262 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



" When the salmon comes from the sea, its scales 

 are quite unaffected (only one exception is men- 

 tioned) but the longer it remains in the river, the 

 more do its scales become affected." 



Can anything be more directly opposed to the theory that 

 decrepitation and discoloration takes place in the sea, 

 prior to a fish entering an estuary or river on its spawning 

 journey up stream ? 



The fact that the material examined by Dr. Dahl con- 

 sisted of nearly 3,500 fish, gives great weight to any opinion 

 expressed by him. 



A consideration of the entrance of the Icelandic rivers 

 above mentioned, on the one hand, and rivers such as the 

 Wye and the Tay on the other, show that the value of the 

 Icelandic deductions on that particular point should be con- 

 sidered as important, while the value of such investigation, 

 when based on the fish caught in the Wye estuary, the 

 estuary of the Severn, or indeed in the upper portion of the 

 Bristol Channel, cannot be so considered. In the case of 

 the Wye and Tay, their estuaries, or the estuaries into which 

 their waters run, are of very considerable length, and are 

 besides fed by other salmon rivers, and in these respects 

 they are totally different from the Icelandic rivers men- 

 tioned, which have either no estuaries or very small ones, 

 and flow almost directly into the sea. 



One of the reasons which are given as evidence that fish 

 become discoloured, etc., in the sea, is that later in the season 

 fresh run fish, discoloured fish and discoloured fish with sea 

 lice on them, are found running up the river together. 



This is only of importance when it is noticed in the lower 

 reaches of the river, and when it is evident that all these 

 three classes of fish must have come either from the estuary 

 of the river or direct from the sea, but it is no evidence that 

 the discoloured ones have acquired their colour while in the 



