STATISTICS OF PISCICULTUKE. 81 



We can give no quarter to such piscine heresy ; we 

 stick to what we deem the orthodox and ofttimes- 

 demonstrated fact that salmon-fry, leaving a river in 

 April or May, will certainly return in myriads in about 

 from fifty to sixty days, and so astonishingly grown as to 

 make them a coveted article of human food. We repeat 

 that the result of the experiment at Stormontfield has 

 proved that " salmon fit for the market can be artifi- 

 cially reared within twenty months after the deposition 

 of the ova:" and that "as a commercial speculation 

 the experiment will prove remunerating, provided it be 

 carried out on an extensive scale." 



But the extent to which the experiment has been 

 carried in Perthshire is sufficient to demonstrate that 

 there is not a vague hope, but a certainty, of catching 

 a very considerable proportion of salmon artificially 

 reared. Before the result of that experiment was ascer- 

 tained, we remember having a conversation with Mr 

 Buist, Conservator of the Tay fishings, as to the pro- 

 bable amount of salmon-fry returning to the river as 

 grilses. At that time there were no data bearing upon 

 this point ; but we were able to inspire Mr Buist with 

 hope, by reminding him of Mr Shaw's experiment on the 

 fry of the sea-trout. He marked 524, by cutting off the 

 adipose fin, in the summer of 1834. Next summer he 

 recaptured sixty-eight of them, of an average weight 

 of 2^ Ib. On these he put a second distinctive mark, 

 and returned them to the river. Next summer (1836) 

 he recaptured about one in twenty of these, averaging 

 4 Ib. weight. Marking them for the third time, he re- 

 turned them to the river. On 23d August of the sub- 

 sequent summer (1837), he recaptured one of them 

 weighing 6 Ib. So far, then, from there being " not 

 the millionth part of a chance that they would ever 

 return to reward their early benefactors," these sea- 

 trout actually returned thrice to the Nith, their native 

 river, and, on their first return, were captured in the 

 proportion of more than a seventh of their entire num- 



F 



