238 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



late Mr. Dunbar, who made good use of his opportunities as 

 tenant of the whole net and rod fishings of the river Thurso to 

 elucidate salmon problems, claimed to have proved that some, 

 at all events, of the fish which run into the upper reaches in 

 winter and spring return to the sea during the summer months 

 without depositing their spawn, presumably to reascend the 

 river in a gravid state in autumn. If this were so, then the 

 same fish may have to run the gauntlet of the nets, not once, 

 as is commonly believed, but three times namely, in their 

 first ascent, in their descent, and in their second ascent. 



This question is dealt with in the Report of the Edinburgh 

 Committee, and dismissed with the remark that " there is 

 absolutely no evidence that, once having fairly entered the 

 river, they ever return to the sea in any considerable number."* 

 Now it happens that, since this report was published (in 1898), 

 I have received evidence, which can hardly be misinterpreted, 

 to the effect that considerable numbers of the early running 

 fish do return to the sea before spawning. In January, 1 900, 

 I became joint-tenant with five others of the whole of the net 

 and rod fishings of the Cree and its tributary the Minnick, 

 rivers of Western Galloway debouching into Wigtown Bay. 

 All nets were removed from the inland and tidal waters, and 

 the rivers were reserved exclusively for angling. By the 

 beginning of July in that year a large number of salmon and 

 grilse had run up to the upper reaches. In one short portion 

 of the Minnick, so small in volume and so far away in the 

 moors that it is seldom fished, one of our watchers counted 

 1 20 fish, many of them salmon of 7 Ib. to 12 lb., which had run 

 up in April and May, and had become dark and discoloured. 

 Early in July there was a heavy spate ; when it subsided, the 

 watcher missed his fish. They had not run further up, because 

 above that point the river consists of a mere confluence of 

 burns and becks, where the presence of fish would have been 

 easily detected ; so he set down their disappearance to poachers.. 

 * Life- History of the Salmon , p. 76. 



