48 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON. 



down to the marking-place, when the keeper was 

 engaged at the time in marking, amounting, 

 according to his calculation, to something like 

 5000, and so full of fish was the marking- trough, 

 that he had to desist and let them escape into the 

 river without being marked. The mark this year 

 was cutting off the second dorsal fin. By the 3d 

 of June the keeper had marked 1 300, and it was 

 quite evident that many of the fry would not seek 

 to migrate this season, as they had not taken on 

 the smoult dress. An article in the Scotsman 

 newspaper, from an English correspondent, con- 

 tained a theory, that the remaining parrs would 

 be all males, as it would account for the number 

 of large male parrs found in the river in the 

 months of October, November, and December. 

 We dissected a number as they came to hand, 

 and found that in the remaining fish the sexes 

 were about equally divided, so this theory was 

 set at rest; and although some of the Com- 

 mittee, and almost all the fishermen, were for 

 turning all the fry out of the pond into the river, 

 it was decided to allow them to remain for another 

 year with free egress to the river. 



The hatching of 1855 proving a failure not 

 more than a few thousand fry having been pro- 



