* be daily examined, in order to discover whether any 



* Salmon fry were to be seen in them.' These instruc- 

 tions are quoted, in order to shew the care with which the 

 matter was investigated. The result was a confirmation 

 of what has already been noticed in considering the ques- 

 tion as to the dose-time ; that, in their progress to the 

 sea, the fry are so guided by instincts, or affected by ob- 

 vious physical causes, as invariably to prevent their ap- 

 proach to those parts of the coast where stake-nets are 

 used. They keep at first the easy water at the margin, 

 of the river, avoiding the impetuosity of \\\ejilum flumi- 

 nis ; but at the point where the margin ceases to be easy 

 water, where the operation of the tide, the flux and reflux, 

 agitates the sides of the stream, they leave the banks, and 

 seek the peace and stillness of the deeper waters in the 

 middle ; and thus, without ever afterwards approaching 

 the coast, beyond this point, without being more seen, 

 they find their way, undisturbed and uninterrupted, to 

 the ocean.* 



* Mr. James Sime, tenant at Wester Flisk, one of the per- 

 sons appointed to make the survey in the Tay, was examined 

 upon oath, as to the result. He swore, that having been 

 desired to select a person to make the survey along with 

 him, e he chose Stewart Shepherd, tenant at Balmerino, 

 ' as being the person, so far as the deponent knew, best qua- 

 ' lified; without any interest in the fishing, to assist in the pro- 

 ' posed survey.' And he afterwards depones, That ' the re- 

 * suit of the survey is, that he has inspected the whole stake- 

 ( nets which are erected this season in the Tay ; and he has 

 ' never found in any of them, either Salmon-fry or small Jish 

 ' of any kind, except a few flounders ' And with regard to the 



