376 



NATURE 



yMarch i, 1877 



ment is rather obscure ; but the interpretation undoubtedly 

 is, that the same salmon does not breed every season. It 

 would be instructive if Mr. Buckland were to state his 

 ideas on this feature of the natural history of Salmo salar 

 at greater length, giving at the same time a pricis of the 

 data on which he has formed his opinion ; because the 

 views hitherto entertained of the spawning of salmon have 

 been mostly contrary to those promulgated by Mr. Buck- 

 land, the prevailing idea being that salmon spawn annually. 

 Some persons, indeed, promulgated a theory of the salmon 

 being able to spawn twice in the same year, doubtless 

 founded on the fact of individuals having been known to 

 go to, and return from, the sea within a few months. 

 There is not, however, any exact proof of these facts. 

 There are, also, one or two gentlemen of opinion that the 

 fish in question only spawns every two years ; but the 

 opinion hitherto has been very general that salmon de- 

 posit their ova annually. 



It is remarkable how ignorant we still are of the most 

 important phases of salmon life, notwithstanding the 

 active investigation of the last twenty years ; and it is 

 still more remarkable that some of the best informed 

 salmon anglers, intelligent students of the natural history 

 of the Salar group of fishes, should hold diametrically 

 opposite opinions, both on this and other important points 

 of salmon life. One gentleman, whose works on angling 

 have a wide reputation, and whose knowledge of fish-life 

 is extensive, tells us he has no doubt the same salmon 

 spawns every year, which, he further says, " is the gene- 

 rally accepted opinion on our border rivers by anglers 

 and fishermen of the professional caste." The same gen- 

 tleman informs us that the late Mr. Robert Buist, super- 

 intendent of the River Tay Salmon Fisheries, was induced 

 by experience to arrive at a similar conclusion. Mr. 

 Buist, who took great interest in the Stormontfield salmon 

 nursery, was usually present every season at the capture 

 of the gravid fish, from which the required supply of ova 

 to fill the breeding boxes was obtained. On one of these 

 occasions a fine grilse was captured, in good condition 

 for being artificially spawned ; and, after being deprived 

 of her ova, the fish was carefully marked, and restored to 

 the river from whence she had been taken. " On the fol- 

 lowing year, at the same spot, the same fish, but now 

 grown into a salmon, was retaken, full of ova, and again 

 stripped, in order to aid in stocking the breeding boxes at 

 Stormontfield ! " This incident Mr. Buist held to be de- 

 cisive of two points in the natural history of the salmon ; 

 first, that a grilse becomes a salmon, and is not a distinct 

 member of the Salar family, a point in salmon life which 

 was at one time hotly discussed ; and, second, that the 

 same salmon spawn every year. Another gentleman, Mr. 

 Brown, who at one time gave his personal aid in the 

 salmon breeding experiments carried on at Stormontfield, 

 relates, in his notice of the proceedings, that " one year 

 we had a very fine male fish of 24 lbs., which we marked 

 with a wire, and t%uo years afterwards we spawned him 

 from the same ford a few pounds heavier." This same 

 fish may have visited the spawning ground also in the 

 preceding year without being recaptured for spawning 

 purposes. 



Our angling authority says further, in his communica- 

 tion : *' I have had many opportunities of examining 

 spent and half-spent females — those in which what is 

 vulgarly termed the waim was exhausted, a few particles 

 of ova remaining, and those taken by me or others in a 

 spawning state ; and I invariably found new formations 

 of ova, in the shape of two lobes, corresponding to what 

 are found in the spring run or clean salmon, and often 

 measuring two inches in length, according to the size of 

 the female kelt, or half- spawned ba^;^it. This formation 

 cannot be taken otherwise than as an index of what was 

 to happen after the migration seawards had been accom- 

 plished, and the term of the salmon's stay in the salt water 

 had expirsd — a term which may extend to six or eight 



months, but has been ascertained in well-ordered rivers 

 not to exceed that period." 



None of the great naturalists, or fishers, who write on 

 the natural history of fish— Jardine, Yarrell, or Couch — 

 have thrown any light upon this phass of the life of the 

 salmon. We search their works in vain to obtain informa- 

 tion on this interesting point. The late Mr. Russel, in 

 his book, *•' The Salmon," speakincj at one place of the 

 mysterious clean run fish of the early springtime, thinks 

 " they must have passed the autumn or earlier winter 

 in the sea ; then they must have passed the winter with- 

 out breeding, and thus we have the discouraging fact or 

 hypothesis that the salmon is a fish which does not breed 

 every year." 



We have the authority of a gentleman residing in the 

 north of Scotland, who is well versed in the economy 

 of our salm.on rivers, for stating that the salmon only 

 spawns every two years. He says : " I have marked 

 hundreds of kclis in the months of February, March, 

 and April, returning downwards to the sea ; I have marked 

 them with different marks every season, so that there 

 could be no mistake, and I have never seen one single 

 instance of one being marked m spring return to spawn 

 the autumn of the same year ; but I have seen hundreds 

 with the individual mark return next spring good, clean, 

 fine full fish. I believe that all salmon spawn only once 

 in two years till they get too old, when they become 

 barren ; but still they frequent the fresh water, I suppose 

 from habit, although there is no sign of roe or milt, and 

 I have seen and taken them off the redds along with fish 

 which were in the act of depositing their spawn." 



It would be tedious to run through the facts of the 

 numerous controversies which have arisen as to the rate at 

 which salmon grow. The experiment of marking large 

 numbers of these fish has been often resorted to, and at 

 different places. Mr. Young of Invershin, in his day a 

 well-known authority on the natural history of the salmon, 

 tells us that spawned grilses of four pounds weight were 

 repeatedly marked ; and after their journey to the sea it 

 was found that these grilses had become beautiful salmon, 

 varying from ntne to fourteen pounds weight, " the ma- 

 jority " returning in about eight weeks. It is much to be 

 regretted that Mr. Young was not more explicit in his 

 statements, because it would have been most interesting 

 to know when these fish returned, after an absence of 

 only two months, if they were again ready to spawn. It 

 is these records of quick journeys that have doubtless 

 given rise to the theory of the Rev. Dugald Williamson, 

 which is that salmon in the course of the year per- 

 form two migrations. At any rate, we are entitled to ask 

 this question : What does a salmon, which is only away 

 from its birthplace for eight weeks, do with itcelf during 

 the other ten months of the year? The rate of growth 

 indicated by Mr. Young is most astonishing, and had it 

 not been corroborated by other observers, would have 

 been considered doubtful. A fish marked many years ago 

 by the Duke of Athole was found to have increased eleven 

 pounds and a quarter in the short space of five weeks and 

 two days ! The rate of growth of the salmon is so as- 

 sured, that smolts have been found to return from the sea 

 as grilse in the same season during which they left for the 

 salt water ; but, curiously enough, none of the observers 

 took note of what we now consider the only unsolved 

 problem in connection with the growth of the salmon, 

 namely, whether the satne fish spawns annually, once in 

 two years, or once in three years. Probably Mr. Buck- 

 land will make some additional statement on the subject. 

 A Tay salmon fishery proprietor, whom we have consulted 

 as to this problem in the life of the fish, will not, with all 

 his experience, which has been very varied, and has ex- 

 tended over many years, venture to give an opinion, and 

 " thinks that the question is almost beyond the reach of 

 positive proof" It is therefore incumbent on her Majesty's 

 Inspector of Salmon Fisheries to prove his case. 



