SALMON. 17 



It has been a constantly received opinion, that all the 

 young fish after their first visit to the sea return to the 

 rivers in which they had been bred ; and numbers of marked 

 fish are stated to have been retaken in their native rivers : 

 but it is equally certain that some have been taken in other 

 rivers not far off. The difficulty of supposing that they 

 could find and return to the same spot after roving for miles 

 along the coast remains to be solved. That they do thus 

 rove for miles is proved by the thousands that are taken in 

 nets placed in the bays along the coast. Very many Tweed 

 Salmon have been caught opposite Hopetoun House on the 

 Forth ; and a very successful fishing there is generally fol- 

 lowed by a scarce one in the Tweed. It is therefore very 

 probable, from the remarks of Dr. Heysham and Sir William 

 Jardine, that if the fish happen to have roved far from the 

 estuary of their native river, they run at the proper season 

 up any stream, even the first they encounter, the temperature 

 and condition of which are congenial to them. 



The growth of the Salmon from the state of fry to that of 

 Grilse has been shown to be very rapid ; and the increase in 

 weight attained during the second and each subsequent year 

 is believed to be equal, if not to exceed, the weight gained 

 within the first. The increase in size is principally gained 

 during that part of the year in which the fish may be said to 

 be almost a constant resident in the sea. That the food 

 sought for and obtained to produce and sustain so rapid an 

 increase of size must be very considerable in quantity, as 

 well as most nutritious in quality, cannot be doubted. That 

 the Salmon is a voracious feeder, may be safely inferred from 

 the degree of perfection in the arrangement of the teeth, and 

 from its own habits, of which proof will be adduced, as well 

 as from the well-known habits of the species most closely 

 allied to it ; yet of the many observers who have examined 



