130 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



" Do you mean that they remain in the sea as matter of habit 

 (0 sage Committee !) or from any cause obstructing their progress to 

 the river?" "As matter of habit in most instances (replies the 

 equally sage witness) but in some cases, because the river which 

 they happen to visit is not in proper condition to receive them when 

 they visit it. It is not my doctrine that each fish has its own river. 

 If they meet with a river in a proper state to induce them to enter, 

 the probability is that many of them will enter the river ; but 

 finding the water in a disagreeable state, they will either pass on the 

 coast to another river, or they will leave the coast entirely, and 

 remain at sea. It is within my knowledge that very great quantities 

 have visited the mouths of many rivers I am acquainted with, and 

 after having remained there for a short period of time days in some 

 instances, in others weeks, and I would almost venture to say 

 months they have left the mouth of that river, and gone to sea 

 again, without having been seen ever more near it." 



It is a pity the Committee did not put a few cross questions 

 to Mr Steavenson regarding these stationary fish, which 

 remained for months at the mouth of his river. They might, 

 for example, have asked him How do you know that these 

 fish were stationary, and not passing fish proceeding to their 

 own rivers, and replaced by others on the same course, fresh 

 salmon being then hourly coming on in constant succession, so 

 as to render it impossible to distinguish the one from the 

 other, in an element impervious to sight ? If they were in the 

 mouth of your river, why did you not run a net round them 

 and catch them ? If they were not near enough to do so, how 

 could you see them under water ? How could you know it was 

 the same fish ? It was not possible you could see them in deep 

 water, or trace their motions ; but, perhaps, you saw a fish leap 

 occasionally out of the water : now salmon, in a frith or in the 

 sea, never leap, except when proceeding on their course, and if 

 you should see one leap out. of the water to-day, and another 

 to-morrow, having no mark upon them, how could you know 

 it was the same fish, or that they were stationary, and not 

 passing fish ? Your whole tale relative to these stationary fish, 

 which you could not possibly know to have been stationary or 

 not, seems to us to rest on no evidence other than mere vague 

 conjecture, unsupported by a single fact; for what fact could 



