38 FISHES AND FISHING. 



In 1824 and 1825, a Select Committee of the House 

 of Commons was appointed to enquire into the state 

 of the salmon fisheries of the United Kingdom (from 

 which and other authorities, I have extracted the ob 

 servations on salmon). They examined in the course 

 of thirty.six sittings, at very great length, many most 

 intelligent witnesses ; amongst others, Mr. John Hal- 

 liday, George Little, Esq., and the Reverend Dr. John 

 Fleming, minister of Flisk, in the county of Fife, a 

 great naturalist, who had published some works on 

 the natural history of fish. He mentioned seven 

 species of the genus Salmo, that inhabit, or frequent 

 the estuary of the Tay, viz., 



1 . Salmo salar, or common Salmon. 



2. Salmo hucho, presumed to be the bull Trout. 



3. Salmo croix, the grey or shewn. 



4. Salmo trutta,- the common sea Trout. 



5. Salmo albus, the "Whiteling, or Finnock. 



6. Salmo fario, the common river Trout. 



7. Salmo eperlanus, the Spirlin, or Smelt. 

 Some of these are migratory to the sea, and the 



others not : those which frequent the sea, are found 

 full of roe in August, September, and October, and 

 deposit their spawn from November to January. In 

 the first of these three months they pass up the midi- 

 channel, almost always, of the river wherein they 

 were bred, or had been accustomed to frequent; 



