SALMON 15 



late as May ; but the principal months are December, 

 January, and February. Mr. John Crerar, who was 

 fisherman to the Duke of Atholl for sixty years, and 

 who left behind him some pages in manuscript on 

 the habits of the Salmon, has recorded in them that 

 fish full of mature roe may be caught in the Tay in 

 every month in the year. 



The fish become weak and wasted before the 

 spawning time, and change in colour. The male 

 loses its silvery hue, and is deeply tinged in the 

 cheeks and body with orange, and is also dappled 

 with red spots, when, in the upper parts of the 

 Tweed, it is sometimes called a " Soldier/ 1 The 

 under jaw also becomes longer, and a cartilaginous 

 substance grows from the point of it, and extends 

 upwards till it buries itself in the nose above. In 

 this state the fish is very thin in the back, and alto- 

 gether much wasted ; but its flesh is sometimes 

 eatable, and at any rate infinitely superior to that 

 of a fish which has newly spawned. The female, 

 when ready to spawn, is dark in colour, and her flesh 

 is soft and worthless. 



Salmon are led by instinct to select such places 

 for depositing their spawn as are the least likely to 

 be affected by the floods. These are the broad parts 

 of the river, where the water runs swift and shallow, 

 and has a free passage over an even bed. Here they 

 either select an old spawning place, a sort of trough 

 left in the channel, or form a fresh one. They are 

 not fond of working in new loose channels, which 

 would be liable to be removed by a slight flood, to 

 the destruction of their spawn. The spawning bed 



