THE S MOLTS. 57 



fry congregate. According to the received doctrine, 

 therefore, these animals were two of the migration of 

 the preceding year ; and thus it must necessarily fol- 

 low that they remained in salt water, one ten and the 

 other eleven months, with an increase of growth so 

 small as to be irreconcilable with the proof we have of 

 the growth of the Gilse and Salmon during their resi- 

 dence in salt water. 



Having now sent these tiresome little creatures to 

 sea, it remains to me to trace their progress till they 

 become Salmon. 



A few, but a very few of these Smolts, return from 

 the sea to the Tweed as early as the month of May ; 

 that is, during the same month in which thegeneral emi- 

 gration takes place : they then weigh from a pound to 

 two pounds each, and are long and thin, and very forked 

 in the tail. They keep on ascending the river during the 

 summer months, the new-comers increasing afterwards 

 about a pound and a half a month on an average, but 

 much less in their very young state. The most plentiful 

 season in the Tweed, if there is a flood, is about St. 

 Boswell's Fair, namely, the 18th of July, at which period 

 they weigh from four to six pounds ; and those which 

 leave the salt for the fresh water at the end of Septem- 

 ber, and during the month of October, sometimes come 

 up the river of the weight of ten and eleven pounds, and 

 even more. All these fish are known in the North by the 

 name of Gilses, but by the London fishmongers are 

 generally, I believe, called Salmon Peel. Some of them 

 are much larger than small Salmon; but by the term 

 Gilse I mean young Salmon that have only been once 



