EESULTS OF SALMON MARKING 71 



Other records exactly analogous to these have 

 been obtained from the Tay marking. 



The next stage which has to be referred to is that 

 of the small spring fish, the fish of the same age as 

 the grilse kelt, but which has not entered fresh water 

 as a grilse. This class of fish is well marked in the 

 Helmsdale and Brora, from which a number of records 

 are seen. It is also well marked in the Dee. As a 

 kelt it is usually 5 or 6 lb. in weight. A Brora fish 

 marked 7303 is an example of short period migration, 

 and another Brora fish, 6040, may be taken as show- 

 ing the long period. The former returns in three and 

 a half months as a clean fish of 9 lb., the latter returns 

 in fourteen months as a clean fish of 1 6 lb. 



The records are : — 



This completes in a manner the grilse and its 

 prototype the small spring fish, but it may be asked 

 whether grilse kelts which are subsequently found 

 as summer salmon continue to be annual spawners, 

 or whether one fish may be at one time an annual 

 breeder and at another a fish of long absence in 

 the sea — a long period feeder. Two other Brora 

 records which show remarkably small increase of 

 weight in a two years' interval seem to indicate that 

 in both cases the greater part of the time between 



