256 HIGHLAND SPORT 



three days later the fish, with the zinc still attached to it, was 

 taken in the sea nets at Pitfour, weighing twenty-one and a 

 quarter pounds, which was even a greater rate of increase than 

 the Avon fish.* 



Marked fish have also been captured in the sea, five 

 hundred miles away from the mouth of the river they had 

 left. It seems to me, fish should be more often marked than 

 they are, to which end I would suggest to Messrs. Farlow, 

 Messrs. Hardy, and the other leading tackle makers that they 

 should keep a stock of labels ready for attaching to fish, so 

 that anglers could procure them easily ; then, if every one that 

 went fishing in the spring would spare a minute or two to 

 marking all the kelts they landed, we should each year have 

 thousands of marked fish to deal with, which would tend to 

 throw further light on their movements. 



A kelt can be easily weighed without harming it if the 

 angler keep in readiness a piece of stout cord with a loop at 

 each end, then, by passing the cord round the tail of the kelt, 

 and one loop through the other, a pull will draw it tight, and 

 the steelyard can be inserted into the free loop to weigh the 

 fish without harm to it, which can then be returned to the water 

 with the label attached to the adipose fin, while all particulars 

 should be entered in a note-book. Much I regret not having 

 done this in years gone by, but I did not think of it, although 

 had I commenced to do this ten years ago, I could easily have 

 marked more than a thousand kelts. 



As to the age of salmon, there is but litde known that 

 is certain. Some say the par remains as such but one year 

 before it becomes a smolt ; others state it takes two years 

 to arrive at that result ; while again there are those who declare 

 three years elapse ; but this is a matter the fish hatcheries 

 should surely be able to determine, and probably in different 



* It has been hinted that the fish originally marked having been caught in the 

 same net with the one of 21 J lbs., the label was changed from one to the other for the 

 purpose of making the Duke think that such a rapid growth would warrant severer 

 netting, which would increase the profit of the tacksman. 



