THE ATLANTIC SALMON 

 It is founding upon tlie absence of tliis maric tliat Mr Malloch represents a 

 splendid pair of forty-pounders, male and female, as maiden fish revisiting 

 their native river for the first time.* 



There is one other point in the seasonal movements of salmon which 

 has not yet received the attention it deserves, though it is one which ought 

 to prove comparatively easy of solution. The question is whether salmon, 

 having entered a river, invariably remain in some part of it until their 

 reproductive functions have been discharged, or do they frequently or 

 exceptionally return to the sea for a time before spawning ? My attention 

 was first called to the point about twelve years ago, when I was joint tenant 

 with five others of the whole of the net and rod fishings of the rivers Gree 

 and Minnick in south-west Scotland. We held these fishings for three 

 years, removing all the nets and carefully preserving the water for fly- 

 fishing only. Outside the limits of our tenancy, but within the estuary of 

 the river at Greetown, there is a stake and bagnet fishery belonging to 

 Mr Gaird of Gassencary. By an arrangement with Mr Birrell, the tacksman 

 of the fishings, the weekly close -time was extended from thirty-six to 

 sixty hours. Mr Birrell, a very intelligent person, was greatly interested 

 in our scheme for restoring the Gree to its former productivity, which had 

 been brought to a very low state by severe netting, of the pools above the 

 tidal waters. 



A large number of fish entered the river during the spring and summer 

 of 1900, and the upper waters were very fully stocked. One of our watchers 

 reported to our superintendent that, early in July, the water being very 

 low at the time, he had counted upwards of 120 salmon in bis beat on the 

 upper water, being from fifteen to twenty miles above the influence of the 

 highest tides. Then came a spate ; after it had run down, all but a few of 

 these fish had disappeared. They could not have run further up without 

 their presence being perceived, because above that point the river 

 changes its character into that of a number of confluent brooks where 

 they must have been more plainly visible than before. The watcher 

 therefore attributed their disappearance to poachers from the Ayrshire 

 coal mines. 



July was a rainy month with a heavy run of grilse, whereof I was unable 

 to take advantage owing to absence in Norway. When I returned, Mr 

 Birrell reported that a considerable number of dark fish had been taken 

 in his nets in Wigtown Bay, and spoke of it as a frequent incident at that 



*Lift History of the Salmoa, p. 40. 



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