THE TAY 63 



value of the establishment was slight ; that the mere hatching 

 was productive of little or no practical benefit and that the 

 real value of Stormontfield ceased when the famous experi- 

 ments ceased in the middle of last century. 



The migration of the smolt has since been determined with 

 much more accuracy by means of marking wild smolts caught 

 in the lower Tay at Kinfauns. In 1905 Mr. M'Nicol, acting 

 for the Tay Salmon Fisheries Company, attached a small loop 

 of silver wire to the dorsal fins of 5,500 smolts. The recapture 

 of the marked fish as grilse proved first, that these fish do not 

 return in the year of their descent as smolts, as was supposed 

 to have been proved by the Stormontfield experiments, but 

 in the year succeeding that of their descent ; secondly, that a 

 number do not return as grilse at all, but as small spring fish, 

 and summer fish in their fourth year, and also that some of 

 them do not even return then, but at a still later period. An 

 account of these results has been given elsewhere, 1 but I may 

 here add that in 1908 further recaptures of the smolts of 1905 

 were made, and that the total became 110. 



RIVER TAY 



The general characteristics of the water are really rather 

 like the characteristics of the Tweed. In both rivers one sees 

 large and often somewhat deep pools, long stretches of beautiful 

 running water, and, at comparatively rare intervals, rocky 

 corners or rapids. Both rivers also have at times fine stretches 

 of gravel banks, at times long stretches of grass-grown, rather 

 earthy banks, with a wealth of trees. In each river there is 

 magnificent spawning accommodation for salmon, and often 

 surprisingly coarse gravel with many stones the size of coconuts 

 seem to be preferred by the fish. The Tweed is without natural 

 obstruction and has several obstructions supplied by man. 

 The Tay has only some two or three insignificant weirs, and 

 the natural obstruction of the Linn of Campsie. Each river 

 is now, as it were, enjoying the fruits of advanced erosion. 



The Tay is so big that in practically its whole course much 

 fishing has to be done by boat. The common practice is to 



1 Auctor, The Life of the Salmon, chap. ii. Edward Arnold, 1907. 



