106 THE LIFE OF THE SALMON 



If salmon live much longer than eight years they 

 apparently need not be looked for in the fresh 'water 

 spawning places of their species, and the fact that 

 the majority of the very large salmon captured are 

 males would seem to indicate that in all probability 

 the male, as in other animals, remains fertile longer 

 than the female. So far as I know, the record weight 

 for a Scottish salmon is 84 lb., but the fish was taken 

 in the estuary of the Tay, though both in the Dee 

 and in the Tay fish of over 70 lb. have been taken 

 in fresh water. 



From the study of the scales alone do we gain 

 this information as to the infrequency of spawning, 

 and the consequent benefit to our stock of salmon in 

 preserving most religiously the breeding fish which 

 enter our rivers. From the study of the scales also 

 it is possible to note early running fish. Mr. Johnston 

 has, for instance, found the kelts of spring fish only 

 a short distance above the tide, as early in the 

 spawning season as November. Mr. Berrington, 

 formerly Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trade, 

 has specially noted in his ofiicial reports that when 

 a river is becoming over-fished the first runs of fish 

 to disappear are the spring runs. Now the spring 

 fish are not only of great value in any river, because 

 they are fish in beautiful condition, which afford the 

 best sport to the rod, and are the best river-caught 

 fish for the table, but also because they are the fish 

 which ascend to the highest tributaries of our large 

 rivers, and by so doing deposit their eggs in the 

 purest waters at the commencement of the spawning 

 season before frosts and spring floods can impair the 



