206 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



25th of May last, having been one year and ten days at sea or 

 within tide mark, as all the smolts were marked in the tide- 

 way. 



" The second marked fish that was got was a grilse, 3 4 ft>s., 

 bearing the silver wire in the lower jaw. It was caught at 

 Hallowell Fishery on the 9th of August last, and must have 

 been over 15 months at sea. The fish was not preserved, but I 

 have the ring, which William Henderson, the tenant of the 

 fishery, took out of the lower jaw of the grilse. 



" The third marked fish caught was a bull trout, 3| Its., 

 which was taken at Hallowstell Fishery, at Spittal, on the 28th 

 of August last, bearing the silver wire in the upper jaw. I 

 have preserved this fish in spirits, and I beg to lay it upon the 

 table for the inspection of the gentlemen present. 



" These results bear out the theory that the sniolts of the 

 salmonidae do not return the same season to the river as grilse 

 and trout that they descended it as smolts, but that they re- 

 quire to remain over one winter in the sea. And although it 

 has been alleged that grilse have been got in the Tay, and in 

 other rivers, in the same season as they descended to the sea 

 as smolts, yet I have heard of none being so caught bearing 

 any foreign substance as a mark by which they could positively 

 be identified, excepting in the Tweed : and although some 

 gentlemen, who may justly be regarded as authorities on all 

 subjects relating to salmon, deny the truth of this theory, and 

 question the correctness of these experiments, yet when we 

 find the same result year after year, it may with some degree 

 of certainty be asserted that the grilse of the Tweed at least do 

 not return as such to the river in the same season as they de- 

 scended as smolts. 



" A fact has also been educed by the above-mentioned expe- 

 riments, somewhat opposed to the generally received opinion 

 on the subject viz. that the growth of the bull trout is hardly 

 less rapid between the smolt and whitling or trout states than 

 between the smolt and grilse state of the salmon proper; 

 although, through some cause as yet unknown, the rapidity of 

 the growth of the grilse of the same age varies very much. 

 Thus, of two specimens marked in the spring of 1855 and 

 caught as grilse in the summer of 1856, one weighed 5^ Ifcs. 

 and the other 6^ Ibs. ; while two specimens, marked in 1851 and 

 caught as grilse in 1852, weighed respectively 3^ and 4 Ibs.; 

 and the grilse caught this year after an absence of 15 months, 

 weighed only 3 Ibs., whereas the trouts of the same age and 

 time of marking weighed respectively 3 and 3 Ibs., showing 

 very little difference in the growth of the two kinds of fish." 



The same report contains some interesting results 



