GRILSE 55 



water, but presumably the fish's sojourn in the sea 

 had been comparatively short. A more striking 

 instance is to be found in a Brora marked grilse — 

 the river Brora enters the sea on the east coast of 

 Sutherland — which was recaptured in the Pentland 

 Firth, exactly 100 miles away by the coast line, 

 after an interval of only three and a half months 

 (109 days). There is some reason to suppose that 

 this fish had forsaken the river Brora, since a 

 Helmsdale fish marked within a few miles of the 

 other has also been taken in the same locality, but 

 instead of in a bag-net near the mouth of the river 

 Halladale, as was the case with the Brora fish, it 

 was taken by rod up the river Halladale. We 

 must not, however, overlook the fact that such 

 wanderers are in all probability exceptions to the 

 general rule, but, as has been said, there seems to 

 be a possibility that fish leaving small rivers, or 

 rivers only frequented by small fish, are more likely to 

 wander elsewhere than fish belonging to large rivers 

 such as the Tay. 



The information as to hitherto unexplained points 

 in the life of the salmon, obtained by the sys- 

 tematic marking of recent years, must now, how- 

 ever, be followed out in a separate chapter. 



