66 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SALMON FISHING. 



butcher having to pay. The Salmon in the Tweed are 

 no longer large ; far from it. During my experience of 

 twenty years I never caught one there above thirty 

 pounds, and very few above twenty. I have remarked 

 that the largest fish are found in the most consider- 

 able rivers, which I attribute to the superior chance of 

 longevity where fish have a greater scope for escape. 



It appears, from the above facts and observations, 

 that Salmon are not uniform in their habits. Some 

 come into the river many months before they are in a 

 spawning condition, and remain in it till the time comes 

 for depositing their spawn ; getting worse in condition 

 every day they are in fresh water, and thus, as it should 

 seem, doing unnecessary penance all that time. Others, 

 again, remain in the sea, thriving all the while, and do 

 not enter the rivers till their spawn is nearly matured. 

 I have said above that I believe the Smolts singly, or 

 in small quantities, are continually falling down to the 

 sea in nearly if not quite every month of the year, ac- 

 cording to their age ; but that they congregate, and go 

 there in vast shoals in the beginning of the month of 

 May. There seems to be a corresponding habit as to the 

 time of their return; for they come back at first in small 

 quantities, and periodically in the spring and summer 

 months, and in July they arrive in vast quantities ; and 

 this sudden abundance consists, I think, of the fry that 

 have assembled and gone to sea the preceding May, 

 whilst the others that ascend at different periods are 

 the Smolts that go down in the same manner. 



The accompanying lithograph represents a fry in the 

 state when the silver scales just begin to appear, and 



