THE SCALES OF THE SALMON ID^ 



281 



The remarkable number of fish with a previous so-called 

 *' spawning mark " coming from the Awe, led me to believe 

 that similar characteristics to those of the river Add would 

 be found to exist in the river Awe, but not knowing the latter 

 I wrote to Mr. H. T. Sheringham, the Editor of the Field, 

 as to its nature. He was kind enough in reply to inform 

 me that the Awe is one of the roughest rivers in Scotland. 

 This information, as I anticipated, lends additional weight 

 to my arguments ; for it shows that in those rivers which 

 salmon have great difficulty in ascending, such as the Add 

 and the Awe, a very much larger proportion of the salmon 

 will be found with the marks which are believed by a great 

 many people to denote a previous act of spawning. 



Now it must be evident that if a recurrent act of spawning 

 does take place, it would occur most often in those rivers, 

 the ascent of which is most easy, whereas it will be seen by 

 these figures that exactly the opposite condition of affairs 

 takes place. 



On the same report is appended a note from Mr. Calder- 

 wood, who has examined the scales of twenty-five spring 

 salmon, i.e., from the Awe, of which four had spawned 

 previously, three of these being fresh run fish, and the others 

 kelts, the percentage of the total of these twenty-five fish 

 which carried a spawning mark thus being about twenty-five 

 per cent., while the percentage of the kelts carrying a 

 spawning mark is about 4.5. 



SYNOPSIS 



From the foregoing matter it will be recognized that I 

 by no means infer that Nature does not reproduce ova in a 

 female and milt in a male salmon, but I see no evidence which 

 proves that the instincts of a salmon prompt it to spawn 

 again after having once spawned under favourable circum- 

 stances and in a natural manner. 



