38 



reach of the nets; and at stations in frith ^immediately below 

 the fresh water, they may even be found, in considerable 

 numbers, at late periods of the season, waiting for the floods 

 to aid them in ascending the rivers to the spawning grounds. 

 But, generally speaking, the spawning fish, impelled by 

 their natural instinct, rush from the sea to the fresh wa- 

 ter with great impetuosity. And both in ascending the 

 rivers, in order to spawn, and afterwards, in returning to 

 the sea, they almost uniformly keep the direct course 

 afforded by the mid-channel, where they have the assist- 

 ance of the tide. It is seldom, therefore, that such fish are 

 to be found at the sea fishings. It is in the fresh waters 

 that they are caught in the greatest numbers. 



Accordingly, in the Tay case, on a particular investi- 

 gation of this point, it turned out that the number of red 

 or unspawned fish, which had been taken by the stake- 

 nets, was very small ; and that the capture of foul or new- 

 ly spawned fish, or kelts, as they are termed by the fish- 

 ermen, was equally inconsiderable : while, on the other 

 hand, the destruction of both descriptions, by the coble- 

 nets, was very serious. A regular survey was made in the 

 month of August 1809, of some of the upper fisheries, 

 and it appeared that the coble-nets there, captured forty- 

 six Salmon between the 14th and 28th of August, and 

 that of these forty-six, twenty-three were red jish, or fish 

 ready to spawn, and seeking the spawning ground. 

 And as to the kelts, it was likewise given in evidence, that 

 they were taken in vast quantities by the net and coble 

 fishers, even cart-loads of them at a time, and were 

 sold at a low price to the poorer class of people. At the 

 stake-nets, however, the capture of a red fish, or of a kelt, 

 during the same period, was a circumstance that rarely 

 occurred. Can there be conceived any thing more decU 



