CROTCHETS AS TO GRILSES. 105 



that pertain to our Sovereign Lord as all others through- 

 out the realm ; and that cruives set in fresh water be 

 made according to law." 



If the observance of this ancient law were univer- 

 sally enforced, if the capture of salmon at sea were 

 permissible only by net and coble, there would be an 

 end of the long feud between the salmon-slayers, inland 

 and maritime ; and perhaps, since the old tacksman of 

 Ardross, after escaping the meshes of the law, has at 

 last been caught in the net of the great destroyer, his 

 son and successor may be so far appeased as to say to 

 his father's whilome successful opponents, " Pax vobis- 

 cum Weel may the boatie row." And yet we are not 

 sure about the present Mr Mackenzie being amenable 

 to reason. He has crotchets in his head, to dismiss 

 which will not be easy. He believes that cuckoos, 

 stone- chatters, and water- wagtails hybernate ; and not- 

 withstanding the very numerous modern instances 

 demonstrating that smolts return, as grilses, in about 

 fifty days after their arrival at the ocean, he also main- 

 tains that " the smolt requires one year at least to per- 

 form its migrations, to the North Sea it is supposed, 

 and that at the expiry of this time it returns as a salmon." 

 In order to carry out this whimsical theory, he sneers 

 at the Stormontfield experiments as "ill-devised" yes, 

 ill-devised in his eyes, because in those of other people 

 they demonstrate that his theories are dreams. For 

 instance : of the salmon taken in the Tay during two 

 years, it is known that nearly a tenth had been artifi- 

 cially bred at Stormontfield that is, instead of being 

 at the north pole, as they should have been according 

 to Mr Mackenzie's hypothesis, they had been not only 

 marked, but caught and eaten by the salmon - loving 

 lieges. In order still further to carry out his whim, he 

 is pleased to maintain that salmon and grilses are of 

 different species, and that they do not spawn together. 

 Now the intelligent and experienced superintendent of 

 the Tay fisheries informs us that he has frequently 



