OF THE SALMON. 63 



July following we caught several of them with the 

 same marks, grilses varying from three to eight 

 pounds, but did not catch in the following year a 

 grilse with the smolt mark of the previous year. And 

 although I continued marking and searching for them 

 on their return, the result was invariably the same. 

 And from these experiments and the length of time 

 the marked smolts were absent, I am of the decided 

 opinion that the great majority of them remain away 

 only about two months. 



The first of the grilses generally appear in the 

 rivers in May, although I have frequently seen a few 

 of them in April, and in 1852 we caught a grilse in 

 March, and that year several of them were got during 

 that month in the north. When the first of them 

 appear they are small, varying from one to three 

 pounds. This small size has been erroneously at- 

 tributed to their short stay in the sea ; but it is 

 nothing of the kind, for these small grilses we get in 

 May went down smolts in March, when the tem- 

 perature of the water was exceedingly low ; and 

 although that low temperature had not the power to 

 change their nature, yet it had the effect of stint- 

 ing their growth, for in size they are long and lean- 

 looking to what they are afterwards. As the tem- 

 perature of the water advances, so does the fish, and 

 by the middle of July, if the summer be good and 

 warm, we have grilses at their best size. In a cold, 

 spitting, and rainy season we never have fine full 

 grilses, and I often hear from those who have been long 

 among them, "the grilses are small this year," but 

 they never look out for the cause of that deficiency. 

 I am aware that the nature of the fish has not 

 changed, and that they have lost none of their ra- 

 pacity and power of digestion, but they have lost that 

 one thing whereby they improve in look and size. 



