THE SALMON FAMILY 233 



in his report upon the fisheries of New Brunswick, says, 

 he has been told of several taken in the Ristigouche that 

 weighed over fifty. The largest I ever heard of in the 

 Nipissiguit, was a fish of forty-two pounds: the canoe-man 

 who speared it, said it had been in the river some time, and 

 would probably have weighed fifty pounds when it came 

 from sea. It was not a very rare thing to take fish of twenty- 

 five and thirty pounds with the rod in the Tweed, the Shin, 

 and other rivers of Scotland some years back, and many are 

 still taken of twenty and twenty-five pounds. On this side 

 of the Atlantic it is as rare to take them with the rod, over 

 fifteen pounds. The largest fish I have ever heard of being 

 taken with a fly in the Nipissiguit, was one killed at the 

 Grand Falls, by Mr. Lilly, of New York ; its weight was over 

 thirty-three pounds : ten or twelve pounds, though, is a fair 

 average weight for the angler, on any of the streams of New 

 Brunswick or Canada. 



Instinct. — The instinct which induces this fish to seek its 

 native stream for the purpose of spaAvning, has been fre- 

 quently turned to account, in stocking rivers having the 

 natural properties of Salmon-streams, but which before had 

 none in them. The following instances of this kind are 

 mentioned in the " Book of the Salmon." 



" Loch Shin, a piece of water about twenty-one miles by 

 fourteen, situate in the heart of the Sutherland mountains, is 

 the immediate feeder of the River Shin, noted for its Salmon 

 fecundity. The loch itself has four feeders, middling-sized 

 rivers, viz.: the Terry, Fiack, Garvie, and Curry, in which, pre- 

 viously to the year 1836, not a Salmon was ever seen, though 

 many were in the habit of entering the loch or lake. In the 

 year mentioned, at the request of his Grace of Sutherland and 

 Mr. Loch, M. P., Salmon were caught in the River Shin, 

 shortlv before the spawning season, and conveyed to the four 



