18 ON THE GROWTH OF THE SALMON. 



and, until discovering a free passage, will continue in 

 their vicinity, often for weeks together. 



Salmon at no stage, except in regard to their fresh- 

 water excursions, are migratory fish. They very rarely 

 leave our coasts, but not unfrequently, in their wander- 

 ings, lose reckoning of their native stream, and ascend 

 other rivers. Thus, a Forth salmon is sometimes found 

 in Tweed ; a Tay fish in Forth, and so on. It is quite 

 ridiculous to talk of their Arctic voyages. I don't believe 

 that even the herring travels far from where it is cap- 

 tured. It only retires from the surface, to which at 

 certain seasons it rises in great shoals, and this is proved 

 by the fact, that, in the west coast of Scotland, many of 

 the lochs or estuaries possess severally their peculiar 

 breed of this fish, which breed or variety is never cap- 

 tured at a distance from its native arm of the sea, either 

 entering or returning. As illustrations, I mention the 

 herrings of Loch Broom, Loch Torridon, Loch Carron, 

 and Loch Fyne, each of which salt water estuaries con- 

 tains its distinctly marked breed or variety. 



While touching on this subject, I may state that not 

 only every main salmon river throughout Scotland 

 possesses a breed of its own, quite recognisable by the 

 experienced eye, but even the tributaries of those rivers, 

 such of course as are frequented by breeding fish, give 

 birth to a peculiar variety. There ascend Conan, for 

 instance, four varieties of the salmon : its own, and 

 those of its three principal feeders, the Rasay or Black- 

 water, the Orrin, and the Meig. The breed peculiar to 

 one river is also capable of being transferred to another, 

 while in the condition of ova or unhatched spawn. A 

 quantity of gravel, containing the deposit in question, 



was, some years ago, taken from the Tay, by Mr. B 1 



of Perth, shipped off as ballast on board of a vessel, and 



