HEELING OF THE SOLTVAY BEING EOUND IN THE TWEED. 51 



congeners.* I propose, therefore, to confine my present observations 

 to those habits which have come under my own notice. 



This fish I consider to be the *S'. Alb us of Fleming, the Eerling or 

 Hirling of the Scotch side of the Solway Frith, the Whiting of the 

 English side, and by which name it is also known in the Eden and Est, 

 the Phinnoch of the north and west of Scotland, the White or Fhinnock 

 of Pennant, and the Silver White of the Tweed tacksmen. 



In the Solway Frith (where I have had the most frequent opportuni- 

 ties of observing them), they commence their approach to the mouths 

 of the rivers about the middle and towards the end of June, if the 

 season has been remarkably diy, and perhaps a few days earlier if 

 there has been much rain. From this time they continue running till 

 about the end of August, when the greatest body of the shoal is either 

 past or taken. The height of the run, however, may be said to be 

 about the last weeks of Juty, and their numbers at this time are almost 

 incredible. In the rivers they are caught with the common sweep- 

 nets, in the Frith by the stake-nets of small mesh, or, as they are 

 called, herling-houses. Many hundreds are taken at once in each 

 enclosure at every tide ; — the whole neighbourhood are for a short 

 time supplied with them ; — cart-loads are sent for also to Ecclefechan 

 and Lockerbie and the surrounding villages, and I have once or twice 

 known them reach Moffat, a distance of above thirty miles from the 

 nets. This abundance, with little exception, seems general wherever 

 they are found. 



They enter the fresh waters for the great business of spawning, and 

 I have observed that in the larger rivers, the great body of the shoal 

 leave the main stream and seek the smaller tributaries, and very few 

 remain where the water continues strong and heavy. The spawning 

 commences earlier than that of the salmon, is of course sooner finished, 

 and by the end of February almost the whole of the old fish have 

 returned to the sea. The young I have never been able to see ; it is 

 probable, however, that they are hatched earlier, and make their way 

 to the salt water when of a small size, and three or four months is a 

 sufficient interval for them to have obtained the size and weight of 

 their appearance in the following June. 



It may be noticed as remarkable in the history of this fish, and at 

 variance with the habits of the other British salmon, that from the 

 time of the return of the old fish or kelts to the sea, not an individual 

 is seen till the appearance of the great shoal : a few days before 

 stragglers appear, and they are the signals for preparations being 

 commenced for their destruction ; but in the intervening four months 

 between March and the end of June, they are never to be met with. 

 In this respect they more resemble the Coregoni, which are completely 



