AND ANGLING SONGS. 5 I 



black-tail or silver-white being applied to the firmock, I think it 

 proper to state the ground on which, many years ago, I came to 

 the above conclusion. At the mouth of the river Nairn, in 1836, 

 I frequently took specimens in the transition stage, before the 

 orange or deep yellow colour which distinguishes the pectoral 

 fins of the whitling- smolt (not those of the eriox, or bull-trout, 

 be it noticed), had completely disappeared, and a finish had 

 been given by the armorer of Thetis to the scaly harness of the 

 fish. I also caught the orange-fin, as such, in the salt water, at 

 the distance, along the shores of the Moray Firth, of a mile or 

 more from the said discharge ; and this I did, singular to say, 

 not only during the season of its descent in May and the begin- 

 ning of June, but also in July and August on several occasions. 

 Even on the latest of these, when the full- sized finnock had be- 

 come established as a frequenter of the river in arid above its 

 tide- way, the orange-fins taken by me exhibited little or no 

 change in their external appearance, although at that period 

 they had partaken of marine sustenance, and had indulged in 

 saline exercises for upwards of two months. 



The circumstances attendant on the capture of these smolts 

 may be briefly related. They were taken on calm evenings at 

 high-water, in the season when the adult whitling or sea-trout 

 are most inclined to press shorewards, being intent to prey upon 

 the herring-sz'Ze, shrimps, and sand-launces which occupy the 

 sea-margins, as well as prepared, in the event of a freshet, to 

 enter the river. It was under the expectation of fastening upon 

 one of these coasters, the presence of which in great numbers 

 was betrayed by the surface-movements which took place within 

 a few paces of the beach, that I brought my rod and line into 

 play. The distance from the water's edge where I stood, to the 

 point where the trout were congregated, was, I recollect, slightly 

 beyond my command ; at any rate, whether my flies passed over 

 it or not, they failed in attracting notice. While drawing them 



