SPRING SALMON FISHING. 61 



Thinking that perhaps I had been too gingerly with the first, 

 I gave this one the butt unmercifully throughout. He showed his 

 dislike of such treatment certainly, and fought a little better, 

 but I was not impressed. He turned the scale at 13 Ibs., and was 

 also in the pink of condition. Then came a good sporting 

 fish, for the first thing he did was to rush straight across the 

 river, where he endeavoured to throw himself ashore, coming back 

 again to my feet equally quickly, whereby he got so slack that I 

 thought he must have escaped. On winding up, however, I 

 found him still on, and after the lapse of some ten minutes 

 we got him out. I was fortunate enough to land three other 

 clean fish that day, but the kelts continued to be a great 

 nuisance throughout, and destroyed several more flies before I 

 left off. 



Before concluding this paper, I will venture to draw the 

 attention of those interested in such matters to the results of some 

 careful experiments made at Thurso in the year 1886 by Mr. A. 

 Harper, of Brawl Castle, which appeared in the journal of the 

 National Fish Culture Association in July, 1887, with reference 

 to the temperatures of sea and river which are most favourable for 

 salmon. The blood of a salmon is always about one degree 

 warmer than that of the water in which the fish is moving ; 

 33 may therefore be taken as the minimum temperature of the 

 blood in fresh water, at any rate. An abnormally high 

 temperature of the river water, on the other hand, is fatal. " For 

 years," says Mr. Harper, " I have noticed with surprise the 

 mortality which took place among the salmon of the Thurso in the 

 months of May, June, and July, as there was not the slightest 

 appearance of disease about the dead fish. The deaths were 



