34 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



The fish pass every practicable obstruction till they 

 arrive at their spawning ground, some early, and some 

 late in the season. The spawning in the river Tweed 

 continues throughout the autumn, winter,and beginning 

 of spring. It commences about September, and I have 

 caught full roeners as 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 of the year. 



The fish become weak and wasted before the spawn- 

 ing 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." 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 altogether 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 af- 

 fected 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 



