head-waters of the Helmsdale, whereby the level of the lake was 
raised several feet. When the drought set in at the beginning 
of June, the sluices were opened, with the result that the river 
ran in full order for many weeks. During the whole of that 
time, fish were able to run freely from the sea, and excellent 
angling was obtained ; whereas, but for the stored water, the 
fish must have been stopped in the tideway, and angling must 
have been at a standstill. 
inet eae 
