GRILSE 55 



curve, as if the particular influences which brought 

 grilse in shore to the netted area of the coast also 

 affected the salmon in the same way. A separate 

 chart of curves was given for the sweep-net fisheries 

 in the mouth of the river Dee. In this the first 

 grilse are shown as caught on April 18, or three days 

 later than on the coast, while the date of the greatest 

 catch is June 27, or four days later than the 

 maximum in the coast nets to the north of the river 

 mouth. The fixed nets, which are situated to the 

 south of the river mouth, do not share in the marked 

 influx of grilse. From these considerations it would 

 appear that the grilse approach the shore from the 

 north of the Dee, that they travel together in large 

 numbers, and, working along the coast in a southerly 

 direction towards the mouth of the river Dee, very 

 slowly and no doubt in an off and on manner (else 

 the first nets encountered would absorb the great 

 bulk of the run) enter fresh water three to four days 

 after having struck the coast " from the bosom of 

 the deep," as a fisherman picturesquely put it to me 

 on one occasion. Everything we know about the 

 salmon in this stage seems therefore to indicate that 

 after leaving the river as a smolt, which it does com- 

 pletely and with some rapidity, the young fish does 

 not as a rule again visit the shore, much less the 

 river, until a year has passed, when in company 

 with its fellows it swims into shallow water and 

 when some re-enter the rivers of their nativity. 



In the Baltic around the island of Bornholm a 

 line-fishery exists for salmon. The bait used is 

 herring, and the lines are set so as not to go to the 



