CHAPTER III 



KESULTS OF SALMON MARKING 



Early marking operations — Modern method of marking — 

 Divided migration — Scottish and Irish records showing short 

 and long periods in the sea — Increase of weight in kelts 

 recaptured as clean fish — Significance of divided migration in 

 regulating fisheries — Salmon returning to their own river — 

 Recaptures in other rivers — Recaptures on the coast — 

 Direction of movements on coast — Kelts recaptured as kelts 

 — Spring fish marked and recaptured 



The immortal Izaak tells us in his " Compleat 

 Angler" (1653) of observations made on the homing 

 instinct of the salmon by tying ribbons or tapes to 

 the tails of young fish, and how the fish were found 

 to return from the sea to the same part of the same 

 river. More recent observers also sought to identify 

 fish so as to study their movements, but the methods 

 employed were not, as a rule, so harmless as those 

 of the lover of the gentle art. Mackenzie of 

 Ardross in 1823 attached brass wires to the tails 

 of salmon and grilse kelts. The late Duke of 

 Atholl used copper wire and a copper label the size 

 of a halfpenny in marking Tay fish, and between 

 1850 and 1863 obtained interesting recaptures, 

 although the copper, pressing tightly upon the 



