176 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



about twenty miles by fourteen, in the heart of Sutherlandshire moun- 

 tains, is the immediate feeder of the river Shin, noted for the abundance 

 of its salmon. The loch itself has four feeders, middling sized rivers 

 namely, the Tirry, the Fiag, Garvie, and Curry, in which, previously 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 the Duke of Sutherland and Mr. Lock, M.P. (since deceased), salmon 

 were caught in the river Shin shortly before the spawning season and 

 conveyed to the four rivers above-named, amongst which they were dis- 

 tributed in due proportion. Mr. Andrew Young, the Duke's salmon factor 

 and our best natural historian of salmon, was the managing director on 

 the occasion. In the winter season all the fish spawned each in the river 

 into which it was put. Now mark one of the consequences. Salmon at 

 present, and ever since, come regularly to spawn in all these heretofore 

 salmonless rivers, traversing the lake, &c., to do so. Nay, more, the fish 

 hatched in the Tirry, at least those that survive long enough to return to 

 the Tirry, and the fry of the other three rivers, return from the sea to 

 them, each grilse or salmon entering never failingly the actual stream 

 that gave it birth. What wonderful and unerring instinct ! One would 

 think they would remain in the river Shin and spawn where their first 

 ancestors had spawned but no. They leave their own natal shallows, 

 pass down the lake, through the river Shin, along the Kyle of Sutherland 

 to the sea, and there, having become adolescent in three months or so, 

 they retrace their route, and, after necessary rests on their long voyage, 

 revisit for the first time, but not for the last if they survive, the scenes 

 of their birth and infancy." 



Having thus given an extract of great interest as bearing upon the 

 upward journey of salmon, I conveniently turn to another branch of the 

 subject whrch requires a few remarks from me I mean the downward 

 course of kelts, or fish which have spawned. From the description of 

 the spawning process, as might be inferred, the great energy of the salmon 

 and its splendid condition both disappear with the culminating effort of 

 ova deposition and fecundation. .Immediately this is performed the 

 parent fishes drop back exhausted and emaciated to a degree to such 

 quiet nooks as may present themselves. Some of the grilse manage to 

 reach the entrances before the older fish, but, in the majority of cases, 

 the exhaustion is too entire to allow of their reaching the sea before the 

 winter months. In a large number of instances they are passing down 

 during the spring months, and are a great nuisance frequently to the 

 angler, who, after perhaps fighting what he has hoped to be a well grown 

 grilse or salmon for an hour, eventually lands a wretched lanky foul- 

 looking kelt, with a jaw like a ram's horn, and scarred like a worn-out 



