OF THE SALMON. 49 



even that period, ; for this year, during the fishing 

 season, we took ashore three salmon clean spawned in 

 August, and it is likely there were many more of 

 the kind in the river at that time ; and I have often 

 seen unspawned salmon in the latter end of March ; 

 therefore, I am safe to say, that the spawning season, 

 from first to last, is more than six months of the year. 

 I am not certain, and have a very great doubt, of the 

 ova being all ripe in one day ; for I have extracted only 

 a very small portion of ripe ova from a fish, and found 

 it impossible to divest it of the remainder, it being 

 still firm in the cadds. If the ova were all ripe in 

 one day, and the milt only by degrees in the course of 

 eight days, how should it happen that the one takes 

 eight days to spawn as well as the other? I must 

 therefore state here, for the information of those who 

 may intend to breed artificially, that, if they shall 

 force the whole ova from the fish at once, they may 

 count on a very great deficiency of young fish at 

 hatching time.* 



* Although the greatest care be exercised towards the ova in 

 the artificial breeding ponds, whether it proceeds from the unripe 

 state of the ova or from imperfect impregnation, there is a great 

 preponderance of loss in the artificial boxes over the seed de- 

 posited by the fish in the river. I found that to be the case 

 throughout all my artificial experiments; and these having been 

 performed merely as experiments, so as to arrive at facts in the 

 natural habits of the salmon, and not for the purpose of in- 

 creasing the numbers, all the events and results were watched 

 with the most particular attention; and, on the whole, this loss 

 was more, in my opinion, than would warrant the continuation of 

 the process, depending on it for a very great increase to the 

 natural produce of the river; however, a small addition is cer- 

 tainly better than none. 



I find Mr. Tod StuddarC, a gentleman who has had a deal of 

 experience among salmon and salmon rivers, in writing on the 

 natural resources of the Tay and tributaries, calculates the 



