SMOLTS 21 



and growing in the estuary, as sea trout appear to 

 do, and that in making their descent they forsake 

 the shallows for the main current. In rivers which 

 flow directly into the sea with little or no natural 

 estuary, such as the Spey, Dee, or Helmsdale, the 

 transference of the smolts must be comparatively 

 rapid, but in such localities a considerable body of 

 fresh water no doubt spreads itself out delta-wise 

 over the denser sea water in such a manner that the 

 necessary conditions are supplied to the smolts. It 

 seems certain that just off or at the mouths of such 

 rivers the smolts are in great numbers in May and 

 June, and at times fall an easy prey to coal-fish and 

 other members of the cod family. The mouth of the 

 Spey has been occasionally netted when smolts were 

 seen to be descending, and great quantities of coal- 

 fish captured and destroyed or given away. The 

 stomachs of those fish were found to be • full of 

 freshly swallowed smolts. It appears, however, that 

 the coal-fish do not always time their visit correctly, 

 since on more than one season of smolt descent a 

 very large draft net failed to capture any of them. 



It has been said that in netting the upper tidal 

 waters of the Tay at Kinfauns parr of very varying 

 sizes are found. Some of those little fish are not 

 more than an inch and a half to two inches in length. 

 Without doubt many gravid adult fish entering the 

 river during the actual spawning season — and it may 

 be stated here that ripe male fish come in from the 

 sea in full red spawning livery, as netting in close 

 time for experimental purposes fully shows — that 

 these gravid fish make their redds and spawn almost 



